Notebook: Offensive line paves the way to victory

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – A veteran offensive line and a rookie running back making his first NFL start rejuvenated the Giants’ rushing attack yesterday, and perhaps offered a template for future success.

The Giants rushed for a season-high 175 yards in their 29-20 victory against the Seattle Seahawks in Lumen Field. That was 90 yards more than their average in the season’s first four games, 46 yards higher than their previous best performance of the year (129 at Washington on Sept. 15) and 149 yards more than their 26-yard output in the preceding game, against Dallas on Sept. 26.

And they accomplished all that without their leading rusher, six-year veteran Devin Singletary, who was inactive with a groin injury.

In his place stepped Tyrone Tracy, the 166th selection in the 2024 NFL Draft, who entered the game with 12 attempts, 29 yards, a 2.4-yard average, and a long run of six yards. Tracy

shredded a Seattle defense that had allowed just 116.3 yards a game on the ground. He ran for 129 yards on 18 carries, a gaudy 7.2-yard average, and was a driving force in the Giants holding the ball for 37:22, their highest time of possession in a non-overtime game under Brian Daboll. Tracy had runs of 27, 25 and 13 yards.

The Giants were pleased to get that kind of production from the untested Tracy, but not at all surprised by it.

“I think for any of those guys that played and didn’t maybe have as much playing time, their job is to go out there and compete and play at a high level,” Daboll said today. “And that’s what we expect. We’ve talked about that I think last week leading up to the game, if certain people can’t play, that next man up mentality. So again, we’ll do what we need to do each week. But yeah, he had a nice game.”

Nice enough that Daboll will consider splitting snaps between Singletary and Tracy, perhaps Sunday night at home against the Cincinnati Bengals?

“I think we just take it day by day, week by week, see what we’re doing and what the game plan is for the opponent that we’re about to play,” Daboll said. “But we expect all our players to be ready and perform when their number’s called.

Tracy runs with a toughness between the tackles that is particularly impressive because he played wide receiver for four seasons at the University of Iowa and one at Purdue before switching to running back in his final season in 2023.

“I feel like my game is very unique,” Tracy said after the game. “I can run like a receiver, but then I can also do the inside game as well. That kind of gets lost in translation just because I’m a receiver coming to running back. The big question coming into the league was, ‘Can he run inside zone?’ Obviously, I can run the outside stuff, I can do the open space, but they didn’t know if I could do it in between the tackles. I think today I answered that.”

“He’s a smart player,” Daboll said. “I think (running backs coach) Joel Thomas has done a really good job with him. As much time on task as you can get for any player, particularly a young player, I think you improve at it. He’s improved since he’s been here. He played well yesterday, but the 10 guys around him played well, too. There were good holes, did a good job of pressing the line of scrimmage, making decisive cuts, putting his foot in the ground on that third and two, one and a half to make a big play there. But he’s done a nice job for us since he’s been here of just continually improving, which is what we want all our players to do.”