Giants Crowd Atmosphere Electric in Home Opener

What was it like to view the regular-season home opener in person? Andrew Parsaud gives us a firsthand account of what was a very fun day.

Author:
Andrew Parsaud
Publish date:
Sep 19, 2022 12:20 PM EDT

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New York Giants

FIU Panthers

Last week, New York Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale urged Giants fans to be loud at the stadium for their regular-season home opener against Carolina, and the fans did exactly that.

“This is one of the biggest changes you’ll see this week is to bring back great defense in this facility,” Martindale said. “I have only lived here a short period of time, but I know New Yorkers are loud. We need to be loud in that stadium.

"You want to be part of changing this culture here with the Giants? Be loud. Have that place rocking, so people don’t want to come to our stadium. We’ll take care of the rest, and we’ll give you something to be loud about.”

The defense definitely gave the crowd something to cheer about, as the Giants defensive unit kept them in the game. The defensive standout on the day was safety Julian Love, who led the team with eight tackles and also added in one sack and two tackles for a loss.

The defense also created their first turnover of the year when cornerback Darnay Holmes stripped the ball from Panthers wide receiver Robbie Anderson, which was recovered by cornerback Adoree’ Jackson.

Martindale schemed up a great defensive gameplan, especially when his top two pass rushers in Kayvon Thibodeaux and Azeez Ojulari were out due to injury, and starting cornerback Aaron Robinson was also out because of Appendicitis. Defensive lineman Leonard Williams also left the game early in the second half, creating another hurdle for Martindale, one he eventually overcame.

Rally Towels, DJs, and T-Shirt Cannons

When fans entered the gates of MetLife Stadium, they were greeted by staff handing out blue rally towels. The towels, presented by Pepsi, had the words ‘Big Blue’ on it, as well as the date of the home opener.

Usually, on third downs, the jumbo screens would read ‘Wave Those Towels!’ and fans would immediately get to their feet and do everything possible to try and throw off the Panthers offense. Martindale’s scheme also helped, as the Panthers converted just 2-of-12 third downs on Sunday, just 17 percent.

With the stadium almost completely sold out, fans getting on their feet and making any noise imaginable helped give juice to the Giants' defense.

The Giants also announced that for select game days only, they’d be having celebrity DJs playing music throughout the contest. In the home opener, they had DJ Wallah curate the playlists for pregame, during the game, as well as postgame. Fans seemed to be enjoying the choice of music, as a good portion of the crowd was seen dancing at some point during the game.

Another added touch by the new regime was a T-shirt cannon in between game breaks. While it’s not a huge deal in terms of influencing the game, it was nice to see that the team is continuing to add more activities and giveaways during their game-day festivities.

Crowd Turned on the Offense Quickly

The downside of the Giants win had to be how the offense performed overall. They scored just one touchdown, which went to rookie tight end Daniel Bellinger.

Most of the points came from kicker Graham Gano, who went 4/4, including a long of 56 yards. For most of the day, the offense had a rough time getting anything going. It seemed almost every play, quarterback Daniel Jones had a defender right in his face, or running back Saquon Barkley was getting tackled as soon as he received the handoff.

After two stalled drives came following turnovers in the first quarter, the offense could not punch it into the endzone, making fans extremely frustrated, as the Giants could have been up two touchdowns early rather than just six points. The offense was booed off the field heading into halftime tied at six. They were also booed on the possession right after halftime, as the offense had a net total of -1 yards and had to punt again.

It wasn’t the offense we saw in the second half of Week 1. There were no explosive plays, the longest play of the day was just a 16-yard rush from Saquon Barkley.

Winning Cures Everything

As always in the NFL, wins are hard to come by. Whenever your team wins, it cures everything, especially this early on in the season. When Daniel Jones picked up the last first down needed to eventually kneel the ball and run the clock out, fans were beaming with happiness.

When the clock hit 0:00, fans erupted, finally capturing the feeling of starting 2-0 for the first time in six years. The Giants also added fireworks whenever a touchdown was scored or the team won a game, which was a nice touch to a hard-fought win.

Fans sat in the blazing heat for hours to see a Giants home win in September. As fans exited the concourse, you could hear ‘let’s go Giants’ chants echoing through the walkways of MetLife Stadium. Everybody you saw with the ‘NY’ logo somewhere on their body had a smile. It’s been a rough couple of years for Giants fans, and they needed this win to feel good again.