NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Titans were lining up their 47-yard field goal for the victory, and Giants coach Brian Daboll grabbed the chain around his neck and looked up to the sky. 

On another 47-yard field-goal attempt in another life, Giants matriarch Ann Mara held her rosary beads and said her prayers before Buffalo’s Scott Norwood went wide right in a Super Bowl climax for the ages. 

Sunday, a former Bills fan, whose heart was broken by that wayward kick, held the small urn containing his grandmother’s ashes on the final play of a thrilling game that didn’t mean nearly as much. This was the season opener, and win or lose, nobody was about to expect too much from these rebuilding Giants. 

But this was Daboll’s first game as a head coach on any level. Though he had been part of five Super Bowl-winning staffs with the Patriots, he had been waiting for seemingly forever for this opportunity. A quarter century into his career, he finally landed his dream gig. 

“So it’s not like I was a coach for five years and got on a hot swing,” he’d said. “This is 25 years in the making.” 

And wouldn’t you know it, the journey landed him back in Nashville, where he first learned the news last year that his maternal grandfather Chris had died — three weeks after his maternal grandmother Ruth had died. 

Chris and Ruth Kirsten had been married 68 years, and they raised Brian in their West Seneca, N.Y., home. Daboll never knew his father and didn’t have much of anything growing up. His grandmother assumed the role of family taskmaster, and Brian’s future bosses Bill Belichick and Nick Saban could’ve learned a thing or two from her. 

In fact, Brian said, she was “harder than Bill or Nick could ever be.” 

Daboll phoned her after every game, and man, Grandma Ruth would have loved the call after this one. On the road, the Giants had come back from a 13-0 halftime deficit against a perennial postseason team, in large part because Saquon Barkley ran like he did at Penn State, ran like the second-overall pick in the draft. 

Barkley ran like the best player on the field, Derrick Henry included. 

So when Daboll had a chance in the end to take the extra-point kick and make it a 20-20 game, he told his players he’d rather make it a 21-20 game in the visiting team’s favor. 

They loved the sound of it. They loved what the gamble represented about their new coach, and they thanked him with a two-point play he will never forget. 

Daniel Jones threw his underhand pass to Barkley, who plowed through the Tennessee defense to give the Giants a most improbable lead. 

And then the Titans moved down the field as the clock bled dry, setting up that 47-yarder from Randy Bullock. Daboll said he was hoping like hell the SOB would miss it. As sure as Norwood went wide right in Tampa more than three decades ago, Bullock went wide left in Nashville on Sunday evening. 

The Giants celebrated as if they had just won the Super Bowl, and why not? They have endured a miserable decade of football, with Barkley and Jones as lead actors on the back end. They had earned this moment with the kind of grit, creativity, and daring that defined the two title teams from the Eli-Coughlin era. 

Even though Barkley presented him with a game ball, Daboll did what he could to make it all about the players. He even tried to protect Jones by claiming he didn’t confront him on the bench after the quarterback threw his end-zone interception. Daboll initially claimed he was talking instead to an assistant on his headset, but the video showed the coach had ripped off the headset before he ripped into Jones. 

Hey, it was an emotional day across the board. Daboll mentioned in his postgame press conference that he had lost his grandfather during his last plane ride to Nashville last year, as Buffalo’s offensive coordinator. He revealed that Chris Kirsten’s loss “was weighing on me after the game” Sunday. Daboll cited his humble roots and said, “Those two people helped me get to where I am.” 

Later, as he stood on the fringe of his delirious locker room, Daboll told a few reporters the story of his final conversation with his grandfather, whom he had gifted a game ball after his grandmother’s death. 

“He was laying on the bed before I left,” Daboll recalled. “I looked at him right before the game and he said, ‘We’re going to win.’ He always said that. Son of a bitch is 95, he’s strong as s–t. I said, ‘Hey, your ass better f—in’ be here when I get back.’ ” 

Daboll’s grandfather winked at him and raised a fist. As he was landing in Nashville, the coach got a series of messages from his wife, Beth. 

“Just tell me,” Brian said. 

“He’s gone,” Beth confirmed. 

Just before Chris Kirsten passed away, Brian said, he asked Beth Daboll if her husband and his team had already boarded the plane. Beth assured Kirsten that his grandson was on his way to the game. 

Brian Daboll started crying as he tried to finish his story. He stopped, turned away from the celebrating going on around him, and walked quietly into an office reserved for the visiting head coach.