Midway through yesterday’s fourth quarter, Bucs safety Mark Barron landed on Hakeem Nicks’ right ankle, and it looked to be a pretty bad injury for the Giants wideout. Nicks had to be helped off the field, and it was a mystery when he would return.
Or if he would return.
One play later, Nicks came back in and hauled in a 20-yard grab to set up Martellus Bennett’s go-ahead touchdown. And a couple minutes later, Nicks pulled in a 50-yard pass, too.
“I just knew I had to shake it off,” Nicks said. “It was a clutch time in the game. I wasn’t going to sit out.”
The ankle Barron landed on was Nicks’ right one — the same foot he broke a few months ago and is still rehabbing.
Nicks flashed all kinds of impressive toughness in the Giants’ 41-34 roller coaster of a win yesterday, and also delivered an amazing individual performance, racking up 10 catches for a career-high 199 yards and a toucdown — the latter also a game-high, which wasn’t easy since Victor Cruz had 179 himself.
“It was like a video game out there today,” Bennett said of Nicks and Cruz.
Nicks had a poor opener against the Cowboys, catching four passes for 38 yards. But the last time he had a tough game — in last season’s Week 16 victory over the Jets when he caught one pass for 20 yards — Nicks exploded afterward. He caught five touchdowns in the Giants’ next three games, all in must-win games.
In Nicks’ last six games, including the playoffs, he has posted four games with at least 109 yards and scored five TDs.
Nicks, who had a game ball he said was for his grandmother, said coach Tom Coughlin told him after the game: “Great effort. Great game. Continue to build on it.”
Nicks also said that his foot and ankle were OK.
“You can’t say enough about what he was able to do,” Coughlin said, calling Nicks “a great competitor.”
At one point after the game, Nicks hobbled away from his locker, presumably headed to the shower. Seeing his pace, a reporter told him it might take him a while. Said Nicks: “Ain’t even rushing.”