New York Giants wideout Golden Tate isn’t paying any mind to the intimidation of the New England Patriots organization.
The New York Giants have arguably their toughest 2019 opponent on deck. After suffering a tough, ugly loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, Big Blue travels to Foxborough, MA on a short week to face the New England Patriots. The game will be played on Thursday Night Football on FOX.
While New York is dealing with the injury bug (setbacks to Saquon Barkley, Wayne Gallman, Sterling Shepard, and Evan Engram), New England has a lot to take pride in. They’re the No. 1 defense in the league in yards allowed-per-game (238.4) and in points allowed-per-game (6.8). Despite having every reason to show intimidation to their opponent, the Patriots aren’t coming off as alluring to Giants wideout Golden Tate.
“I don’t think we have a locker room full of fanboys,” Tate said, per Christopher Price of the Boston Globe.
The veteran is entering his second game of the 2019 season. The NFL suspended him for the first four games after he violated the league’s substance policy.
“We understand we’re all in the NFL,” Tate said. “We’re going up there to do a job. We’ve all played in big games, at some point. I don’t think we need to put too much pressure on ourselves. We don’t want to get too high, too low, and we just want to live in the moment.”
Doing their job might not be enough for the Giants. This injury-plagued ballclub has a tough climb to make if they want to get past the defending Super Bowl champs.
Tate and additional wideouts Cody Latimer, and Darius Slayton will have to help out rookie quarterback Daniel Jones as much as possible. Shepard isn’t expected to suit up after hitting the concussion protocol this week for the second time.
The Giants and the Patriots will kick off at 8:20 p.m. this Thursday night.