Xavier McKinney couldn’t practice until Friday due to a false positive COVID-19 test on Tuesday. Rookie edge Quincy Roche hadn’t made his first NFL start until last Monday night at Kansas City.
But McKinney intercepted Raiders QB Derek Carr twice in Sunday’s second half, returning one for a touchdown, and Roche forced a game-ending sack fumble recovered by Leonard Williams in Sunday’s 23-16 Giants win over Las Vegas.
Joe Judge’s team improved to 3-6 heading into a Week 10 bye.
McKinney, the second-year safety, returned his first pick 41 yards for a touchdown with 13:28 remaining in the third quarter, jumping a third-down throw intended for Hunter Renfrow to give the Giants the lead for good.
Then McKinney picked off a pass for Zay Jones down the right sideline with 5:12 remaining to help ice the game.
Roche, stolen from the Pittsburgh Steelers off early season waivers, then ended the game with Las Vegas (5-3) in the red zone threatening to tie the game late in regulation.
Daniel Jones’ offense managed only one touchdown all day on the game’s opening drive, a 30-yard jump ball to tight end Evan Engram.
But Graham Gano booted three field goals, and three turnovers of Carr lifted the Giants over the hump.
Raiders interim coach Rich Bisaccia also attempted two second half field goals on 4th and 3 from the Giants’ 7 yard line rather than going for it, and kicker Daniel Carlson missed one of them, a 25-yarder wide left with about 9:30 to play.
There was an emotional element to this game for both teams, too.
McKinney’s former Alabama teammate from the same 2017 recruiting class, ex-Raiders receiver Henry Ruggs III, went to prison this week for a fatal car crash that killed a young woman and her dog.
The young woman, Tina Tintor, 23, was the victim. Judge said many of his Giants players, who knew Ruggs, were shaken up by the entire tragedy.
“When I talk to my team about the situation, I’m literally looking in guys’ eyes, it’s not a headline to them,” head coach Joe Judge said during the week. “It’s a friend of theirs, it’s a teammate of theirs, it’s something different.”
The injury-riddled Giants can try and get healthier now on their bye week with a favorable schedule ahead, excluding of course their first one back: a Monday night trip to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
