Leading up to a Week 2 game against the Carolina Panthers, New York Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale and several players called on fans to get loud.
Specifically, Martindale wanted Giants fans to be so loud that Carolina had to revert to a silent count.
“I know New Yorkers are loud. We need to be loud in that stadium. They have to go on silent count,” Martindale said.” If you want to be part of changing this culture here with the Giants, be loud and have that place rocking where 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. But just be loud. I can’t wait to see it.”
As the saying goes, mission accomplished.
MetLife Stadium was electric on Sunday. It was the loudest the venue has been in a decade and both Giants coaches and players took note.
“I thought the fans were great. Just driving over here from the facility and looking at all the tailgates and all the beverages and all the games they were playing, they were pretty rocked up,” head coach Brian Daboll said.
“They had their jerseys on — some old school ones, some new school ones. They were great on third down. They know when to cheer, and it was certainly helpful to have them out there. And we look forward to next week.”
“I feel like we always had great fans even when we were struggling, but definitely a big credit to them for coming out, being loud. I think we had a couple penalties because of them,” running back Saquon Barkley said. “For me, being at Penn State, coming from that environment and seeing it in the NFL with Giants fans showing out and helping us get a win means a lot and hopefully we can keep this thing rocking.”
“That was awesome. From the first quarter on, we looked around the sidelines, and I said to the other guys, ‘This is awesome seeing this,'” kicker Graham Gano said. “The fans were waiving the towels, bringing the juice and that’s special. Hopefully, fans will keep coming and doing that and I don’t think they realize how much it really means to us as players having them there and having their support. We couldn’t play this game without them.”
Chills. Shout out to the fans for bringing the energy today!!! We all in this together🤘🏼 https://t.co/Rbu8eKqZq8
— Carter Coughlin (@Cmoe34) September 18, 2022
The crowd noise mattered in precisely the way Martindale wanted it to. Panthers head coach Matt Rhule acknowledged on Monday that Giants fans very much factored into the outcome of the game.
When asked about the upcoming 3-game homestand, Panthers coach Matt Rhule mentioned how “obviously the crowd noise was a factor” yesterday at MetLife.
Been a while since an opponent has been able to say that about the Giants. Things are changing for Big Blue.
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) September 19, 2022
The Giants return to MetLife Stadium on Monday night in Week 3 to host the Dallas Cowboys, and you had better believe the fans will once again have the place rocking.
