While Giants fans clamored for weeks for Xavier McKinney and Adoree’ Jackson to return from injuries, Dane Belton and Cor’Dale Flott quietly gained valuable experience. 

Funny how that worked out. 

As spry as Jackson looked containing Justin Jefferson and as strong as McKinney looked making the final tackle of the Giants’ 31-24 upset playoff win against the Vikings, the two rookies in the secondary did some equally impressive things on the clinching defensive stand. 

Belton, who played the bulk of his 10 defensive snaps in the fourth quarter, tackled T.J. Hockenson and Dalvin Cook without allowing any yards after the catch. Flott, who played just three snaps, replaced starter Fabian Moreau and broke up a third-and-8 pass in single coverage by sticking his arm into K.J. Osborn’s chest and tearing up the timeless football script of immediately challenging a player coming in cold off the bench. 

Flott made six starts and hadn’t played fewer than 19 defensive snaps in any game for which he was healthy since Week 1 but was ready and not sulking when needed in the final two minutes. The five-game starter Belton was a healthy scratch when the Giants clinched their playoff berth in Week 17 but earned back a role with his play the next week. 

“Give the players credit,” head coach Brian Daboll said. “They’ve played games throughout the season, they’ve gotten better, and whoever we bring to the game has to be ready to go. We have a lot of confidence in all of our guys. Those two guys made really critical plays.” 

The list doesn’t end there, as Daboll pointed out. Here are six others making plays in bigger roles than expected down the stretch: 

The Giants have rotated left guards — the preseason top-two (Shane Lemieux and Josh Ezeudu) are on injured reserve — ever since Bredeson returned from a sprained MCL in Week 15 to find former starter Nick Gates in his job. “They’ve both continued to earn the right to play,” offensive line coach Bobby Johnson said. Bredeson stole the lion’s share of snaps against the Vikings (50 to Gates’ 22) and helped a rushing attack that averaged 4.7 yards per carry. 

One of two undrafted rookies — along with OLB Tomon Fox — on the active roster had sacks in back-to-back December games against the Commanders and Eagles. Anderson played 16 snaps in his playoff debut and has eased the burden of losing Nick Williams to season-ending injury. 

The six-year veteran had his second-fewest carries in a season (54) behind Saquon Barkley but played his third-highest snap total (21) of the season against the Vikings. With all eyes on Barkley as a decoy, Brieda had back-to-back carries — an inside trap for 4 yards and a jet sweep that required three broken tackles to fall forward to convert a third-and-1 — to prolong a third-quarter drive. 

It looked like McKinney’s Week 17 return from a seven-game absence might spell the end of Pinnock’s chance to be more than a core special-teamer. But defensive coordinator Wink Martindale didn’t forget Pinnock was in on two takeaways and 1.5 sacks as a fill-in starter and carved out a role for him as the seventh defensive back (seven snaps) in a package where he can blitz. Pinnock (abdomen) was injured against the Vikings. 

Who said the regular-season finale was meaningless? Cager (eight catches for 69 yards in Week 18) capitalized on an opportunity. The in-season addition from the Jets scored a touchdown in Week 10 and started in Weeks 11 and 12 before disappearing with one total snap and four inactives in a five-game stretch. He re-emerged ahead of blocker Nick Vannett as the No. 2 option (24 snaps) against the pass-susceptible Vikings. 

Neither of the penciled-in starters in training camp (Blake Martinez and Darrian Beavers) played a down for the Giants in the regular season. The revolving door ever since most recently turned up Davis, a former first-round draft pick who was toiling on the Lions practice squad on Dec. 27. Davis started the playoff opener as rookie seven-game starter Micah McFadden dropped to a healthy scratch. 

“Any time we bring a new player in, that position coach spends a lot of time with that player to get them up to speed as quickly as we can,” Daboll said. “You give credit to the players because they’re the ones that have to come in and learn it, spend extra time at night, but I’m very thankful for the guys I get to work with.”