When David Wilson needed advice, needed someone to console him, needed someone to tell him what he did wrong, who could he turn to? That was a problem for the Giants in their season-opening loss to the Cowboys.
Wilson fumbled on his first carry of the 2013 season. Then he fumbled again, Dallas defensive tackle Nick Hayden yanking the ball loose so that safety Barry Church could scoop it up and run 27 yards for a touchdown. Receiver Hakeem Nicks after that play had compassionate words on the sideline for Wilson, but there was no running back for Wilson to lean on. Da’Rel Scott is in his third year, but has barely played. Michael Cox is a rookie.
As far as the roster goes, the Giants left Wilson high and dry. The turnovers are his responsibility, and running backs coach Jerald Ingram has been around forever and has a deft hand with these situations. But there is nothing like peer mentoring and peer pressure, and the Giants embarked on the season without providing Wilson with either.
The signing on Tuesday of Brandon Jacobs comes a week too late, as the Giants very well might have beaten the Cowboys if they had Jacobs, or another veteran, to help Wilson, or replace him.
This was going to be an inexperienced backfield even with Andre Brown, who has kicked around the league for a few years but came into this season with only two NFL starts and 384 rushing yards. At age 26, Brown represented the old head in “the room’’ where the running backs do their work. When Brown broke a bone in his left leg and was lost for the first half of the season, the Giants could have gone ahead and found a veteran to replace him. Instead, they rolled the dice, not wanting to sign a vested veteran (four or more years of NFL service) whose entire 2013 salary would be guaranteed if he was on the roster for the first game.
And so, they entrusted Wilson with the ball and Scott and Cox to handle whatever scraps came their way. Did any team head into the season with only three running backs, with one a rookie, one a second-year player and one a barely used third-year player? The fact Eli Manning, with 403 career rushing yards, has the highest total of any Giants player currently on the active roster is in one way amusing and another alarming. Before signing Jacobs, the Giants were the only team in the league that did not have a player with 500 career rushing yards on the active roster.
It was a gamble and it went awry. Wilson in the opener was benched and Scott — a 2011 seventh-round pick with 11 career NFL rushing attempts and two receptions — was doing fine as an emergency fill-in, until disaster struck. His “miscommunication’’ with Manning resulted in a screen pass glancing off his arm and into the hands of cornerback Brandon Carr for an interception return for a Cowboys touchdown that halted what was shaping up to be a dynamic Giants comeback.
When Wilson arrived last year, he had Ahmad Bradshaw to show him the ropes. Bradshaw had Jacobs. Jacobs had Tiki Barber. Sure, Wilson is no longer a rookie, but that doesn’t mean he should be left without veteran leadership around him, not Nicks or Manning but a running back who has been in the battles and could offer what no one else could provide.
“We need a veteran guy behind him to talk to him, keep him humble,’’ Victor Cruz said of Wilson.
It’s the least the Giants should have done for Wilson.