EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The New York Giants were underdogs at home to the Arizona Cardinals. That didn’t sit well with running back Cam Skattebo and some of his teammates.
Skattebo and the Giants beat the Cardinals 36-24 on Sunday at MetLife Stadium improving to 3-0 at home this season and 3-1 overall — and in first place in the NFC East.
“It’s dumb. It’s dumb to be underdogs at home, especially when you’re a good football team,” Skattebo said. “When people want to bet against you at your own place and you have a team coming from a six-hour flight on a time change, it’s a pretty brutal feeling as a team when you feel you’re put underneath them. We came out here and handled business.”
The Giants were 2.5-point underdogs against the Cardinals (1-3) on Sunday, according to DraftKings. They are playing without quarterback Jaxson Dart and Brian Burns, both who are out for the remainder of the season with knee injuries.
The lack of respect didn’t go unnoticed in the locker room.
“We talked about it as a team. I think we were underdogs with them coming into our house,” Skattebo said. “I think that was kind of BS. This is our home. This is our house. These guys love each other. They know we have to protect our castle. They got it done. We got it done — 3-0 at home is pretty good.”
It’s pretty rare for the Cardinals to get this kind of respect. This snapped a streak of 15 straight games where they were underdogs. It also snapped a streak of 25 straight games of quarterback Jacoby Brissett being an underdog as a starter. Both were the longest active streaks in the NFL, according to ESPN Research.
The Giants fell behind 14-3 in the first quarter but were able to rally with Jameis Winston at quarterback. He threw three touchdown passes and a pair of interceptions in the contest.
The game ended with cornerback Deonte Banks intercepting a pass from Brissett near the goal line and returning it 98 yards for a game-sealing touchdown. It came down to the final play.
New York is now 3-0 at home to start a season for the first time since 2008 and sit alone atop the NFC East for the first time since November 2015.
“It’s an opportunity. The idea is to get the lead and extend the lead,” coach John Harbaugh said. “That’s the idea in the game and during the season. So we’re in a good position for four games in. But it’s only four games in. We have an opportunity. It gives us a great opportunity to go down here to Washington and try to play our best football game.”
The Giants play on the road next week against the Washington Commanders (1-3) at FedEx Field. They opened as 2.5-point underdogs to the Commanders.
Washington is currently in last place in the NFC East.
“Feels good, but we can’t think about that too much,” outside linebacker Abdul Carter said. “We’ve got to keep going one game at a time. Don’t get ahead of ourselves and get in a good position.”
There’s still a long ways to go.
“We’re 3-1. There are still 13 games left,” Skattebo said. “I don’t really look at it as we’re in first place. We still have games to play, a lot of games to play. We played two non-division games the past two weeks. We still have [almost] all our division left and we have to continue to win.”
