Copyright New York Post
So, what advice would you give to a rookie quarterback about his first game in Philadelphia? Darius Slayton smiled. Then he laughed. Then he smiled again. The longest-tenured Giants player on offense knows what Jaxson Dart is in for Sunday. “Yeah, I mean, if he didn’t have any haters, he’ll find where they all live,’’ Slayton said. “He’s about to get introduced to all of ’em.’’ There are especially rough environments on the road — Dart has already been introduced to two of them, New Orleans and Denver — but what comes next is a different sort of experience. There is an indoctrination for every Giant when it comes to taking on the Eagles in their inhospitable lair called Lincoln Financial Field. There is nothing quite like the team bus pulling up and players seeing the middle finger waved at them from green-clad fans who like to treat the Giants as hated invaders from the north. The 22-year old Dart has rarely played like a rookie in his four starts. His fifth start comes in a place where the Giants almost never win and almost always are abused, on the field and off it. “You know you got to stick close to your brothers in the locker room, just kind of stay as tight as one group because that team and that fan base, they’re going to get a little gritty on the sidelines,’’ tight end Daniel Bellinger told The Post. “I would tell him, ‘Listen, focus on you, focus on the team and stick together and not worry about the outside noise.’ ’’ Dart cannot cure all that ails his team. He certainly did enough to win in Denver, as he came off the field having dived for a touchdown with 37 seconds remaining to put his team ahead 32-30 in an eventual 33-32 loss to the Broncos. Dart does not inherit the historical baggage of a divisional series that has the Giants lagging far behind the Eagles. The last time the Giants won in Philly was Oct. 27, 2013. Since then, there have been 12 consecutive losses at the Linc. There is nothing Dart can do about all that past failure. He is trying to blaze a new trail for this team. And he sounds far more excited and not at all daunted by what comes next. “Yeah, it’s going to be intense for sure,’’ Dart said. “I can’t wait to go out there and compete and kind of just feel the hostility in the air. The rivalry between the two organizations — it’s going to be really cool. I kind of compare it to an SEC rivalry, so I’m really excited for the atmosphere. I know it’s going to be intense, but just excited for it.’’ This time, there is a different twist on a familiar theme. Two weeks ago, the Giants beat the Eagles 34-17 in what felt like a franchise-shifting moment for the home team. An unusual quirk in NFL scheduling has these NFC East rivals meeting again, 17 days later. Dart in his first encounter with the Eagles delighted the success-starved crowd at MetLife Stadium and helped the Giants to a rare prime-time moment of glory. He ran 20 yards for a touchdown to complete an eye-opening first series and never took his foot off the pedal. He went 17-of-25 for 195 yards as a passer, including a 35-yard catch-and-run touchdown hookup with Wan’Dale Robinson set up by some fancy footwork from Dart in the pocket. Dart also rushed for 58 yards in the rousing victory. Dart’s passer rating in that game was 104.6, his high for the season so far. Now comes the rematch, in a far different venue. “I would say, don’t change anything, just go out there and be you,’’ right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor told The Post. “Denver was a helluva environment and you saw what he did there.’’ Dart has been unaffected by playing on the road. “I mean, LSU is intense, Georgia is intense, Alabama is intense, Auburn is intense,’’ he said. “You guys want me to keep going?’’ He seems to be eagerly anticipating getting the full Philly fanaticism. “I mean, in pregame, that’s kind of just the cool thing about sports is you’re able to go into environments, usually it’s the away team warming up right in front of the student section of the opposing team and there’s a ton of chirping and that just kind of builds the environment,’’ Dart said. “Those are fun things to be a part of, for sure. “It just amps up the intensity, amps up the moment — I mean shoot, it’s a lot more fun to play in front of that than to play in front of no one at all.’’ He will play in front of that in Philly. Hostility awaits.
