Sintim aces first hands-team test on onside kick
The Giants' Clint Sintim made a huge play on Monday night against the Dallas Cowboys. Credit: AP
Clint Sintim made the biggest play of his career on Monday night. And he wasn't even supposed to be on the field.
The second-year linebacker had to step in for injured Gerris Wilkinson on the "hands" team to help recover a Cowboys onside kick. Sintim had never even practiced the role and literally asked coaches "Who do I block and where do I line up?"
But once he got on the field and was staring at the ball on the tee with the Giants clinging to a six-point lead with 40 seconds left, he realized that blocking would not be in his future.
"I was hoping they weren't coming for me," Sintim said Monday night.
They did. The ball ricocheted off his foot and bounced into open space, Sintim was able to recover it and seal the 41-35 win.
"I was thinking before the play, I was like 'Look, if this ball hits me and I don't get it, it's my fault. I'll give them a chance to win the game,' " Sintim said. "Nobody wants that on their shoulders."
Wilkinson casts up
Sintim was on the field because Wilkinson fractured a bone in his left hand. He said he could have returned with a cast on, but he would have been of little use in recovering an onsides kick.
"That will cause him some issues," Tom Coughlin said Tuesday. "He'll end up playing, I'm sure, with a big cast but it just depends on how much time they'll allow him to recover before they allow him to play with a cast on."
Giant steps
RB Brandon Jacobs performed his touchdown dance on the Cowboys helmet painted in the end zone after a 30-yard scoring run in the third quarter. He said his first instinct was to do the dance on another Cowboys emblem. "The [star] in the middle was too far away," Jacobs said Monday night. "I was already tired." . . . The 20-7 deficit in the second quarter was the largest the Giants have overcome for a win since they trailed the Bills 14-0 in December 2007 and won 38-21 . . . With back to back wins at Cowboys Stadium, the Giants have won consecutive games in Dallas for the first time since they won three in a row in Texas Stadium from 1988-90.
