There’s the old saying “give ‘em an inch, and they’ll take a mile”. The Giants gave Washington that inch, and they took off with five yards and a last second field goal to hand New York another excruciatingly painful defeat on Thursday night.
Behind the scriptworthy heroics of backup quarterback Taylor Heinicke and a few unintended favors from the opponent, the Washington Football Team steadied the waves of five field goals from Graham Gano and returned one of their own in the final seconds to defeat the Giants, 30-29. Washington kicker Dustin Hopkins, after missing a 48-yarder a little to the right, received a second chance from 43 yards following a Giants infraction and he made sure he nailed it to send New York to another 0-2 start.
Worse than that, their fifth straight 0-2 start to the season since 2016 and eighth in the last nine seasons.
The “team” part of Washington’s current moniker may be something they emphasize in the postgame presser as they evaluate their performances, but on Thursday it was Heinicke that garnered the praise of teammates and the fans. It was the 28 year old’s third start of his career–filling in for the injured Ryan Fitzpatrick who left for IR in week 1– however for the Old Dominion product it was more so a second chance game to redeem himself. Redeem himself from the incredible yet unfortunate shortcomings in the playoffs when he and Washington fell 31-23 to the eventual Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Wild Card.
Redeem himself he did, for his first career win as a starter.
With the entire FedEx Field behind him, Heinicke gave a performance both teams will not forget before they play each other again in Week 18, the NFL’s new regular season finale under the expanded season format. He threw for 336 yards and touchdowns, one of which came within two plays and 17 seconds of Washington’s offense gaining possession of the football in the fourth quarter. Heinicke and wide receiver Terry McLaurin were the team’s dynamic duo, connecting on McLaurin’s 11 receptions for 107 yards and a touchdown in the second quarter that tied the game at 7-7.
The entire storybook performance was not written without a nearly tainted page, however. Heinicke put his team’s victory on the line in the final three minutes of the game, immediately after they took a 27-26 lead, by throwing an easily read pass to Terry McLaurin that was intercepted by Giants cornerback James Bradberry. The turnover set the Giants up at the Washington 20 yard line with a fresh set of downs, but this was when they delivered the young quarterback one of their own costly favors in return.
In one of their most poorly coached offensive possessions of the game, the Giants offense ran two handoffs to Saquon Barkley on first and second down for minimal yardage before Daniel Jones failed to complete a pass to Sterling Shepard on 3rd and 7. This forced them to place the ball at the feet of Graham Gano for his fifth field goal attempt of the game, which like the previous four was successful to give the Giants a 29-27 advantage. The only negative was the amount of time left on the clock, as two issued Washington timeouts and the incomplete pass eclipsed only 16 seconds off the clock, giving Heinicke two full minutes to lead a game winning drive.
Taking the Giants’ gift with sheer confidence, Heinicke orchestrated another incredible march down the field into opposing territory to set up his kicker, Hopkins, for the nightcap field goal. Lining up for the kick, which ultimately drifted just outside the right goal post, the Giants special teams unit gave Hopkins and Washington their second favor–an offsides call on Dexter Lawrence right in front of the long snapper. Five yards closer this time, the kick hugged the inside of the right goal post from 43-yards out to send the Giants home winless in heartbreaking fashion again.
For Hopkins, the final kick was actually heartracing and he felt as if the energy was similar outside the stadium.
“Somebody out there check on my mother. She’s probably had a heart attack,” he said.
Not only are they left to deal with a bad taste in their mouths for a lengthy 10 days, the Giants must also handle and accept the frustrations–internally and externally–that come after a game in which the offense, including quarterback Daniel Jones, performed pretty well. Those frustrations were evidenced on one occasion during the game as Jones and Kenny Golladay were caught in what appeared to be a verbal exchange, which Jones wrote off afterwards as a short dispute about plays and finding Golladay downfield.
Head coach Joe Judge spoke for his team by saying that they understand the fans’ well-deserved frustrations and will be working to fix their issues and earn the respect as the season continues.
“The fact that [the fans are] having a gut punch there means they’re invested with us, it means they’re staying with us and watching us fight and battle and following along in some of the highs and lows of the game.”
“What I can tell the fan is this–you’re going to keep seeing a team that fights for sixty whole minutes. You’re going to see a team that’s going to correct the disappointing things on tape, I promise you that. That’s my job and we’re gonna get that thing done.”
Offensively, it felt as if the Giants weren’t having any issues throughout the first three quarters of competition. Daniel Jones had arguably one of the best performances of his young career, throwing for 249 yards and a touchdown to go along with 95 yards rushing that included a touchdown of his own for the game’s first points. Washington’s stout defense seemed lost in Jones’s run pass option and delayed keepers, allowing the Giants to find points on four consecutive drives in the second half. Unfortunately, three out of four scores were solely field goals.
Graham Gano, the orchestrator of those field goals, was heading towards MVP status had the final score gone in the Giants favor. The veteran boot was responsible for 12 of the Giants points, each attempt being longer than the previous. Gano’s largest kick–55 yards away–put the Giants ahead 26-20 in the fourth quarter, just 17 seconds before Taylor Heinicke stole the lead back on a two-play drive and touchdown catch by Ricky Seals-Jones.
The only other touchdown for the Giants came in the third quarter when Jones found Darius Slayton on a 33-yard pass by the endzone pylon which Slayton tip-toed along the sideline to give the Giants a 20-14 lead. It was the first connection between the two players for six this season, following a 2020 campaign where Slayton was Jones’ top target for 50 receptions and 751 yards. It was also the prelude to a missed catch that Slayton wishes he could have back, because it likely cost his team a victory as well.
Down 27-26 in the fourth quarter, the Giants had a picture perfect opportunity to put the dagger in the Washington Football Team’s hopes of winning the game. On two consecutive plays from the NYG 39 yard line Jones found Slayton open, with one instance the receiver being wide open downfield with only the endzone in front of him. Burning his man on his route that play, Jones sailed a dime pass for Slayton towards the endzone, with the Giants fans in attendance ready to erupt to the tune of a 33-27 lead.
Instead, they saw the perfectly placed ball go right through Slayton’s hands and bounce off the turf for an incomplete pass and the ball go back to Washington for an eventual game winning drive after Gano’s 55 yarder.
The frozen image of Slayton with the ball evading his fingertips by a miniscule inch has become one that Giants fans have associated with the organization over the last few seasons. They’ve been a team that, despite what their record says, has found multiple ways–on and off the field– to fall short of winning games. In this instance, it came down to another fateful dropped pass and an untimely offsides penalty.
They left the game within the hands of the officials and the opposing quarterback. In a modern league where the talent is continuing to evolve at an unimaginable rate, relying on the latter to fail with the game on the line will never be a good bet.
In the end, it was all about the inches given rather than taken for the Giants.
Now standing at 0-2 with one loss in the division where those games are vital, many believe the season is shaping up to be another long and miserable one for the organization. The schedule following week 3 against Atlanta does not get any easier, especially when the games’ importance becomes even bigger in the wake of losses in winnable games. In case anybody forgot, the Giants also suffered another huge blow to their already fragile offensive line, losing starting center Nick Gates for an indefinite period of time after he fractured his leg filling in at the left guard position.
However, while the media and insatiable fan base might be ready to start hot seat discussions, the Giants made it clear that Thursday’s loss and the 0-2 start are not a writeoff to the season nor a defining of their capabilities. Their focus is on improving and fixing their mistakes for the next opportunity to break the win column in front of their home crowd on Sept. 26th.
“We got a resilient team, a mentally tough team, a team that sticks together, and a group of men that look each other in the eye and tell the truth,” said Joe Judge at the postgame podium. “Our focus as a team never changes and that’s on improvement.”
Saquon Barkley even told the media that he needs everyone to pump the breaks of the hyperbole of the Giants season.
“There’s no need to panic.”
“At the end of the day, the only people we got are those guys in the locker room and we got to look each other in the face and say stop it. We got to figure out a way to stop it, got to come to work every single day, and when we get the opportunity to win games we got to finish and capitalize.”
“It’s a 17 game season, it’s a long season ahead of us to do everything we want to accomplish and that’s the truth behind it.”
It’s a valid point by Barkley, but what he and his teammates must remember is this piece of advice–in New York, if you’re not finding ways to bring consistent success to the city’s sports teams over a period of time, then the panic button is always on.
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