The New York Giants overcame a 14-point deficit in Washington on Sunday against the Commanders, tied the game in the fourth quarter, and sent it into overtime.
Few living Giants fans can say they've ever seen anything like it. Since 1970, the year of the NFL-AFL merger and the advent of modern-day stats, the Giants were 0-230 when they trailed by 14-plus points in the final eight minutes of regulation. They are now 0-230-1.
Overtime was an adventure for both teams. The Giants passed up a game-winning field goal to gain more yards. They fumbled the ball away and were left hoping their defense could bail them out.
Washington then drove the ball down the field, only to have the clock expire on them in the most bizarre way. Hence, the game ended in a tie.
Here are three things we learned from Sunday.
The Jameis Winston Experience is fun
For the second straight week, Winston threw three touchdowns. He completed 33 of his 54 pass attempts for 326 yards and three touchdowns for a passer rating of 96.7. He also scrambled five times for 27 yards, one rush being a key 15-yarder for a first down.
According to the Giants, it is the only time since 1950 that a Giant has thrown for 300 or more yards with three or more passing touchdowns and 25 or more rushing yards in the same game.
Winston got more comfortable as the game unfolded. After fizzling out on the first six possessions in the first half, resulting in just three points, the Giants got hot in the second half, going on three touchdown drives and got into position to attempt three field goals, two of which they missed.
They tried to insert J.J. McCarthy into the mix, sending him for five plays as a change-up to Winston. This was in the midst of the first-half failures. When McCarthy made no headway (he didn't even attempt a pass), the chants for a QB change died down. Jameis then put on a show to ensure that he'll be back under center next week against New Orleans.
Nabers and Likely are a new power couple
The Giants and their fans knew they were getting a special talent in free agent tight end Isaiah Likely, but we still needed to see it play out on the field. Stud wide receiver Malik Nabers is coming back from a serious knee injury, and no one knew, including him, if he could get back to the elite player he was as a rookie two years ago.
Well, we have our answers. They're both pretty good, and together, should give opposing defenses something to think about.
Likely reeled in 11 passes for 94 yards and two touchdowns on 13 targets. Nabers was targeted 20 times and had 11 receptions for 121 yards and a touchdown.
It was only the fourth time in the Super Bowl era that the Giants have had multiple players with 10 or more catches in the same game. The last time was in 2024 when Nabers (12) and Wan’Dale Robinson (11) did it against Dallas.
Puttin' on the blitz
The Commanders were chewing up massive chunks of yardage on the ground in this game, rushing for 202 yards on 30 attempts (6.7 YPC). Their three biggest plays were runs, and five of their top 10 gains came on the ground, three of them by quarterback Jayden Daniels.
One solution was to jam the box, and Giants' defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson did that by mainly blitzing. The Giants blitzed on 62 percent of the defensive snaps on Sunday. That is by far their highest rate of the season.
They blitzed around 22 percent in their first three games of the year. Last week, against Arizona, the Giants began to blitz more, around 53 percent, and were able to seal a victory by forcing an interception at the end of the game.
On Sunday, the blitzes were coming from everywhere, but most notably from nickelback Dru Phillips, who recorded 2.0 sacks and four QB hits.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: What we learned from New York Giants' 27-27 tie vs. Washington Commanders
