Lost Opportunity

For most of this season, John Harbaugh and his staff have done an outstanding job coaching a Giants team that last year went 4-13. Without their best offensive and defensive players, the Giants entered last night's game against the Washington Commanders solidly in first place in the NFC East with a record of 5-2-1. A win would've put a stranglehold on the division. All they had to do was not making any critical mistakes and they'd be 6-2-1.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Big Blue made a ton of mistakes and wound up losing a very winnable game 24-21. 

Let's list them in order:

Late in the first quarter, Dominic Zvada missed a 33 yard field goal attempt that would've given the Giants a 3-0 lead.

Trailing 17-14 in the third quarter, the Giants were in the red zone when Malik Nabers fumbled the ball at the Washington 19 yard line. 

Still trailing 17-14 early in the fourth quarter, Theo Johnson dropped what would've been a first down at the Washington 32 yard line. The Giants were forced to punt the ball.

Leading 21-17 late in the fourth, the Giants had a 3rd and 1 at their own 11 yard line. Jameis Winston came in to try a tush push. There was just one problem: Cam Skattebo, who was supposed to do the tush pushing, remained motionless in the backfield. The Commanders stuffed it and the Giants were once again forced to punt. 

But the costliest mistake did not occur on the field; it occurred in the coaches booth late in the fourth. After Jayden Daniels threw his second interception of the quarter, the Giants had the ball at Washington 46 with 2:15 left in regulation. All New York had to do was pick up a first down and the game would've been over.

But for some reason Matt Nagy decided to play it safe. He called three consecutive run plays; the last, a J.J. McCarthy roll out to the left on 3rd and 3 that was stopped by Sonny Styles for a two-yard loss. The most obvious question is where the hell was Skattebo? He had carried the ball on first and second down for a total of seven yards but was on the sidelines on that critical third down play. If you're going to keep the ball on the ground, why wouldn't you give it to your best running back with the game on the line?

And yet on the Giants last possession, trailing 24-21, with 34 seconds left, two timeouts, and needing only ten more yards to get into field goal range to tie the game and force overtime, he decided to go for it all and had McCarthy throw a deep pass to Nabers that was intercepted to end the game. When you make that many mistakes, you deserve to lose. So instead of being 6-2-1, New York is now 5-3-1.

The worst thing about this loss, other than how it affects the standings, was that McCarthy had his best game as a Giant. He was 23/36 for 293 yards, including a 66 yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Likely that should've been the game winner. Skattebo returned from a hamstring injury and rushed for 78 yards on 18 carries for a 4.3 average. And Arvell Reese continued his impressive rookie season. He had 13 tackles, four solo, to lead the defense. All three did their best to propel their team to victory.

I can’t overstate what a lost opportunity this was for the Giants. Their next eight opponents are the Jaguars at home, the Colts on the road, the 49ers at home, the Seahawks on the road, the Browns at home, the Lions on the road, the Cowboys on the road, and the Eagles at home Five of those opponents are teams with winning records; two of them division leaders. Best case, they go 4-4; worst case, they go 2-6. 

Bottom line, the Giants could've locked down the division with a win last night; instead, they've left the door open for the Cowboys and Commanders. If they end up missing the playoffs, they will look back at this game as the reason why.