Close losses were a lasting narrative of the Giants’ 2020 season, when they fell just short of an NFC East title.
That is once again taking the spotlight in year two of Joe Judge’s tenure as head coach.
New York, despite many chances to steal a game on the road (much like it did in Washington in Week 2), fell to a late field goal in Monday’s loss to the Falcons, falling to 2-6 on the season.
Of those six losses, half have come by three points or less.
“When you’re in tight games and you don’t win, it’s gonna come down to one or two plays,” quarterback Daniel Jones said. “That’s how this league works. Playing tight games, winning comes down to one or two plays also. We gotta do that. We have to execute in critical parts of the game.”
This times, those one or two plays took the form of penalties, specifically an offsides call to negate an interception that would have given the ball back to Jones and the offense, but instead kept a drive alive for Kansas City, which wound up kicking the game-winning field goal.
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Thanks to the penalty and the extended drive for Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, Jones only had just over a minute to work with in the team’s final drive, which ended in a fumble.
“I think we gotta keep the ball moving forward,” Jones said. “The first play, we got something moving forward and got the ball out of bounds and then just kind of stalled after that. We gotta get the ball out, get guys running and keep it moving.”
At this time last year, the Giants had played five straight games decided by 10 points or less, a first for the franchise. Those painful lessons have not led to different outcomes this season, only more frustration and missed opportunities.
“I think we did a lot of good things, and I thought we had an opportunity to win it there at the end, and didn’t finish,” Jones said. “It certainly feels like a missed opportunity.”
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