The final 90 seconds of the Giants’ win in Jacksonville Sunday was probably the most frustratingly nerve-wracking minute-plus of the season, and that’s saying something with this squad.
Big Blue had the ball at the two-minute warning, a first-and-10 at the Jaguars’ 20 with Jacksonville holding only one timeout – meaning that by keeping the ball on the ground, any first down after the first play would end the game, and at worst, the Giants would kick a field goal attempt with less than 30 seconds left.
Except, well, on the third-down play, Saquon Barkley tried to slide but slide out of bounds, the exact opposite of what he did in last week’s win over Baltimore.
“Just got to do better. Not going to make any excuses. Just got to be better. That's really it,” Barkley said. “I'm expected to understand the situation. I knew the situation. I tried to get down, but got to do a better job of it.”
Of course, in true Giants team-first fashion, his head coach was willing to take the rap, saying, “Put it on me, we've got to do a better job than that” – but even after the game, and the win, Barkley knew how he was going to make amends.
Related
“I’m going to find a way to close my eyes, play it back in my head, do it the right way in my head and move on,” Barkley said. “It's part of life. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to have your failures in life. But it's easier to learn from them when it's a win, but this could have easily went the other way. But go back, watch it on film, find time when I'm able to shut my eyes, play it back, have positive reinforcement behind it and move on.”
Yes, indeed, the Giants won, as Gano kicked a field goal with 1:04 left to make it 23-17, and the Giants survived a penalty-laden final Jags drive as Barkley and the offense
“You know that you're the reason why they're even in that situation. I forgot how much time they would have had, but you believe that our defense is going to get the job done,” Barkley said. “In my mind, it's like, damn, I can't put us in that situation. But it came down to the last second, probably two yards, but this team has grit, the team has fight, and we found a way.”
“It went down to the wire there. Defense did a good job holding them, holding them ultimately, and we did enough to win,” Daniel Jones added. “Obviously, there's some plays we'd like to have back, but it's a good team we played, and did enough to win.”
Big Blue survived three penalties on that final drive, all potential killers: the first negated a sack, the second wiped out an interception, and the third added 15 yards to a 28-yard catch. But, on the final play of the game, nearly a half-dozen defenders converged on Christian Kirk and stopped him at the one yard line, securing the win.
Related
“We knew the situation. That whole drive, our mentality, and kind of what I was preaching was just to just keep them in bounds,” safety Xavier McKinney said. “We knew they didn't have any timeouts left, so we were just trying to delay as much time as we could, and then the last play obviously we were just trying to keep them out of the end zone. I think it was a great play call by Wink [Martindale], and we've got to execute it, and we kept them out of the end zone in the end.”
Indeed they did, thrilling Barkley and an offense that did enough to win, and picked up a big mistake.
“I was happy. Just watched the ball thrown and came up short and watched the guys compete there for that yard - but it shouldn't have come down to that, though,” Daboll said. “Credit to the players. They're the ones that knocked the ball out and stopped them at the one yard line, fought for 60 minutes, always competing.”
“We fought and found a way to win the game,” Barkley added. “I’ve got to be way better in situational football there, not even putting us in that situation, giving Jacksonville another opportunity with that much time on the clock. But the defense had my back, not only my back but the offense's back. We trust each other, and we were able to get a win.”
But it’s all good to McKinney, who was one of the first ones there, along with Julian Love, after Fabian Moreau wrapped up Kirk to start the final tackle.
Related
“We knew had to keep him out of the end zone. That's pretty much it,” McKinney said. “We knew there were like 10 seconds left, so they didn’t have much time, so we wanted to keep them up as long as we could, and then obviously be able to get him to the ground because we didn't want the pile to get pushed forward into the end zone. He’s a smaller guy and he was in the air when he caught it, so it was easy to keep him out, but once the offensive linemen came and ran into the pile, it got a little difficult there at the end.”
All’s well that ends well, and while Barkley will replay it in his head to get it right, McKinney, at least, thinks they already got it right once and that’s enough.
“It is what it is. Things happen in the game, and it ain't going to be perfect. But we've all got each other's back, and that's the greatest thing about this team. We play as a unit no matter what,” he said. “For us defensively, we just knew we had to go out there and make another stop, which we wanted to do, and which we were able to do. I don't think a lot of us don't think we played very good defensively today – it was probably our worst defensive performance, and we’ve got a lot of things to improve on and a lot of work to do in order to get where we want to be – but we won.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
Listen live to WFAN via:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker
Follow WFAN on Social Media:
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch