Darren Rizzi Reflects on Successful Homecoming Amid Saints' Win Over Giants

The New Orleans Saints interim head coach credited his team for finding enough ways to win in his return to his home state of New Jersey.

Dec 8, 2024; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New Orleans Saints head coach Darren Rizzi reacts during the second half against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

New Orleans Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi made his official return to East Rutherford, New Jersey for the first time as a lead ranking member of a visiting NFL sideline and earned himself just the homecoming he had hoped for. 

Rizzi, a native of Hillsdale and former football player at Bergen Catholic High School, has worked hard to climb the ranks of the football world and get to a place where he found himself on Sunday afternoon at a familiar abode of MetLife Stadium. 

The man who grew up a Giants fan during the peak of the Bill Parcells era and witnessed many postseason victories, now had a chance to return home and write his own chapter in the storied history of his beloved franchise, one that has been growing sour right in front of his and thousand of other fans’ eyes as he led the Saints march into the road arena to face the Giants. 

The local matchup was just his fourth overall since taking over the interim title after the Saints parted ways with Dennis Allen back in November, but this one would arguably be his most challenging and meaningful at the same time. 

Sure, he was facing off with a New York team sitting at 2-10 with seemingly nowhere positive to turn except the top of the draft order, but the bigger obstacle laid in drowning out the overwhelming emotions surrounding him from a big contingent of supporters sitting in the three fourths empty bleachers left vacated by the Giants faithful.

Luckily, he was able to do just that amidst what was an ugly game for both sides as the Saints pulled off a 14-11 win over the Giants that came off the fingertips of defensive tackle Bryan Breese who blocked a 35-yard game-tying field goal attempt by Graham Gano with 11 seconds left in regulation to seal the deal on their fifth win of the year. 

The game was quite symbolic of the week that Rizzi had to deal with in terms of the buildup for his long awaited return as a head coach, and similarly to when the Gano attempt finally landed on the ground in the waning seconds, he was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief that the whole thing was over with a victory.

“Phenomenal,” Rizzi told reporters in explaining his emotions after the final whistle.

“I was able to see a lot of family and friends. My three nieces were here. Cousins, friends, high school. My high school coach at Bergen Catholic was here. Bergen Catholic had a big contingency…Just two Fridays ago they won the state championship right here on this field against Don Bosco. So, another state championship for them. It's great to see all those people.”

“I got a little emotional there when I came out to the field and saw them out there, my immediate family. Just really, cool. As I said at the beginning of the week, once the game kind of started, you got to forget all that with this. I'm not going to sit here and try to BS you guys. To go up here in my home area and get a win on the visiting side, obviously, is something that I probably told you would never happen in my life since.”

It certainly wasn’t a pretty performance that Rizzi put his beloved audience through. The Saints and Giants posted a defensive stalemate in the first thirty minutes of play that included 10 total points and 12 combined drives with less than seven plays and 14 yards amassed. 

Neither side could gain much momentum in either phase of their offense, as the Saints’ were without a portion of their receiving corps and couldn’t earn more than 44 yards on the ground behind Alvin Kamara. The Giants, who had to rely heavily on their run game in the first half, couldn’t find a spark as quarterback Drew Lock started the game 0/8 in the passing realm.

However, the Saints would make their difference with two long drives, one on each bookend of the halftime break, that helped notch two touchdowns and granted all the space they needed to separate from their opposition. The first went nine plays and 98 yards in just over five minutes and was capped off by an eight yard Kendre Miller rush for an early 7-0 advantage. 

The second came two possessions into the third quarter after New Orleans had turned over the football in its two previous turns with a missed field goal try and an interception by Giants cornerback Tre Hawkins III. The Saints went another nine plays and 69 yards in 4:41 of game clock and punched in seven more points with tight end Juwan Johnson’s wide open 11-yard catch to go up 14-3 on New York. 

The rest of the way would require the New Orleans defense to spare what was a first half of miscues by the offense and special teams units that kept the Giants in the affair to the bitter end. They found the important paths to making those big stops around their rare scoring drives and then found the ironic turnaround in the latter department to pin another grueling loss on the shoulders of the Giants organization. 

On the Saints side, the only thing to worry about was staying in the race for the NFC South division that has just one team sitting above .500 at 7-6 with a months worth of games remaining, and Rizzi’s locker room would pull it out in stunning fashion to keep themselves in the mix.

“Huge,” Rizzi said. I know another one of the teams at the top of our division lost again today. So, it keeps us in the mix. 

“We're down here at the end of the year. It's the middle of December already. When you're playing games that still matter and still count and still have a chance to affect the final outcome, that's a big deal. So here we are with four to go and as I just said to the guys, that's why we practice with a purpose.”

“We go through the week with a purpose because we're still playing. We're still in contention. Trying not to be a big-picture guy, but, it's always nice to have that out there so you can focus on the now and not worry about that there's still that opportunity for us.”

For Rizzi’s childhood franchise, the only thing left to look forward to is putting a bow, or better yet a garbage lid, on what has only become an even more gruesome campaign. With the loss, the Giants fall to 2-11 and secure a lonesome hold on the No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 draft next April. 

Beating Rizzi’s squad would have been their best chance to reach the win column before the season disgracefully concludes in about a month. Instead, they maintain an eight-game skid that could grow larger next Sunday against a more fearsome foe as the Baltimore Ravens come to town. 

Rizzi and company won’t have to worry about that daunting reality and instead left an indelible mark on his accomplished coaching timeline that now holds a 3-1 record for New Orleans. If anything, the Giants can take it as another example of what happens when teams find ways to earn the gritty wins and not let roster deficiencies stand in the way and take it into whatever becomes of next season. 

“As I just told them, ‘Sometimes you don’t get to pick the formula on how to win. Sometimes you think the game is going to play out a certain way and it plays out a little differently,” Rizzi said.

“We didn't particularly have a very good fourth quarter there. But, we found a way to make a play at the end of the game. I thought our offense and our special teams had one of the worst halves, maybe the worst half of the year, in the first half. We turned it around and made some plays there in the second half.”

“It's never easy to win in this league. We came out on the road. We respond from last week. We get a ‘W’. We go home with a win. We’ll try to figure out some of these other things we've got to get figured out.

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