The Giants stayed resilient, and came back from down 13-0 at halftime and 20-13 in the fourth quarter to pull out a huge 21-20 win in Tennessee on Sunday.
It literally took all 60 minutes, though, as after the go-ahead touchdown and two-point conversion for the Giants, Tennessee had a little over a minute to get from the Giants’ 30 into field goal range to try for a game-winner…and they did it in eight plays, two of which were back-breaking for the Giants: a defensive holding call on Darnay Holmes on a third-and-four with 29 seconds left, and a subsequent 21-yard reception where Kyle Phillips got behind Holmes and got down to the Giants’ 27.
“Yeah, that's football, you know? I thought it was tight coverage. Darnay was tight on him. (Ryan) Tannehill made a good throw, and they caught it and they centered the ball and then they clocked it with four,” Giants head coach Brian Daboll said of the final sequence.
The Giants called time out to ice the kicker – “whether it helped or not, I really don't know,” Daboll smiled – and then it was up to Randy Bullock to try to steal victory from the jaws of defeat.
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“I was hoping the sumbitch would miss it,” Daboll said bluntly when asked how he felt as Bullock lined up, and Daniel Jones added this: “Obviously nervous, and you hope that he misses it. The defense did a great job holding up and forcing a ling field goal, and we got pressure on the kick and fortunately for us he missed it.”
Indeed, Bullock’s kick sailed wide, the Giants held on to win, and a wild final nine minutes came to an end with Big Blue ahead on the scoreboard and a lot of emotion able to be released.
“It was a special moment for me because it’s my first win…but last year coming here for the Buffalo game, I lost my grandfather on the airplane as I was landing. So, that was weighing heavy on me after the game,” said Daboll, who watched his Bills last year squander a fourth-quarter lead and then turn the ball over on downs inside the Titans’ five in a 34-31 loss last season. “That was a tough one, but this one, a much different result.”
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Emotion for Daboll and for the Giants, who have seen victory snatched away from them more than enough times in the last few years.
“We’ve been in this position a lot – me and Leonard Williams were talking, that we’ve seen a lot of these games go the other way,” Saquon Barkley said. “At the end of the day, a win is a win. They were able to miss it and we were able to get the win.”
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