EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ — The laundry list of mistakes they made during their 24-21 loss to the Washington Commanders on "Thursday Night Football" will haunt the Giants' for the duration of the mini-bye.
And potentially for the rest of the season. And in an even worse-case scenario, the offseason.
Because any drama in the NFC East for the remainder of the 2026 campaign could be traced to the final minutes of the affair here Nov. 12, when Jayden Daniels found Stefon Diggs for the go-ahead touchdown with 57 seconds left in the game.
Washington having a chance to take the lead at all felt shocking given the way the Giants (5-3-1) had come back with Isaiah Likely's 66-yard touchdown midway through the fourth and interceptions later from Jevon Holland and Ar'Darious
Washington seemingly putting the game on ice.
Except the offense could not do just that, and the Commanders (3-5-1) ultimately escaped with a victory that kept them two back of the Giants in the loss column with eight games to play and ensured they held the tiebreaker over their divisional foe.
“It's a missed opportunity, but like I told the guys – it would've been great to win the game, but it doesn't change our goals or our opportunity going forward,” head coach John Harbaugh said. “It's a tough loss. It’s the National Football League, you're going to lose some games.”
Giants fullback Patrick Ricard, no stranger to being on the wrong side of a tight outcome on a Harbaugh-coached team (having followed the coach from the Baltimore Ravens to New York this offseason), said the Giants’ offense hasn’t been able to put an opponent away without being bailed out by the defense since its Week 1 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
“That’s something that I’ve always prided myself, playing on an offense that’s able to ice a game,” Ricard said. “Like this year, we haven’t been able to do that as an offense.”
With less than four minutes remaining, the Giants turned to backup quarterback Jameis Winston to try and QB sneak his way to a critical first down. For a moment, it appeared he did. But head coach Dan Quinn successfully challenged the spot of the ball and the call was reversed. To have it overturned at that juncture in the game was frustrating, Ricard said. The Giants went three-and-out after both interceptions and their final drive stalled at midfield despite needing another first down and then some to attempt a game-tying field goal.
The missed opportunities irked several of the Giants, including Likely, who sounded like a philosopher while describing the failures of the offense.
“Very frustrating,” Likely said. “When you want to be one of the best teams in the league, you got to be able to ice the game when the game is to be iced.”
Defensively, the Giants could not put Daniels down despite blitzing him 17 times. He was 10-for-17 against the blitz with 119 yards, with all three of his touchdowns coming against defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson's heat. He was pressured on 17.9% of his dropbacks, according to ESPN, the second-lowest pressure rate he's faced in his career.
Linebacker Abdul Carter didn’t walk into the locker room and encounter his teammates’ heads hanging in defeat as if the season had just ended.
“I wouldn’t say angry is the word. We just got to figure out ways how to stop making so many mistakes,” Carter said of the defense. “We got to figure out ways to give our offense a better chance.”
Arguably the Giants’ most skilled player came up short in two of the biggest spots of the night with the ball in his hands – which is something Malik Nabers has been adamant about wanting all season. Except on a red zone drive in the first half, he had the ball knocked out of his hands by Washington linebacker Frankie Luvu for a fumble.
Then on the final Giants’ offensive play of the game, McCarthy hoisted a jump ball for Nabers in double coverage. Nabers actually had a chance to high-point the ball and come up with a huge play that would have brought New York to the Washington 10-yard line. Instead the hand fight for the ball was won by Commanders cornerback Rasul Douglas.
“Obviously, absolutely sucks. No matter what, we've got to find a way to get the win. Credit them for making more plays than we did. We've just got to learn from this and find a way to get better.”
The Giants’ specialists also failed them in critical moments. Dominic Zvada, the rookie kicker, missed a 33-yard field goal on the team’s first successful drive of the game. He later kicked the ball out of bounds to give the Commanders friendly field position. But the bigger culprit in that regard was punter Jordan Stout, who shanked a punt 12 yards to set up Washington’s eventual game-winning drive to start at the 29-yard line instead of pinned deep near their own end zone.
“When you give teams life, you give them hope to win games,” Likely said, “and that’s what we did toward the end.”
Not only did the Giants give the Commanders life and hope for Thursday night – they gave their division rivals another lease on the life that is the 2026 season.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Giants will regret blowing chance to bury Commanders in NFC East race
