The New York Giants lost another game, this time to the New England Patriots, and one of the talking points of the blowout loss was Jaxson Dart taking another unnecessary hit. Down 10-0 with roughly four minutes to go in the first quarter, Dart, who has already dealt with more than one concussion this season, opted not to go out of bounds on a scramble.
The end result was not pretty as Dart got absolutely blasted by Christian Elliss of the Patriots. The hit then caused John Michael Schmitz, Theo Johnson, and the rest of the Giants offense to come to Dart's rescue and a scuffle ensued.
In the moment, it sure looked like a cheap shot by Elliss but on further review, it was indeed a legal hit, as Dart was still in bounds when Elliss collided with him. That's a standard football play, right?
Peyton and Eli Manning were also watching the game on the ManningCast and both were stunned that Dart set himself up for that hit in the first place.
“I like teammates defending their QB, but that was a legal hit.”
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The ManningCast reacts to the Giants-Patriots scuffle after the big hit on Jaxson Dart. pic.twitter.com/fgYYenypbX
Manning brothers offer fair take to massive hit on Jaxson Dart
"Obviously, [Dart] told me he'd run out of bounds if he was near the sideline and he lied to me," Eli joked. "That would have been a good case to run out of bounds."
As the two watched the replay, Eli pointed out that Dart never stepped out of bounds and Peyton said, "It's not late" referring to the hit Elliss laid on.
"I like [Theo] Johnson protecting his wingman, I like it, but that's a legal hit," Peyton said. "I feel like those linebackers are gonna play a running quarterback a little differently, right? And you've seen quarterbacks kind of fake to go out of bounds, come back in, you've seen [Patrick] Mahomes do that. I know that annoys defensive players. 'Hey do we hit 'em? Do we, you know, not hit 'em? That puts those guys in a bind so I love teammates defending their quarterback, I always love to see that, but that was a legal hit by [Elliss]."
If the Manning brothers, who are always defending quarterbacks in their commentary due to both having played the position, are saying that was a legal hit on Dart, then that's pretty telling. Dart needs to be better about getting out of bounds and not taking hits like that if he doesn't have to or, as we've seen, his career is not going to be a long one.