SEATTLE — After he made the play of the day to seal the deal Sunday for the Giants in their 29-20 victory over the Seahawks, Isaiah Simmons looked inward and reflected on how he got here.
“Personally, I ain’t gonna lie, it felt like a feeling of relief,’’ Simmons said. “I’m sure everybody knows, the season ain’t going how I want it, so it’s just kind of a feeling of relief because it’s been a minute since I’ve been able to go make a huge play for the team. Since last year, really.’’
Simmons is accustomed to making plays on defense, but he is not part of the defensive rotation for the Giants.
His role is almost exclusively on special teams and he found a way to make an impactful play.
All game, the Giants were waiting to use the special field goal block play that special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial installed.
Head coach Brian Daboll more than once in the game asked where it was and Ghobrial kept saying not yet, not yet.
The Giants maintained a two-score lead in the second half and did not need it.
But when the Seahawks were down 23-20 and Jason Myers lined up for a 47-yard field goal attempt with 55 seconds remaining, it seemed as if overtime was coming.
Ghobrial made the call and Simmons made sure there would be no OT.
At 6-foot-4, Simmons does not really have a set position on defense, but he was the perfect choice for this play.
He was athletic enough to actually jump over Seahawks lineman Laken Tomlinson, land and quickly jump again.
Simmons got so high that the ball actually hit off his left forearm and fell to the turf, where Bryce Ford-Wheaton was on the scene to scoop it up and race 60 yards for the game-sealing touchdown.
“I wanted to run that play so bad because I knew I was gonna block that kick,’’ Simmons said. “I knew it. Some s–t you just know.
“My main thing, I knew I could jump high enough, I knew really that was no issue. Once I found myself clear the first thing on my mind was once you touch, jump, jump, jump, jump you have to go right back up because there’s no time for anything else. Once my feet hit I just went back up. I was just thinking go straight up and down and block it.’’
And when he saw the ball hit the ground and his teammate pick it up and run the Giants to a victory?
“All I could say was ‘I told you’ because I knew it was going to happen,’’ Simmons said.
This did not exactly stun his teammates.
“I knew he could do it, he’s a freak athlete,’’ defensive end Brian Burns said. “He won the game. He took us home, man, he’s the one who did it.’’
Simmons admits he is not happy with his non-role on defense and that it is hard to sit and watch.
He is a former first-round draft pick of the Cardinals and he played more on defense with the Giants when Wink Martindale was the coordinator.
The Giants opted to re-sign him this season, but he cannot crack Shane Bowen’s lineup.
“I’m happy for him, he accepted his role,’’ defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence said.
“What hurts me the most is not me not being a starter, it’s just the fact that I can’t go out there and help my team when I know I can help,’’ Simmons said. “That’s probably the emotions that were going through me, just getting back out there and feeling like Isaiah, the playmaker I feel that I am.’’
