Giants' Cam Skattebo loves prime time: 'When the lights are on, I probably play my best ball'

NEW YORK — Cam Skattebo plays his best in prime time.

That bodes well for the Giants (1-0) as they pivot from an opening week Sunday Night home win to the bright lights of Monday Night Football in Week 2 at the Los Angeles Rams (0-1).

“I’m the type to, when the lights are on, I do probably play my best ball,” Skattebo, 24, said this week. “That’s probably how it is. But every game I get on the field, I play as hard as I can and give it my best shot.”

Skattebo has had the three best games of his young NFL career in standalone night games at MetLife Stadium.

He had 121 total yards and a touchdown in last year’s 22-9 Sunday Night Football loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. He ran wild for 98 rushing yards, 110 total yards and three touchdowns in last season’s 34-17 Thursday Night Football blowout of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Then he was the tip of the spear in last Sunday night’s punishing 28-20 win over Dallas, bowling over Cowboys for 81 yards and a touchdown on 4.5 yards per clip.

“I just like how physical he runs, how fearless he is,” fullback Pat Ricard told the New York Daily News on Friday. “He wants to be the guy with the ball, the guy that needs the yard. He’ll fight for it. I just love the way he plays, the passion he plays with. It brings a lot of energy and juice to the team.”

Maybe Skattebo thrives in prime time because his game is fueled by high levels of emotion and toughness, and it’s human nature to turn both up to another level when the entire country is watching live.

Then again, while Skattebo admits he enjoys the big stage, the Giants’ second-year running back said he thinks he shines every time he plays. He just thinks more people are watching in the standalone games.

“I feel like I’m the best player on the field,” he said. “You guys notice it more when the lights are on because more people are paying attention. I’m going to play the same exact way I do every game.

“So if the lights are on, the lights are on,” he added. “If the lights aren’t on, you’re still going to see me play the same ball just as much [as when] the same amount of people aren’t paying attention. So it doesn’t get blown up as, ‘He was a star.' ”

Veteran Najee Harris is waiting in the wings to enter the lineup sometime soon as a bigger (6-1, 232 pounds) physical complement to Skattebo (5-11, 215 pounds). That could create an even more formidable one-two, downhill punch.

“Najee’s doing a good job at practice, coming around,” running backs coach Willie Taggart said Friday. “He’s lost some weight. He’s looking good. So I think he’s excited. I think whenever it’s time to play, he’ll go out and play well for us.”

But Taggart said Skattebo is a perfect fit at running back for the way John Harbaugh wants his team to play and run the ball: He doesn’t just fight through contact. He initiates it.

“That’s Skatt’s personality,” Taggart said. “He’s not just gonna let anybody hit him. He wants to deliver the blow back to them. And the beauty of Cam is he’s always getting vertical. You appreciate that, not going backwards.”

Offensive line coach Mike Bloomgren, whose front five paced the Giants’ 165 rushing yards in Week 1, glowed on Friday when discussing Skattebo’s ideal fit.

“Yes, absolutely, heck yeah,” Bloomgren said. “You look at Skatt’s mindset, Pat Ricard, I’d take either of them and put them at guard if we needed to, right? Those are some good, little, physical football players.”

Veteran Devin Singletary also has earned early trust from Harbaugh, as evidenced by his 10 touches and touchdown against the Cowboys.

Tyrone Tracy Jr.’s Week 2 active status is uncertain after losing a fumble in Week 1 following a shaky training camp. And Skattebo put the ball on the ground, too, although he recovered his own fumble in the fourth quarter.

So Taggart said the running backs and all of the Giants’ offensive players are doing more drills with “weighted” footballs — some filled with water, some with rocks — to emphasize ball security after Sunday’s 4 fumbles.

“It teaches you to squeeze it and keep it up high,” Taggart said.

The Giants’ acronym or mantra about ball security “D.G.A.” Taggart said that stands for: “Everybody’s ‘dreams, goals and aspirations’ are in that football. Everybody’s. Joe Blow riding his bike down the street is counting on you to take care of the football.”

It’s almost taken for granted that Skattebo is the leading man again, but it’s easy to forget about that gruesome dislocated ankle and left leg fracture last October in Philadelphia.

Skattebo has said that he considered retiring given the severity of the injury. But after such an emphatic return against Dallas, Skattebo declared: “I look back at my injury like I was supposed to come back, and I was supposed to play game one.”

“I got a little emotional during the national anthem,” Skattebo said.

Harbaugh said Skattebo did nothing short of set the tone for the Giants’ rushing attack in Week 1.

“I think it probably started with Skatt,” he said. “I mean, he was running really, really hard, really, really well. Set the tempo, brought the energy, juice. I thought his reads were really good.”

There is definitely something to Skattebo’s prime time shine.

He concluded his college career at Arizona State with three of his best performances in three of the biggest games of his life: 177 rushing yards and three TDs in a blowout win over rival Arizona, 208 total yards and three TDs in the Big 12 championship blowout win over Iowa State, and 284 total yards and three touchdowns in a double-overtime Peach Bowl loss to Texas.

That’s why the Giants weren’t surprised he was ready for Week 1. That’s why the Monday night spotlight in Los Angeles might be another perfect time for Skattebo to bring the juice.

“When I met him, I knew he was different,” Taggart said.

If Skattebo stays different, the Giants might just continue changing for the better with him.