Giants Q&A: How did Xavier McKinney fare in his return?
Xavier McKinney of the Giants talks with Isaiah Hodgins before a game against the Colts at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Getty Images/Vincent Alban
“It was good,” he said after the Giants’ 38-10 victory over the Colts on Sunday. “We won. I felt good, too.”
On Friday, coach Brian Daboll said it was unlikely that the safety would play as he continued to work back from an ATV accident that cost him seven games.
But on Saturday, the team activated him off the non-football injured list. He had landed there because of the accident while on vacation in Mexico during the bye week. It left him with broken bones in three fingers on his left hand.
McKinney practiced and played with protection on his hand.
He went to the X-ray room after the game but said that was pre-planned and precautionary.
“It was ultimately up to me and I saw the cast that we created was really good, so they gave me the green light,” he said. “Obviously, my conditioning was really good and I was ready to play and I was locked in on the game plan.”
The Colts’ Nick Foles found Parris Campbell for a 49-yard gain against McKinney in the first quarter, but other than that, he seemed comfortable on the field.
“It’s just getting the rust off,” he said. “I didn’t feel limited at all.”
What if a potential interception comes his way and his left hand is wrapped?
“I catch it,” he said.
Kayvon Thibodeaux retrieved it for him.
“You’ve got to go get the ball because that’s a part of his history; that’s part of his story now,” Thibodeaux said. “I just had to make sure that he got that.”
Collins said he will add the ball to his collection of interceptions and fumble recoveries.
Jihad Ward and Julian Love.
Asked if he had planned to do that job, Ward said, “Always did, yup. Grabbed that Gatorade and poured the [expletive] out on that bald-[expletive] head. Yup.”
Daboll was late to his postgame news conference because he insisted on taking a shower. “I couldn’t sit in that Gatorade,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Pat [Hanlon, the senior VP of communications], I’m taking a shower . . . I’m so sticky.’ ”
Said Daboll: “Did you ever play basketball? Do you have a son or a daughter that are younger? And you play with them, and you throw it over their head. And then they look up at the net, and you still have it. That’s what I thought happened. [Smith] thought [Foles] threw it.”
Quite well.
“You could feel the energy just driving here from the fans,” Saquon Barkley said. “We challenged the fans — the coaches, the captains, the team — and they showed up. They showed up, man.
“They were loud, made a lot of noise and created the energy that we needed, and we were able to win the game because of them.”
Yup. His 58 gave him 1,312, surpassing his 1,307 in 2018.
They hadn't done it in their previous 43 games and last did so in the fifth game of the 2020 season, a 37-34 loss to the Cowboys.
They hadn't done that in their previous 49 games dating to 2019.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
