New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh offered a more reflective view of the late-game decisions in Thursday’s loss after initially describing them as intentional and measured.
On Thursday night, Harbaugh pointed to the specific execution of the final run play as the decisive factor after an interception gave New York the ball with a lead. He also framed the late throws as the product of the defensive look Washington presented.
“They stopped our run play at the end. What was it, third-and-4. It was a TFL. That was the key to the stop,” Harbaugh said. “Zero blitzes, zero blitzes, and those are the routes that end up getting open.”
By the following day, Harbaugh acknowledged that the staff’s choice to run in those situations after the interceptions
could have been different. He said the plan was to gain yards while also burning clock and timeouts, but he conceded a pass might have been preferable in hindsight.
“Sure. Yeah, we could have. We could have thrown the ball. We had thought we had good runs. We thought we could get it with the runs," he told reporters on Friday. "Also, keep the clock running and make them burn the timeouts. We thought we could do both. But looking back on it, I think a good pass there might’ve been good too.”
Harbaugh continued to reject any link between those calls and limited trust in quarterback J.J. McCarthy, saying he feels more strongly than ever about the quarterback’s ability to make the necessary plays.
“I think he’s proven that he’s capable of winning games and making the plays and I probably feel more strongly about that now than ever. He’s earned that right,” Harbaugh said. “We had a chance to close the game out on offense twice. As you said, we didn’t do it. That’s probably the thing that disappoints us the most, at least me.”
The same shift appeared in his discussion of fourth-down choices. On Thursday, he said he was not seriously considering going for it near his own 10-yard line and would have gone for it only if the distance had been four yards or less on another look. Later he admitted second-guessing several of those decisions and specifically regretted not going for the short-yardage situation.
“We could have gone for that one. And that would have been gutsy. Ballsy. I’m kind of kicking myself. Maybe we should have just gone for that one, too,” Harbaugh said. “We may go for it in the future. We may be more aggressive in the future than we were.”
The contrast between the initial explanations and the later reflection underscores the difficulty of those late calls and the coach’s willingness to reassess them after reviewing the film.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Giants' John Harbaugh second-guesses late-game decisions after reflection
