Giants waste prime opportunities in tie with Commanders: 'It feels like a loss'

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — When Graham Gano's futile attempt at a 58-yard field goal fell woefully short, his teammates weren't really sure what to do. They mostly looked around at the clock, at the sidelines, even at the crowd, hoping for some clue on exactly how to feel.

"It was like ‘All right, it's over. Everybody can leave now,'" said New York Giants rookie defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux. "And you walked out."

When they did, they walked out with nothing but an unsatisfying, 20-20 tie against the Washington Commanders in a critical NFC East showdown that had implications in the NFC wild-card chase, too. It's true that a tie was certainly better for the Giants (7-4-1) than what could have happened if the Commanders (7-5-1) had been just a little bit more competent.

But considering how many opportunities the Giants had to put the game away and how dismal their offensive performance was — again — the only place it wasn't a loss was on the scoreboard.

To the Giants, it felt like one in every other way.

"I think we're all pretty disappointed with the result," said quarterback Daniel Jones. "Certainly not the one we were looking for."

"I don't feel good. It sucks," said Giants running back Saquon Barkley. "All around, we didn't do enough. You've got a sour taste in your mouth. That's why it feels like a loss."

It should, because this was the Giants' chance to get back on track after two straight losses and to give themselves a much-needed cushion in the wild-card chase. Instead, late in the game, where they have been so good most of the season, they unraveled with a series of bad penalties, miscommunication and some of the worst offensive play they've had all year.

The Giants couldn't get out of their own way — sometimes literally — on offense. They were doing fine for a while. They took a 20-13 lead early in the second half, and their defense even got them the ball back late in the third quarter. That's when they had their first chance to put the game away.

So what did they do? It was as if the offense packed up and went home. In a remarkable run of futility, they went three-and-out on three of their next four drives, right up until the end of regulation. They picked up one first down in the final 18 minutes, and even that was nullified by a dumb taunting penalty called on Giants center Jon Feliciano when he celebrated one of their two first downs in the second half by flexing his muscles.

Feliciano said he was flexing at his teammate, not the Commanders, and he made it clear after the game that he was pretty ticked off at the officials for the call. But that was just one small part of the Giants' offensive mess. They had a net total of 22 yards in the second half. Their net total in the fourth quarter was minus-8. That included minus-7 on 10 plays spread out over three "drives". Barkley, after rushing 11 times for 60 yards in the first half, ran seven times for three yards after that.

Their offense has been abysmal most of this season. Yet somehow, in crunch time of their biggest game yet, they found a way to get worse.

"They were executing better than we were," explained coach Brian Daboll. "They had better play calls than we had."

Well, marginally. The Commanders were having their own troubles. But the Giants kept giving them more chances to tie the game — which, of course, they eventually did, with 1:45 remaining.

That still gave the Giants a chance to win in regulation with only a field goal. But for some reason, offensive coordinator Mike Kafka decided that was the perfect time to unveil the Giants' big-play passing attack, having Jones throw two bombs down the field and another deep pass over the middle. Anyone who has seen their passing attack operate this season will not be surprised to know all three passes were incomplete.

Those were Jones' first three incompletions of the game, by the way, with the exception of a spike to stop the clock at the end of the first half. And they gave the Commanders the ball back with 1:17 remaining, only needing to get into field goal range to win the game.

They didn't, which was good, but things weren't much better for the Giants in overtime. In some ways, things were even worse.

The Giants won the coin toss, started with an 11-yard pass and then stalled. Then they got the ball back and got all the way to the Commanders' 45-yard line, probably needing another 10 yards to get into Gano's field goal range at that end of the field. But on a third-and-2, they turned into the Keystone cops. Barkley and receiver Richie James somehow ran into each other, leaving Jones to scramble just to not lose any yards. Then Daboll lost his nerve and punted on 4th and 3.

"Would it have it been different if it was fourth-and-1? Potentially," he said. "But at fourth-and-3 there after the play we just had before that, and with two timeouts, I thought that was the best thing to do."

In some ways, it made sense, because at that point there was no way he could trust his offense. Besides, it worked. The Giants pinned the Commanders at their 10. A sack — and near-game-winning safety by Thibodeaux — pushed them back to the 2. And eventually, the Giants got the ball back for a third time in overtime, with 28 seconds to play, near midfield.

But on five plays they picked up only 17 yards. Their offense was so inept by that point, they had no shot to get those last 5-6 yards they probably needed for Gano to kick them to a win.

"If we just executed, we probably had a really good chance to win," said Giants receiver Darius Slayton. "It's just disappointing when you don't do what you need to do to close out a game."

On the bright side, the result didn't hurt the Giants as much as it probably did the Commanders, who are now clinging to the edge of the NFC playoff race and have a bye week to think about it before they face the Giants again. But it'll still hurt because it was a loss … um, make that a tie of their own doing.

They had about a 28-minute stretch from the end of the third quarter through the end of overtime where they could've put this game away with just one play on offense, one less penalty, one time where they didn't have players running into each other.

Instead, they ended up with the empty feeling that they absolutely deserved — and earned.

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Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.