Look away, Giants fans.
Big Blue choked away an 18-point lead with six minutes to go in Sunday’s road tilt with the Broncos, as fans in New York began to celebrate what would have been a second statement win in as many weeks to put Big Blue in the thick of the NFC East conversation.
Instead, the Giants lost that lead in the closing minutes, took it back with a late touchdown aided by back-breaking Denver penalties, and lost it again on a last-second field goal after backup kicker Jude McAtamney missed his second extra point of the afternoon.
According to NFL’s Next Gen Stats, the Giants had a win probability of 99.3 percent when they led 26-8, making their collapse the most improbable of the season and the eighth-most since Next Gen Stats was launched in 2016.
To put the collapse into further perspective, NFL teams had been unbeaten in their last 1,602 games when leading by 18 or more points with six minutes or less remaining.
Katie Sharp of Stathead added to the scope of New York’s meltdown by noting that the Giants gave up the most fourth-quarter points in franchise history (30) in the loss, which still could have been avoided had the defense prevented multiple big-chunk plays from Bo Nix in the final 40 seconds, and had McAtamney converted his PATs.
Instead, the Giants are 2-5 and forced to grapple with the reality that they had blown another winnable game, joining the Cowboys loss in which they fell to a 60-yard field goal and a defeat at the hands of the lowly Saints where they turned the ball over five times.