Daniel Jones totals 4 TDs in Giants' playoff-clinching win

On a day when the Giants had no choice but to prevail — consider the alternative — they didn’t just win a game.

They might have erased five years of misery.

In defeating the Indianapolis Colts, 38-10, at a joyous MetLife Stadium, the Giants punched their playoff ticket in a no-doubt fashion that hasn’t been seen often in these parts for years.

Those days — the bumbling, stumbling variety — appear gone.

Gone in the euphoria of the fans in the stands, giddy over the 38 points their team put on the board in such a high-stakes affair.

Gone in a Daniel Jones curtain call. (Why did coach Brian Daboll call for that? “Because I thought he earned it,” Daboll said.)

Gone in standing by Saquon Barkley, who showed this season his best years might be ahead of him.

And there is no doubt, not an ounce, that the Giants have the right head coach who hired the right staff and will work with the general manager to make the team even better next year.

All of that being said, you do have to wonder if there were any fidgety fanatics who were just a little nervous when the first-quarter scoreboard read: Colts 3, Giants 0.

In the second quarter, the Giants (9-6-1) took control by scoring 24 points. The playoff berth would be theirs.

“I’m extremely happy for the players, first and foremost,” Daboll said, “and the staff, trainers, ownership, coaches. Our goal — it’ll never be just to make the playoffs. That will never be our goal.”

The key to all of this, defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence said, “is unselfishness. Guys are playing for more than themselves. I think we all came out to play as hard as we can and with great technique and discipline.”

At the highest level of the organization, all of that has been noted.

“It’s been such a tough stretch for us, and it’s been so tough on the fans and our whole organization,” Giants co-owner John Mara told Newsday. “So to finally be back in the playoffs again means the world to us. Most importantly, it means we’re heading in the right direction, and that, to me, is the most important thing.

“We’ve been floundering for a number of years now and I think we’ve finally got the right pieces in place and nowhere to go but up, I hope.”

Asked about the play of Jones, Mara said, “I thought he was terrific. I think he’s everything that we thought he was going to be, and I’m just very happy for him because he’s just such a great teammate and a great person. I’m just happy for him.”

He added: “You draft him as high as we drafted him [sixth overall in 2019], we got a lot of criticism, he took a lot of criticism. To see him coming into his own like this is very gratifying for us.”

As for what Sunday’s victory meant to him personally, Mara said: “It just feels like I’m not as miserable as I have been the last two years. And when I’m walking out to my car at the end of the game, they’re not yelling, ‘You [stink]! Sell the team!’

“For the time being.”

For Jones, this game might represent a career-changer. For one thing, amid big stakes, he was brilliant.

He completed 19 of 24 passes for 177 yards and two 6-yard touchdowns. He did not throw an interception. He found six different receivers, two of whom (Richie James and Isaiah Hodgins) scored TDs. He ran for 18- and 10-yard touchdowns, gaining 91 yards on 11 carries.

When he left to that curtain call — Daboll had backup Tyrod Taylor replace Jones — the moment seemed poignant. Not necessarily a passing of the torch, but maybe the embracing of the torch.

The Giants absolutely, positively have their quarterback. Jones has quarterbacked the Giants to the postseason.

“Yeah, I mean it’s just exciting,” he said. “I think we’ve been through some tough times, and to be on this side of it is a lot of fun. A lot of hard work has gone into it from a lot of different people, and like I said, I’m grateful for my teammates, grateful for this organization and looking forward to a lot of work ahead.”

One of Jones’ finest plays was his first touchdown pass. Jones scanned the field to his left but ultimately found James in the right side of the end zone. James celebrated with a backflip. The Giants led 7-3. They never trailed again.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Daboll pulled Jones from the game, and he received the ovation he deserved. A curtain call.

It was that kind of day for the Giants. They’re back in the playoffs. Finally.

By Kimberly Jones

kimberly.jones@newsday.comkimjonessports

Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.