When the Giants defense gathers to break down the film of Thursday night's 20-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns in the exhibition opener, there's no doubt which play will be shown first on the games cutup.
It will be Giants' nose tackle Robert Thomas tossing his man aside, bursting into the Browns' backfield and tossing No. 1 overall draft pick Baker Mayfield to the ground like a rag doll for a sack.
"Plays like that on defense just give you a lot of energy," Giants defensive end Calvin Tomlinson told NJ Advance Media. "It just makes the momentum on your sideline so much more crazy, it was like our sideline woke up even more to a whole new level. Just to have that energy and momentum from what Robert did, was just amazing."
Thomas is entering his fourth NFL season, and third with the Giants, and he wanted to make sure that he gave Mayfield a proper welcome to the NFL.
"He had to get down," Thomas joked of the play. "I had to get him down."
One might think that the art of sacking the quarterback would come as second nature to defensive lineman, but Thomas actually had one legitimate concern running on his mind about recent NFL rules about quarterback contact, as he closed in on Mayfield.
"Just not falling on him," Thomas said with a laugh, when asked what was running through his head during the play. "There are so many rules with that now now, I knew that I couldn't fall on top of him. I thought my best bet was to just throw him out of the way. That was just some quick thinking out there."
As the MetLife Stadium locker room emptied, the far reaches that are occupied by the defensive lineman were already letting Thomas hear it for what he did to Mayfield. Better yet, he hopes that his teammates dig deeper for their own highlight moment.
"It definitely fired up everybody," Thomas said. "You hear everybody already going, I think that's definitely going to fire us up. I feel like everyone's looking for one now. Everyone wants one. Sacks are contagious. You hear my guys back here, everybody's hungry for them."
Matt Lombardo may be reached at MLombardo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattLombardoNFL