Darius Slayton provides Giants with rare big play in passing game

The narrative has remained the same.

The Giants lack quality receivers.

Their pass-catchers do not reside in the same rarefied air as those on elite teams.

It is a group that is just not dangerous enough to allow the Giants to compete on a level playing field with the best teams in the NFL.

The Giants’ receivers hear the criticisms. They just do not take the negative critiques to heart.

“We try to block the outside noise out,” Darius Slayton said after the Giants improved to 7-2 with a 24-16 win over the Texans on Sunday at MetLife Stadium. “We know we’re talented players. We can make plays.”

None bigger than the one Slayton made on the opening drive of the second half.

With the Giants clinging to a 7-3 lead and facing a third-and-9 at their 46-yard line, Slayton found a dead spot at midfield and caught a desperation heave from a heavily pressured Daniel Jones.

Slayton should have been tackled immediately. The Giants should have been forced to punt.

Instead, he gave the crowd a thrill.

After catching Jones’ dying quail, Slayton used a spin move to avoid Houston safety Jalen Pitre and then got a block from tight end Tanner Hudson. With no one in front of him, Slayton raced down the Texans’ sideline without stopping until he crossed the goal line to extend the Giants’ lead to 14-3.

“Just a great play by him, really,” Jones said. “He lost the guy on the route. They brought pressure [on the play] so just tried to get it to him and he did the rest.

“Heck of a play by him.”

After Slayton eluded Pitre, the only other Texan who had an opportunity to bring him down was Jonathan Owens. Slayton twisted his body away from Owens’ futile attempt to tackle him at the 3-yard line and essentially ran into the end zone facing the play to complete the 54-yard catch-and-run.

“I saw Hudson in front of me,” Slayton said. “Once he was able to cut his guy off, I said, ‘It’s all me from here. I have to [punch it in].’ That’s when I knew I had a chance.”

Before what turned out to be the most significant offensive play of the game for the Giants, Slayton had caught two passes for 41 yards. The fourth-year receiver from Auburn wound up with three catches (on four targets) for 95 yards and a touchdown.

“I just try to take every day one day at a time,” Slayton said. “Do my best to make plays [that] may come my way. That’s gotten me here.”

And it could lead to him cashing in, as he is slated to become a free agent after the season.

Slayton agreed to a pay cut the week of the season opener in Tennessee, going from a $2.54 million salary to earning a league-minimum $965,000.

Re-signing Saquon Barkley certainly is a priority for the Giants, but locking up the young receiver certainly has to be on general manager Joe Schoen’s to-do list.

Right?

“It’s not a focus of mine,” Slayton said.

So what is the focus? Proving doubters wrong?

“At the end of the day, you [have to] go out there and show it on Sundays,” Slayton said. “That’s pretty much our main focus.”