ORCHARD PARK — Sometimes one play in one game can save not only the game, but an entire season.
Too soon? Too dramatic?
No one truly will know the long-term effect for another couple of months, until deep into December.
But this much is certain: Rashad Jennings’ electric, 51-yard catch-and-run touchdown in the fourth quarter of the Giants 24-10 win over the Bills on Sunday at Ralph Wilson Stadium saved the game.
It saved them from possibly falling to 1-3, allowed them to get to 2-2 after the sky-is-falling 0-2 start and made them — as a few players in the winning locker room echoed afterward — “relevant.’’
The Giants offense, which had smacked Rex Ryan’s vaunted defense in the mouth in the first half, was scuffling mightily in the second, and the Bills had cut their 16-3 halftime lead to 16-10 with 9:41 remaining in the game.
Now, not only were the Bills back in the game, but their sellout crowd of 70,677 was into it, and the Giants were immersed in adversity.
This is when the Divine Intervention of Jennings’ remarkable individual effort changed everything.
It was third-and-3 from the Giants 49-yard line and Eli Manning, under duress of a Buffalo blitz, threw a short, check-down pass to Jennings, who was in man coverage. As the ball arrived to Jennings — almost simultaneously — he caught it and shed Bills linebacker Nigel Bradham off his back at the 48, 1 yard short of the first down, and turned up the field.
“I saw we had zero coverage, and I knew it was an opportunity to make a play,’’ Jennings said.
“I’ve got to make the play,’’ Bradham said.
“We didn’t communicate the blitz right,’’ Bills defensive tackle Kyle Williams said. “If we run it right, we are free, we are out of the down. Communicate there and we get the guy on the ground, and we are in business.’’
Ryan: “We obviously didn’t get lined up right. We probably should have had someone covering [Jennings] on the play, but we didn’t and then the kid broke a couple of tackles. Oh, it was frustrating.’’
After shedding Bradham, Jennings slipped free and ran toward the left sideline.
“Oh man, all I saw was end zone,’’ Jennings said. “The first thing I was thinking was, ‘Just get the first down, stay on the field, keep our defense off of it, keep the clock running and find a way to get down the field to score.’ But after making the catch, I just saw green grass.’’
Bills linebacker Preston Brown had a chance at him near the sideline at the 35-yard line, but Jennings high-stepped away from Brown’s desperate diving attempt at a shoestring tackle.
Next up was Bills safety Bacarri Rambo, who had an angle on the Giants running back at the 15 near the sideline. Jennings swatted him away with his right hand as if eliminating a pesky fly at a summer picnic.
“When he stiff-armed that dude [Rambo] to the ground, that was pretty awesome to see,’’ Giants right guard Geoff Schwartz said.
“Man, Rashad is a special cat,’’ Giants running back Andre Williams said. “You can’t really tell that he’s capable to doing the things he ends up doing on the field. I got so hyped when he stiff-armed the dude and ran into the end zone.’’
Giants coach Tom Coughlin was breathless after the game when speaking about the play.
“A great, great play,’’ he said. “They blitzed, he broke it on a hot [read], he broke one tackle, he broke another tackle, he had a guy hit him in the back and he still straightened up and he ran into the end zone.
“That,’’ Coughlin added, on, “was the play that gave us the opportunity to take a deep breath.’’
Manning said: “We needed something. We hadn’t gotten anything going in the second half, Buffalo scores to get within six and hey, we had to man-up in that situation.’’
Jennings was their man. He, too, was somewhat prescient moments before breaking the Bills.
“Right before that play, me and Rashad were sitting together on the sideline trying to figure out who was going to make a play,’’ receiver Rueben Randle said. “He brought it up to me: Somebody needed to make a play. And he went out there and did it and led us to victory. Definitely the play of the game.”
Until further notice: Definitely the play of the season.