Christian Elliss breaks down his big hits against the Giants

The New England Patriots played one of their most physical games of the year on Monday night, in their 33-15 win over the New York Giants. Linebacker Christian Elliss played a key role in setting the tone, with a couple of big hits in the first half.

On the Giants' second drive of the game, quarterback Jaxson Dart scrambled to his right on a 2nd & 13, and got close to the first down. He was near the boundary and instead of going out of bounds tried to tightrope the sideline past the defenders to slip for a first down. Elliss wasn't about to let him do that though, and came across to lower his shoulder into Dart flipping the rookie QB into the Giants' bench.

“During the play, I saw the scramble. I started chasing him down. He started tiptoeing on the sideline. I thought he was just going to go out of bounds, but then I saw him tiptoeing," Elliss said of the play after the game. "When I saw he was going to stay in bounds, what am I supposed to do? We play hard on defense. We try to bring life to this team. That is all I was trying to do, was just do my job and hit anything in the white jerseys."

Unsurprisingly, the hit drew a retaliation from the Giants (this was also after a hit on Dart on the previous drive led to a post-whistle scrum), which led to a roughness penalty on New York. Elliss, who backed away with his hands up as Giants players came after him, said he wasn't surprised by the response.

"I understand it, 100%. If that was Drake [Maye] who took that shot, we would probably react the exact same way," Elliss said. "But for me, I was more excited, just ready to celebrate with my teammates. So, I was ready to go celebrate with all the guys on the sideline. I saw him come flying in. I was like, oh, yeah, we are good.”

Elliss' other big hit came late in the first half. The Patriots kicked off with about three and a half minutes to go after taking a 24-7 lead. Elliss and Marte Mapu combined for a big hit on returner Gunner Olszewski, forcing the ball out. The Patriots recovered and were able to add another field goal. It was such a big hit, some of the paint fell off Olzewski's helmet.

"We were just trying to do exactly what we've been doing on offense, get the ball back to our defense, and play hard," Elliss said of that play after sending his thoughts to Olszewski, who left the game after that play and didn't return.

Those two hits highlighted was was an all-around strong night for Elliss. He lead the team with a season-high 10 tackles, and had a pass breakup on the final defensive play of the game.