The New York Giants tied the Washington Commanders in an epic comeback on Sunday, with emotional swings that could fracture one’s spirit. New York battled back from a 27-13 deficit in the final eight minutes. Jameis Winston finished with 326 passing yards and three touchdowns. The game had frustrating moments and very impressive individual efforts, but missed field goals and a costly Cam Skattebo fumble took the win away from the Giants. However, Washington was in position to win this game multiple
times, but destiny dictated that neither team would win this football game. Here are five plays or sequences of plays that defined this wacky game.
Play(s) 1: The Giants don’t go away
The Giants are a resilient team. They were frustrating for most of the game. They were inefficient on the ground, made terrible defensive lapses, and the Jameis Winston Experience was on full display. Despite all of this, the Giants tied the game in the fourth quarter — the Giants just didn’t go away!
Winston led three consecutive touchdown drives that totaled 32 plays, and resulted in two Isaiah Likely touchdowns and a Malik Nabers touchdown. It felt bleak, but the Giants battled back to send the game to overtime – that’s impressive resilience and excellent coaching. The Giants play with pride.
Play(s) 2: What?!
The Giants led an improbable comeback where they were down 27-13 to start the fourth quarter. The defense forced a punt after one of Dominic Zvada’s sthree missed field goals and the Giants ripped off 67 yards on eight plays, where it looked like they were going to win the game, but Skattebo fumbled. Washington drove the football down the field and got into field goal range, but with not timeouts…this happened!
Dan Quinn took responsibility by saying this, but questioning Jayden Daniels’ actions only makes sense.
Play 3: Slow start to on defense again, SPY THE GUY
No defense wants to go down seven in the first three plays of the game, but Dennard Wilson’s unit found themselves in that exact situation. PISTOL power run with presnap motion from the H-Back and Josh Conerly (72) pulling to the play side. Washington beat the Giants to the fit and Tyler Nubin (27) took another bad angle that his athletic ability could not rectify – an unfortunate all too familiar sight. The result was this 33-yard touchdown run by Jacory Croskey-Merritt.
It’s not all on Nubin; he’s the face that will rightfully be chastised, but several Giants failed to execute their assignments well, which placed Nubin in that position. C.J. Okoye (99) is removed from the gap and Arvell Reese (52) was picked up by Conerly. Tremaine Edmunds (49) was washed to the inside by the climbing offensive lineman, and the seas were parted by Washington.
Also, the Giants ran a lot of man coverage last week in their win over Arizona. It was successful, but Jayden Daniels has a bit more mobility than Jacoby Brissett. The Giants were burnt TWICE on Daniels’ rushing touchdowns against man coverage.
I’m not sure if it’s a blown assignment by the Giants or just questionable play calling – either way, it has to be fixed.
Play 4: Jameis’ fumble
The Giants tried to run an under center play action shot on second-and-8. Winston looked to Malik Nabers’ quick curl, which was promptly covered by Jeremey Reeves (39). Bryan Hudson (60) was backed into the pocket slowly by Tim Settle (97) and Deatrich Wise Jr. (91) hit Winston, as the veteran quarterback attempted to fall on the football. Tim Settle of Washington recovered, giving Daniels excellent field position, which resulted in a 40 yard field goal.
Great job by the Giants defense to stiffen and force only a field goal. Up until this point of the game, the Giants’ offense showed very little. They had 41 total yards, which would obviously change.
Play(s) 5: Controversy
The Giants scored after a 13-play, 63 yard drive that took up seven minutes of game clock. However, the drive was seemingly stopped by an Amik Robertson interception on the goal line:
The interception was negated by a defensive pass interference against Robertson. Is there contact? Yes. Is it egregious? No. It’s not the worst call in the world – we see the tug – but I’ve seen much worse not called, and it was a risky – bad – throw by Winston. The call gave the Giants the football back and Likely finished the job with the touchdown below:
The Giants stretched the zone defense toward the sideline with the the routes of Malachi Fields (88) and Darnell Mooney (17); Likely, then, slipped into the vacated spot and Winston just got the football toward his inside shoulder for six. The Giants reduced the lead to six points heading into the fourth quarter.
Another somewhat controversial play happened to give the Giants’ life in the fourth quarter on fourth down. Isaiah Likely’s second touchdown:
It does seem like Likely broke the plane of the goal line, though. Both of these plays were obviously consequential in the comeback.
EXTRA
Play(s) 6: The J.J. McCarthy Package
The Giants had plays designed with McCarthy as the quarterback – none of them worked. The first was a blown up touch-pass to Darnell Mooney that was easily sniffed out by Washington. The second was a solid screen pass to Malik Nabers that was called back by an illegal formation. Then, on third-and-2, Matt Nagy tried to leverage McCarthy’s athletic ability and ran a jet-zone-read that Frankie Luvu easily sensed and blew up, which led to a Dominic Zvada 56-yard field goal. McCarthy also ran a zone-read that gained 1 yard.
It’s obvious the Giants want to use McCarthy’s mobility, but it did not work in Washington, as Nagy tried to do anything to get the offense going.
