It happened on an unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon in late December, when the cloudy and rainy skies cleared and blue sunshine reigned as the Giants tasted something they hadn’t chewed in nearly three months.

You won a game.

And they’ve lost (for now) the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Two different paths are intertwined as one of the worst seasons in franchise history draws to a close. The Giants saw a sudden burst of passing prowess from Drew Lock and some great work from rookie Malik Nabers, building a 21-6 lead and then holding on for a wild 45-33 win over the Colts at half-full MetLife Stadium.

It ended a franchise-record 10-game losing streak and prevented the Giants from becoming the first team in NFL history to go 0-9 at home in a season.

In the here and now, that was good news for head coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen, who have had such a brutal season that owners need to consider making changes at one of the two positions.

Looking forward, the search for the next franchise quarterback has suffered a setback. The Giants (3-13) entered the day ranked No. 1 and with the rare win they fell from Nos. 1 and 2 to No. 3 or No. 4.

So to tank Shedeur Sanders or Cam Ward, the Giants had to take a setback with one game left in their season – with Saquon Barkley and the Eagles – to either win and fall further behind in the first round or lose and lose again the two top picks to get into the first round.

This was a strange and unusual experience for the Giants, who won a game in distant Seattle for the first time since October 6th.

With the loss, the Colts (7-9) were eliminated from the AFC playoffs – and rightly so, after giving up 45 points to a team that was bottom of the league with 14.3 points per game.

The out-of-nowhere lock went crazy, completing 17 of 23 passes for 309 yards and four touchdowns. He also attempted a 4-yard touchdown that gave the Giants a 42-33 lead with 2:57 left.

Much of the production came from Nabers looking like the star target the Giants envision him to be. Nabers caught seven passes for a career-high 171 yards and two touchdowns. Darius Slayton and Wan’Dale Robinson also received goal passes from Lock.

Joe Flacco, starting in place of the injured Anthony Richardson, was 26 of 38 for 330 yards, with two touchdown passes and two interceptions.

When Lock hit rookie Nabers on a 31-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown late in the first quarter, it gave the Giants their first home lead since Week 4 of the season. Lock later found Slayton on a 32-yard scoring hookup and Robinson on a 6-yard touchdown throw after going into the pocket to escape pressure. That burst of scoring gave the Giants a 21-6 lead with 5:55 left in the second quarter.

The three scoring passes for Lock marked just the second time since Week 16 of the 2019 season that a Giants quarterback had three touchdown passes in a game. Tommy DeVito did it against the Commanders in Week 11 last season.

Lock was 7 of 8 for 148 yards and three touchdown passes in the first half.

When Ihmir Smith-Marsette returned the first kickoff of the second half 100 yards for a touchdown, the Giants extended their lead to 28-13. If anyone thought the Giants could pull off a win, they haven’t watched this team this season or in the last decade or so.

The Colts got within 28-20 on Jonathan Taylor’s 26-yard touchdown run and threatened to get even closer on a drive that ended with a fourth-down stop of Taylor by Elijah Chatman. Daboll rolled on 4th-and-2 from his own 42-yard line, but Tyrone Tracy was unsuccessfully stopped on the final play of the third quarter.

Things got even tougher when Flacco hit Alec Pierce for a 13-yard score, making it 28-26 with 10:53 left. The narrow lead remained intact when the Colts botched the two-point conversion attempt when Flacco passed to Michael Pittman, but Pittman’s swipe at Taylor was deflected.

Nabers broke tackles en route to a 59-yard catch-and-run touchdown that made it 35-26 and the Giants were safe.