The New York Giants fell short against the Washington Commanders in a game defined by emotional swings, a late lead that slipped away, and an offense that never quite found a consistent rhythm until it was too late.
Quarterback J.J. McCarthy said the group stayed even-keeled through the ups and downs but still failed to finish after the defense produced turnovers.
“I was really proud of the guys just staying kind of steady throughout everything. In terms of the offense, just being around them I felt like they were being very even-keeled,” McCarthy told reporters. “And at the end of the day this is the National Football League like I said, there’s going to be a lot of games where it’s up and down emotionally, it’s going to be the teams that pursue
through that with a level-headedness and emotional steadiness. This is going to be data that we can collect in the future and help us be better.”
The turnovers made the outcome sting more for an offense that wanted to close out the game.
“Definitely does. As an offense, we want to be the ones that finish the game and we put them in a bad spot a couple times,” McCarthy said. “We just gotta be better, but it’s gonna come down to the wire in a lot of games, the rest of November, going into December and January. This is something that -- it would be foolish to not take advantage of, learn from this, and continue to grow and stick together as a unit.”
McCarthy was asked about the thought process on the final two throws against a cover-zero look that brought pressure.
“Yeah, I’m sure you could look at the tape, and we’re gonna be sitting there disappointed. What if, could’ve done this, but my thought process was pop it up to my playmakers," he said. "Have them go make a play. Could have bought more time with a little bit more depth. But at the end of the day, the thought process was, give it to one of my guys and have him go make a play.”
The offense also took longer than expected to settle in against Washington’s soft coverage. McCarthy said the Giants didn't anticipate how soft the shell would be and ultimately tried to work underneath once they diagnosed it.
“We didn’t expect them to play as soft as they did; obviously, our explosive pass-rate is up there, but being able to really adapt to what they’re doing, that’s something that I felt we were going into it with. Once we saw how much soft-shell they were playing, it was kind of just like, ‘Let’s pick them apart’ underneath. Malik is somebody we’ve got to find every which way to get him the ball, no matter what it is, no matter what they’re doing to defend us, if they are doubling him,” McCarthy said.
“It’s just one of those games where we kind of took too long as an offense to really get going. At the end of the day, I take the full blame for that and I know most of the guys are going to take the blame for that. We just adapted to their scheme.”
The individual numbers still reflected progress. McCarthy posted a career high in passing yards with a completion percentage near 70 percent and a touchdown to Isaiah Likely. He pointed to preparation and experience as the reasons the game has started to slow down.
“I just feel really good in terms of my preparation going into every week. They are very detailed in terms of what they want from me, what the intent is every single play. There is no grey area going into each play, and I just really appreciate the heck out of that. It is all about building, constantly growing, and that is what we are focused on,” McCarthy said.
“Being in the league for a little over two years now, seeing defenses that I have seen before and running concepts that I have run before, everything seems to be slowing down for me. Just being able to keep stacking and keep growing one percent every single day and I am just so blessed to be in this offense and so blessed to be a part of this organization. This football team is going to get better from this, I know that.”
The Giants head into the rest of November and beyond with a clear focus on starting faster and executing more cleanly in the moments that decide tight games. McCarthy stressed the need for all 11 players to stay on the same page from the opening snap and to treat every critical situation as an opportunity to improve rather than a reason to dwell on what just happened.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Giants' J.J. McCarthy shoulders blame for slow start, putting defense in bad spots
