Justin Herbert might want to stock up on chicken broth and electrolytes. He spent a lot of time around Brian Burns.

It wasn't voluntary.

"I don't know what the hell I got," the outside linebacker said after the Giants' 21-18 victory over the Chargers, "but I'm sick."

Brian Daboll had revealed moments earlier in his postgame press conference that Burns, one of five team captains, gutted through the late September game that reached mid-80s on the thermometer in East Rutherford. Burns admitted it was "aggravating" as he used precious breaths in between plays on coughing and hacking up mucus.

Nevertheless, Burns racked up four of the Giants' 12 quarterback hits on the early MVP candidate.

"I saw Burns after, I saw him during the game, and he is spent," Daboll said. "Not saying it's the [Michael Jordan] flu game. But that young man is spent. I mean, he looks the part right now."

Indeed, Week 4 of the regular season did not rival the magnitude of the NBA Finals. But the previously winless Giants desperately needed some Vitamin W.

They tabbed rookie Jaxson Dart to make his inaugural start against the 3-0 Chargers. The 25^th overall pick became the first quarterback since Patrick Mahomes to lead a touchdown drive of at least 80 yards drive on the first possession of his first career start.

They needed to finish it, though.

Two weeks earlier, the Giants took a three-point lead with 25 seconds remining in regulation but ultimately fell to the Cowboys in overtime. This time, they made the plays that escaped them in Dallas.

One was Burns' takedown of Herbert for a 16-yard loss on third-and-nine from near midfield with three minutes remaining. The Chargers were forced to punt away the critical possession.

Burns started the play on the left side of the defensive line. He cut to his right and exploded up the middle to chase down Herbert, who slammed the ball in frustration while the linebacker rolled over and popped up to do his patented Spider-Man celebration.

"Yeah, every quarterback is going to feel that way," said Burns, who is currently tied with the Rams' Byron Young for the league lead with five sacks entering Monday night. "We got a lot of hits on him honestly. He's a great quarterback. You have to affect a guy like that, especially with the weapons that he has. You've got to affect a guy like that and try to keep him in a box. I feel like we did that for the most part. We changed it up a little bit. Abdul [Carter] got a lot more rushes on the edge. I was inside a lot more roaming around. It was a different look, but it was successful."

Burns added: "The plays that we lacked making in Dallas, we made today. So, that's ultimately why we got this dub. That sack, there were crucial run stops that we had, and the way Skatt (Giants rookie running back Cam Skattebo) was running the ball – it's just these plays are what we needed in Dallas. But we corrected it and we got them today."

Burns was asked if there is anything better than seeing a quarterback get frustrated like that.

"I'm not going to answer that," Burns said while simultaneously smiling and holding in another cough. "But frustration is good."

Herbert's day ended without his starting left tackle yet again.

Joe Alt suffered an ankle injury midway through the first quarter and did not return. The sensational second-year pro had already flipped from the right side to take over for two-time Pro Bowler Rashawn Slater, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in training camp.

"We tried to get as many chips on the edges as we could," Herbert said. "I thought those guys battled and did the best they could. And they're a really good front seven. They got after us. We've got to do a better job executing."

Burns said is was the best performance by the pass rush of the young season, even with a caveat attached.

"They had a dinged up O-line, though," Burns said. "I'm not here for moral victories, but at the same time, we did what we were supposed to do."

Burns was so locked into the game on Sunday afternoon that he didn't even realize Dexter Lawrence, his 6-foot-4,340-pound teammate, had an interception and nearly returned it for a touchdown late in the first quarter.

"I didn't even know he got an interception," Burns said of Dexter Lawrence. "I didn't realize during the play. I saw it on the screen afterward. I was in there fighting, so I didn't know what happened. But Dex is amazing, bro. I credit a lot of our success – me, Abdul, KT (Kayvon Thibodeaux) – also to Dex because just from him being a leader, just from him showing us and crafting us in certain aspects of our rushes and also just the attention that he demands, he's freeing us up a lot. I just want to free him up."

Sunday was a glimpse of what the Giants had in mind when they selected Carter with the third overall pick. "You can't have enough pass rushers," general manager Joe Schoen said eight days before the draft.

On Sunday, the Giants had three players – Carter (five), Burns (four) and Thibodeaux (three) – produce at least three quarterback hits apiece. The only other Giants trio to do it in a single game was Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora and Mathias Kiwanuka vs. Philadelphia in 2007, the year after quarterback hits became an official statistic.

"We feed off that," Carter said. "We feed off each other. Whoever is hot, whoever is bringing the energy, we all try to feed off that and keep bringing the energy all together. ... I've seen it all since training camp with the way [Burns] played every play full effort, all out. And he got rewarded for that with that late sack."

That contagious energy starts with patient No. 0.

"Everybody, take your ginger shots," Burns said at the end of his media scrum. "Wash your hands."