EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — You wanted them to, of course. Did you really think, though, that the New York Giants were just going to waltz to the NFC East title without things getting interesting?
The Giants made things interesting, and much more convoluted, by losing to the Washington Commanders on Thursday and missing an opportunity to take firm control of the division.
The 5-3-1 Giants are still in first place, and will remain there through the weekend no matter how the second-place Dallas Cowboys fare
on Sunday when they host the 7-1 San Francisco 49ers.
Their path to a first division title since the 2011 Super Bowl season is now much more difficult, and uncertain. If the Cowboys can upset the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, they will be 5-5, just 1.5 games behind the Giants with eight weeks left in the season. The Commanders are now 3-5-1, and with a tiebreaker advantage over the Giants should also feel like their season is very much alive.
‘You’re going to lose some games’
Giants head coach John Harbaugh called the loss “disappointing”, a word he used multiple times in his post-game press conference. His tone, though, was meant to remind that the Giants had not suddenly turned into the Titanic.
“It’s a missed opportunity, but like I told the guys, it would have been great to win the game, but it doesn’t change our goals or our opportunity going forward,” head coach John Harbaugh said after the game. “So, it’s a tough loss. It’s the National Football League. You’re going to lose some games. And everybody in this league is good. The Commanders are good. Everybody’s good. So, I mean, we have a really good team coming in here
next Sunday [the Jacksonville Jaguars]. A team that we can beat, so, we’ve just got to get back to work.
“It’s disappointing, yeah. I mean, I think that’s the best word. It’s just disappointing, We worked hard for this, and we put a hard week in. And we were prepared. The guys came out with, I thought, tremendous energy. We played very hard. Plays were made. Plays were missed. But it wasn’t good enough to win the game. And that’s the disappointment of it. So it’s disappointing, but you can’t let it bring you down. That’s why I said what I said about our spirit. Our spirit’s going to be fine. We’re going to be good. We’re not going to curl up. We’re going to come out fighting.”
In his 19th season as a head coach, it was clear that Harbaugh wanted to project an image of calm amidst the storm.
“It would have been nice to open up a lead in the division. We didn’t open it up as much as we could have if we had got the win. We’ve got a lot of tough games. What do we have, seven games left? [It’s actually eight] So it’s going to be seven dogfights. That’s what it’s going to be,” Harbaugh said. “It’s [the] National Football League. I’d like to say we’re going to win all seven of them. But it’s probably not very likely. You’re probably not going to be putting any money down on that.
“So we’ve got to win enough. And this was one that got away. We’ve got to find a way to get the next one. And the next one after that. And the next one after that. And get as many as we need to win the division. That’s what we’ve got to find a way to do. So just try to keep it in perspective is very important.”
Players echoed the coach.
“This game would have obviously put us in a great lead in the division, but we’re not dead,” fullback Patrick Ricard said. “This division can still be won.”
“This would have obviously helped us to get the division sooner, but that’s still well in our grasp,” said center Bryan Hudson.
Death by a thousand paper cuts
That is kind of what this game felt like. From the beginning things did not go according to plan.
The Giants, somehow, managed to possess the ball in Washington territory six times without coming up with a point. Let’s go through the litany of miscues and missed chances.
- They surprisingly chose to take the ball after winning the pre-game coin toss. They drove to the Commanders’ 37-yard line, but an Isaiah Likely drop ended the drive. Rather than go for it or try a 55-yard field goal, the Giants punted.
- The Giants second drive stalled at the Washington 15-yard line, and Dominic Zvada [more on him later] missed a 33-yard field goal.
- In the third quarter, the Giants reached the Washington 19-yard line only to have Malik Nabers fumble the ball away after catching a short pass.
- On their first possession of the fourth quarter, the Giants punted on fourth-and-3 from the Washington 46-yard line. That came after a third-down drop by Theo Johnson, and analytics disagreed with Harbaugh’s decision:
Honestly, so did I. I would rather have seen the Giants go for it there, especially trailing. My preference? Run the ball on third down and then go for it on fourth if you don’t make the first down. It seemed clear from the play call, though, that Harbaugh did not see that spot as two-down, fo-for-it territory.
- The Giants had two chances to ice the game in the final 5:27 after interceptions by safeties Jevon Holland at the Giants’ 2-yard line and Ar’Darius Washington at the Commanders’ 46-yard line. They could not generate a single first down on either occasion.
Washington coach Dan Quinn successfully challenged a Jameis Winston tush push that was initially ruled a first down on the first possession, forcing a Giants punt. The Giants caught a bad break to open that drive when Holland was ruled down at the 2-yard line after his interception, rather than in the end zone. A touchback would have given the Giants the ball at the 20-yard line.
On the second one, J.J. McCarthy was dropped for a loss on a designed quarterback run on third-and-3 from the Commanders’ 39-yard line.
Instead of pretty much being able to run out the clock, the Giants punted. Jordan Stout exacerbated the failure with a terrible 12-yard punt, his first bad punt as a Giant.
- On their final desperation drive, the Giants got to Washington’s 48-yard line before a McCarthy deep pass intended for Nabers was intercepted.
The defense was hardly beyond reproach.
- After the Giants took a 10-7 lead with 2:35 left in the half, the Giants allowed Washington to run out the rest of the half with a nine-play, 67-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown pass to Ben Sinnott, giving the Commanders a 14-7 halftime lead.
- The Giants’ pass rush was virtually non-existent. They got one sacks and two hits on Jayden Daniels.
- On their final drive, Washington went 71 yards for the game-winning score in just three plays and :49 seconds.
Oh, those missed field goals
Zvada is now just 17 of 23 (73.9%) after Thursday night’s miss, which was from extra-point distance. Misses by Zvada in both Washington games (three in Week 5) have proven costly.
After the game, Harbaugh tried to remain supportive of his rookie kicker.
“We’re confident. You can’t, as soon as a guy doesn’t make a play, start firing people left and right. Especially your kicker who’s a rookie,” Harbaugh said. “So, I’m confident he’s going to become a good kicker. I mean, at some point in time, if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. But I’m not going to panic halfway through the season when a guy’s made a bunch of kicks, if that’s what you’re inferring we should be doing.
“So, I mean, we’re just not going to knee jerk it like that. He’s going to make kicks. He’s going to make a lot of kicks. I believe in him. I think he’s really good and really talented. We’re going to give him an opportunity to do it, and it’s up to him to do it.
At some point, though, it’s not a knee-jerk reaction. Harbaugh lost his job in Baltimore last season in part because rookie placekicker Tyler Loop missed a field goal that would have put the Ravens into the playoffs.
As much as the Giants believe in Zvada’s talent, you can argue that he has now cost them chances to win two games. How long can the Giants be patient?
