Monday Night Football got out of hand real quick for the New York Giants. After the New England Patriots got out to an early 17-0 lead, things looked grim. Fortunately, Jaxson Dart led a scoring drive to pull the Giants within 10.
Just a few minutes later, and after the Patriots scored yet another touchdown to go up 24-7, the Giants saw one of their own go down to a brutal hit to the head on the ensuing kickoff.
Return man Gunner Olszewski was drilled on a helmet-to-helmet hit by Patriots linebacker Christian Ellis. There was no call from the officials while Olszewski ended up fumbling the ball.
New England recovered.
New England then had a short field en route to another field goal to go up 27-7 from there. And just like that, the game was out of hand.
Refs' no-call screwed the Giants after a gruesome hit to the head on MNF
Not long after the Patriots recovered the fumble, NFL insider Josina Anderson posted a screen shot of Olszewski's helmet following the hit he took. As if the video was not enough evidence, check out the photo she posted.
A freeze look at the #Giants helmet after the second big hit from #Patriots LB Christian Ellis’s in this game. pic.twitter.com/DDAiWppnud
— JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) December 2, 2025
Olszewski's helmet looked like it might have if he'd run into a brick wall a few times, but no, that was from Ellis' hit.
He immediately required assistance getting off the field, but some watching might have noticed it looked far worse.
In all reality, Olszewski should have been carted off the field rather than trainers helping him walk. He did not look OK to walk. We'll just leave it at that.
As for the no-call and how it impacted the game, Giants fans saw what unfolded from there. Dart had just led New York's offense to a touchdown drive the last time out there. Instead, the Patriots got back-to-back possessions and we don't truly know what kind of swing that ultimately ended up being.
What if Dart led the Giants to another touchdown drive, making the score 24-14 and bringing them to within 10?
A 10-point game feels drastically different than a 20-point game. This very well could have been a 10-point swing, but the refs chose to completely ignore it.
We're not even going to try and stoop low enough to talk about the hit on Dart earlier in the first half because, let's be honest, that was a legal hit. This one, though?
Not even close.