Jonathan Goff shines in second half

I Tweeted during the game that if the Giants can convince other teams to play their third stringers in the regular season, Jonathan Goff will be a Pro Bowler. It may have come out a little harsh, but I was trying to say that there was a definite difference in the way Goff was playing in the second half when he was filling in for injured backup Phillip Dillard.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed.

“I thought he really enjoyed and relaxed and got to be instinctive and made some really nice physical plays out there,” Tom Coughlin said of his starting but unproven middle linebacker. “It just happened to work out that Jon had to take a ton of snaps. I think he benefited from it, to be honest with you.”

Goff agreed that there was a different feel in the second half, mostly because he was able to get into the flow of the game.

“Being able to stay in the game and get in the flow, you’re able to anticipate what you’ll get from certain looks,” he said. “You see something once and when you see it again you know what to expect.”

Goff had some nice tackles on the goal line stand late in the third quarter. He also had two pass defenses and an interception. “It wasn’t a hard ball for me to catch,” he said of the pick. “He kind of threw it at me.”

Goff added that he thinks the best part of the night for him was just being on the field.

“Getting a whole game under your belt before week one, I think I’ll benefit from that,” he said. “When you’re going to be in for the whole game its different from when you only get two series. There’s nothing like being in the flow of the game for four quarters.”