Latest New York Giants Loss Another Total Team Effort

In keeping with what’s been a season-long theme for the New York Giants, their 23-20 overtime loss to the New York Jets was yet another total team effort that saw negative contributions from even the most unlikely of sources.

The biggest contribution to the loss was the 48-yard missed field goal by kicker Josh Brown, who earlier in the game hit field goals of 20 and 25 yards to extend his franchise record to 29 straight conversions.

Brown said that his missed 48-yarder, his first since the 2014, was a result of a mis-hit.

Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

“Yeah, just a bad hit. I just have to keep my head down, look through the ball and there’s nothing else I can do about it,” Brown said after the game.

“I have to keep striking the same ball. I had made everything, kicking well. I just have to hit that ball like I do every other one.”

Another big miss for the Giants came on defense when Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, on the Jets’ game-tying drive, picked up 15 yards on a key 4th-and-6 from the Giants 36-yard line, a play in which he simply recognized that the Giants defense had turned their backs to him, thus leaving a wide-open lane.

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“It was a pass play,” Fitzpatrick said. “They played two-man and everyone threw their backs to me. It was a critical juncture of the game where I just saw that I could definitely pick up the first down, so that’s what I did.”

Believe it or not, even receiver Odell Beckham Jr., one of the few bright spots for the Giants in an otherwise uninspiring performance, made a critical mistake when he dropped a potential 25-yard touchdown pass just before halftime, on a play in which he got the wind knocked out of him. 

“I should’ve caught the ball in the end zone; it could have been a touchdown there,” Beckham said. “We could’ve had touchdowns down at the goal line.”

Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

Beckham also drew a delay-of-game penalty in overtime after he kicked the ball back to the officials following an incomplete pass thrown to him on 3rd-and-1.

Instead of having a 4th-and-1, that lapse in judgement set the Giants back five yards that perhaps in retrospect might have made Brown’s game-tying overtime field-goal attempt a little bit easier. 

Lastly, there was the curious decision by head coach Tom Coughlin to attempt the 4th-and-2 from the Jets 4-yard line, which resulted in the pass for receiver Rueben Randle being picked off by safety Rontez Miles to help set up a 24-yard field goal by Randy Bullock to slice the Giants lead to 20-13. 

“I went for it on 4th-and-2 thinking that that would certainly give, after the long drive and the amount of time used up in the drive, I thought that that was the play at the time,” said Coughlin.

“I still do. Obviously we didn’t score there, we had an interception there. They drove, kicked a field goal and then we didn’t do anything with the ball again.”

This latest loss marks the fourth time this season that the Giants have lost a game in the waning seconds of play, making for one frustrating season.  

Peter Morgan/Associated Press

“We’ve been in position to win games and we haven’t won. I’m taking full responsibility for that,” Coughlin said. “But still, we’re there. As I told the team, we’ve got to find a way to finish a game…to win a 60-minute game and be in position at the end of the game to win it.

“It seems like back and forth we do have opportunities even offensively to end the game before they get the ball on the final drive and we hadn’t been able to do that.”

They better figure it out soon, because instead of getting ready to play in late January, it’s looking more and more as though this Giants team is in for a massive housecleaning that this time will probably include the coaching staff.   

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.