The Giants put together a dominant performance in Week 17 as they picked up a 45-33 victory against the Indianapolis Colts. It marked the franchise's highest point total in a game since 2015.
The offensive explosion led to quarterback Drew Lock and wide receiver Malik Nabers each earning nominations for FedEx Air & Ground Players of the Week.
Starting his fourth game for the Giants, Lock completed 17 of 23 passes (73.9 percent) for 309 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions and a career-high passer rating of 155.3. He also added a touchdown on the ground. His four passing touchdowns matched his career-best, while the five total touchdowns set a new high mark.
Lock's 155.3 passer rating was the highest by a Giants quarterback since the 2018 season, while his four passing touchdowns were the most since 2019.
"It means a lot," Lock said about his bounce-back performance. "I knew it was in me. I knew we could go out and do it. It takes everybody. That's the quarterback position. It takes everybody and those guys played their butt off for me today. Last week being the way it was, not playing up to my standard. Not playing up to the standard that (Brian Daboll) Dabs holds me to or Shea (Tierney) holds me to. It was disappointing, yeah. But we regrouped, fought throughout the week, rehabbed, studied, practiced, came out here, and it just played out the way it should have."
As for Nabers, the rookie wide receiver led the team with seven receptions for a career-high 171 yards and two touchdowns. The receiving yardage was the highest by a Giants player since 2021.
The 21-year-old increased his season total to 104 receptions, the second-highest total in Giants history and only three behind Steve Smith, who had 107 in 2009. Nabers is four shy of the new NFL rookie record of 108 catches, set by Las Vegas tight end Brock Bowers, who also had seven catches while playing in the early afternoon time slot on Sunday, when the Raiders won in New Orleans.
"What a beast," Lock said about the rookie receiver. "What a dude. He's going to be great. He's going to be great for a really long time. He's going to keep working. The mentality he has, he's just going to keep getting better. And I feel like you kind of saw that throughout the year. Yeah, that Browns game was impressive early in the year. But with each game, when he was healthy, or he wasn't really truly healthy, banged up going out there to play, kept making an impact, kept making more of an impact as the year went on. And that's hard to do with a guy that made such a big impact early in the year. Being able to consistently hang with that and be that guy, it's impressive."
Nabers is tied with Miami's Jaylen Waddle (104 catches in 2021) for the third-highest rookie receptions total in history, behind Bowers and the Rams' Puka Nacua, who had 105 catches for the Rams last season. Bowers has played all 16 games this season, while Nabers has played 14. Nabers can set the rookie record against the Eagles but will begin the day four catches behind Bowers.
Bowers and Nabers rank second and third, respectively, in the league in receptions this season, trailing Cincinnati's Ja'Marr Chase (117). Detroit's Amon-Ra St. Brown has 101 catches and plays tonight in San Francisco.
Nabers and running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. became just the third pair of rookies in NFL history – and second since the 1970 merger – to each have 1,000+ scrimmage yards. This is the first season since 2018 that the Giants have had two players exceed 1,000 scrimmage yards.
Here are the other nominees for the FedEx Air & Ground Players of the Week:
- Bengals QB Joe Burrow - Completed 39 of 49 passes (79.6 percent) for 412 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions; added four rushes for 25 yards and an additional touchdown
- Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield - Completed 27 of 32 passes (84.4 percent) for 359 yards, five touchdowns and zero interceptions
- Bengals WR Tee Higgins - Caught 11 passes for 131 yards and three touchdowns
- Colts RB Jonathan Taylor - Ran the ball 32 times for 125 yards (3.9 avg.) and two touchdowns; added two receptions for 11 yards
Voting for weekly nominees is open each week of the regular season from Monday morning to Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. ET at NFL.com/FedEx. Fans can also vote on X (formerly Twitter) via the NFL published polls at @NFL and on the NFL Mobile App.
For the 2024-25 season, FedEx will once again proudly work with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund to make donations of $2,000 in the names of the two winning players ($4,000 total) to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the country every week.
Over the course of the entire season, select HBCUs will receive grants totaling more than $100,000 to support needs-based scholarships through the 2024-2025 school year. Over the past three seasons, FedEx has donated more than $300,000 to directly support needs-based scholarships for HBCU students.
The New York Giants host the Indianapolis Colts at MetLife Stadium for their Week 17 matchup.
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