Brian Daboll is a genius, but he will never get his due since he has Daniel Jones as a quarterback.
The NY Giants had a great chance to take down the Pittsburgh Steelers in primetime, but the offense couldn’t get the job done.
With 2:47 left in the game and with the Giants down one score, Giants coach Brian Daboll exposed a loophole in NFL rules when he intentionally put 12 men on the field on a 2nd-and-3 to automatically give Pittsburgh a first down.
That sounds like a terrible idea, but there is much more to this.
Daboll would go on to use two timeouts and successfully forced a fourth-down punt to get the ball back, which gave the Giants one last chance to tie the game with two minutes left on the clock.
By doing that, the Steelers would stop wasting more time on the clock, so Brian Daboll just went ahead and gave them a first down and bet on his defense’s ability to stop them. It worked.
The Giants stopped three consecutive Steelers rushing attempts while using their timeouts to get the ball back following the two-minute warning.
Unfortunately for Brian Daboll, his quarterback could not cash in on him being a genius.
Steelers undrafted rookie defensive back Beanie Bishop Jr. picked off Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, his second turnover in as many drives.
This allowed Russell Wilson and the Steelers offense to take victory formation to close out the game.
Buck and Troy Aikman did not notice the genius move by the Giants head coach when it happened, but it did not go ignored on another channel.
‘ManningCast’ Pointed Out Brian Daboll’s Genius Move
Giants coach Brian Daboll intentionally put 12 men on the field on a 2nd-and-3 to purposely give the Steelers a first down.
On the traditional ESPN broadcast, Buck and Aikman were completely oblivious.
“Man, these penalties, all night,” Buck said as the NFL refs called the 12-men penalty. “Mainly against the offense of the Giants, but 12 men in the formation, which adds five.”
Over on ESPN’s ManningCast, Eli and Peyton pointed out how genius it was.
“12 players on the field,” Peyton said.
“On purpose, right?” Eli replied. “Give them the first down, they got too many yards on first down, so just give them the first down there.”
“I agree,” Peyton said. “And you can’t decline it anymore, right? Because they call it before the ball is snapped.”
