Missed Opportunities Doom New York Giants in 27-26 Loss to New England Patriots

The New York Giants, determined to coast into their bye week with a 6-4 record and a firmer grip of first place in the NFC East, had the New England Patriots against the ropes.

However, as has been the case in four of the Giants' five losses this season, they took their foot off the Patriots' jugular as quarterback Tom Brady marched his team 44 yards in 12 plays to set up a 54-yard game-winning field goal by Stephen Gostkowski for a 27-26 win over Big Blue.

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The story of this game isn’t so much about what the Giants did in somehow finding a way to stand toe-to-toe with the still undefeated Patriots. Rather, the Giants' latest demise is a familiar tune that anyone who follows Big Blue has heard one too many times this season.

“Extremely disappointing loss,” Giants head coach Tom Coughlin said. “Not much for me to say about it other than the frustration was—I mean, finish the game. Just get the game over with.”

That’s right, for the fourth time this season, the Giants failed to deliver the knockout punch despite having several opportunities to do so in the fourth quarter.

The first instance New York had to put the Patriots away came on the first play of the fourth quarter when linebacker Jasper Brinkley sacked Brady for a four-yard loss, knocking the ball out of Brady’s hands and into the possession of defensive tackle Markus Kuhn, who gave the Giants offense 1^st-and-10 on the Patriots' 31-yard line.

Instead of moving forward, the Giants offense went backward. Following offsetting penalties on Giants receiver Rueben Randle and Patriots safety Devin McCourty, quarterback Eli Manning was sacked for a 13-yard loss, which put the ball out of field-goal range and forced the Giants to have to punt.

On the ensuing drive, the Patriots made quick work of the Giants defense, as Brady connected with tight end Rob Gronkowski for a 76-yard touchdown pass, a play in which safety Brandon Meriweather was left trailing the speedy tight end up the seam. That touchdown pass put the Patriots up 24-23, their first lead of the second half.

The Giants' struggle continued. After cornerback Trumaine McBride snuffed out a Patriots scoring threat by picking Brady off at the Giants' 1-yard line, Manning drove the offense down the field and appeared to have connected with receiver Odell Beckham Jr. on a five-yard touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone.

Only one problem: Beckham’s catch was ruled incomplete when it was determined that he didn’t maintain possession of the ball long enough against cornerback Malcolm Butler, who jarred the ball loose from Beckham’s grip.

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“I lost us the game with the play down in the end zone, a play that should have been made,” said Beckham, who had an 87-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter.

“You can’t leave it up to the officials to get anything right. You’ve got to make the play yourself and it was just a case of playing the play longer than the opponent.”

Instead of seven, the Giants settled for a 29-yard field goal by kicker Josh Brown, which made it 26-24. 

With 1:47 left on the clock, Brady had plenty of time to operate, but not without a scare. That came on his very first pass attempt on that drive, a deep throw to receiver Aaron Dobson that Brady released just as cornerback Trevin Wade hit him on a blitz.

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Giants safety Landon Collins had a chance to pick off the pass, which would have ended the game, but he was unable to find the handle on the ball, the pass falling incomplete. 

“Play’s there; you got to make the play,” Coughlin said. “I mean he’s throwing up down the middle of the field with no one, there’s no one even there. Catch the ball and the game’s over. I mean it looked like he had it at first and the ball was out when he hit the ground.”

The Giants, who at 5-5 are still in first place in the division, will go into their bye week wondering what might have been in a game they should have won but which slipped away. 

As far as Coughlin is concerned, there was no solace about his team standing toe-to-toe with the defending Super Bowl champions.

“If you don’t win, they’re all miserable. I don’t look at it in degrees, I just look at it in terms of the frustration that goes along with it because of what could’ve been. It’s not that far away from being a win. Just finish the thing off,” he said.  

With the Giants heading to their bye week—they’ll review the tape on Monday before being dismissed for the rest of the week—Coughlin has faith that his team will get it together and stop costing itself games in the fourth quarter. 

“They are going to come back and battle back and compete,” he said of his players. “They will hurt all day tonight and all day tomorrow—we all will—and probably well into the bye week. But maybe that is a good thing.”

It better be, because if the Giants don’t learn how to finish games soon, their 2015 season and perhaps the coaching staff and a good chunk of the locker room will soon find themselves finished.

Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and information were obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced.

Follow me on Twitter, @Patricia_Traina.