Giants’ banged-up secondary comes up big with timely plays to secure win

The Giants’ secondary was so banged-up they didn’t just go to their bench. They dug all the way down to the practice squad.

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The unit was stretched thin, but didn’t break. They even made arguably the biggest plays in a 19-16 victory over Carolina — including the game-clinching one.

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Strong safety Julian Love’s 9-yard sack of quarterback Baker Mayfield sent the MetLife Stadium crowd of 73,843 into a frenzy and essentially sealed the win. It forced the Panthers to punt with 2:12 left to play, and Big Blue never gave it back.

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“On that third-down sack … the crowd went crazy,” defensive end Justin Ellis said. “And I was just like, ‘This is New York.’

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So at the end of the game when we knew it was over I hugged coach Wink [Martindale] and said ‘Man, did you see that?’ We talked about it, it was so amazing.”

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As the nearest defender, left corner Adoree’ Jackson didn’t allow a catch on four targets over 27 coverage snaps (per NFL Next Gen Stats).

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On the other side, they played without right corner Aaron Robinson, after he had his appendix removed.

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