5 things we learned in Week 3 victory over Browns

2. Nabers’ historic start

Malik Nabers broke out in a big way last week, catching 10 passes for 127 yards and his first NFL touchdown against the Commanders. The rookie wide receiver followed that up with yet another dominant performance, this time against an elite Browns defense. For the second consecutive week, Nabers led the Giants in targets (12), receptions (eight), and receiving yards (78), while also adding two touchdowns. The 21-year-old once again displayed strong hands as he came up with a couple of eye-opening grabs, including both his 28-yard catch over Martin Emerson and his first touchdown catch a few plays later.

“It was one hell of a catch,” coach Brian Daboll said after the game about the rookie’s grab over Emerson. “I’m going to go back and watch it on tape. I saw it and said, ‘Oh’, but then he came down with it. Again, when you have a guy like that, it doesn’t really matter the matchup. Throw the ball up to him and trust he’s going to get it. It takes a lot of trust between and a quarterback and a receiver to be able to do that.”

“He’s played really well to start and it hasn’t surprised us with watching him in training camp and all the plays he’s made,” Jones added. “He’s made a lot of big plays for us and I have a lot of trust in him going up and getting the ball. We need to continue to take advantage of his ability to make plays.”

While you don’t want to get too excited over the first three games of a player’s career, it’s hard not to with Nabers. For starters, the rookie ranks among the league leaders in just about every receiving category. His 23 receptions are the second-most in the NFL, his 271 receiving yards rank fifth, while his three receiving touchdown are tied for the league-lead. He also has the most 20+ yard receptions with six.

Nabers made history on Sunday while also joining some elite company with his performance over the first three weeks. He is now the first player in NFL history with at least 20 receptions and three touchdown catches in his first three career games. His 23 receptions are tied with Anquan Boldin for the second-most by a player in his first three games in NFL history, trailing only Puka Nacua’s 30 last year. Nabers, at 21 years and 56 days old, is also the youngest wide receiver in NFL history with two touchdown receptions in a game, breaking Mike Evans’ record (21 years and 73 days old).

“I mean I have a lot of great teammates behind my back pushing me for greatness,” Nabers said in the locker room after Sunday’s win. “This last week they kept pushing and pushing, and I am thankful to those guys who kept pushing me to try and be great, and hopefully we can keep the momentum into the next game and have another strong performance for these guys.”

While Nabers deserves a lot of credit for the offense’s success in Cleveland, the same goes for Daniel Jones. The sixth-year quarterback completed 70.6 percent of his passes for 236 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions for a passer rating of 109.4. This was Jones’ highest passer rating since the Week 17 matchup against the Colts in 2022 when he finished with a 125.2 passer rating. This marked the first time Jones has thrown multiple touchdown passes with no interceptions in consecutive games since his rookie season, and the first time he’s done it with zero turnovers overall in his NFL career. He also finished the game eight of 13 for 62 yards and a touchdown, good for a 98.9 passer rating, when getting pressured.

The Giants’ offense scored three touchdowns in the first half for just the second time since the start of the 2021 season (vs. Eagles in Week 18, 2023). Jones played a crucial role in this as he completed 17 of 19 passes for 178 yards and both touchdowns in the first half, which earned him a passer rating of 140.8. The fact that he did it against a Browns defense that entered this game as the best unit at home over the last two seasons makes it that much more impressive.

“Another good week,” Daboll said about his QB. “He’s had two good weeks in a row. I don’t know, another hundred-plus quarterback rating, two touchdowns, no interceptions, handled the noise well. Did a great job of not turning the football over. Executing, I think we were 100% but took the knee at the end. He was locked in and he’s been that way. We’re going to need it from him this week – a short week. A lot of work to do.”

Devin Singletary had another solid performance, as well. The veteran running back carried the ball 16 times for 65 yards and a touchdown, good for an average of 4.1 yards per carry, although he did lose a fumble for the second consecutive week. Outside of the turnover, Singletary has continued to run well out of the backfield. He registered two runs of 10+ yards and forced another five missed tackles, while also having his best game as a receiver with four receptions for an additional 43 yards.

“Yeah man I was sick,” Singletary said about his fumble. “But my brothers, they had my back. They didn’t let me put my head down, they told me to stay locked in. They said they were gonna need me, and I was glad I was able to help us get the win today.”