The New York Giants are still winless two weeks into the 2021 NFL season.
But as some consolation, they threw everything they had to the Washington Football Team before losing by a solitary point, 30-29.
Score one for progress because Joe Judge’s crew had a better performance than their Week 1 outing against the Denver Broncos.
Daniel Jones kept fighting until the last minute and finished with 22 completions, 249 passing yards, 95 rushing yards, and a 68 percent completion rate.
Saquon Barkley added 57 rushing yards, and Sterling Shepard had 94 receiving yards.
Meanwhile, Washington matched the haymakers that the Giants threw at them.
Taylor Heinicke finished with 34 completions for 336 yards and two touchdowns.
Terry McLaurin and J.D. McKissic combined for 190 yards and a touchdown.
It’s fair to say that Washington outlasted the Giants in this epic Thursday Night Football showdown.
Heinicke led his team to victory even if James Bradberry intercepted his pass to McLaurin with over two minutes left.
But it’s hard to ignore the miscues that New York committed, which may have cost them the game.
In simple terms, the Giants also defeated themselves, and Washington capitalized on their blunders.
Two Touchdowns Nullified
The Giants should have had 14 additional points instead of six on two key plays.
That margin of difference might have been enough to score their first win in 2021.
Jones had a 58-yard touchdown run with around six minutes left in the second quarter.
Unfortunately, wide receiver C.J. Board committed an offensive holding infraction that nullified the score and tagged an additional ten-yard penalty.
With Board committing the penalty on Washington’s 12-yard line, the Giants continued the drive from the 22 and settled for a field goal.
New York owned a 10-7 lead after that Graham Gano kick, but it could have been 14-7 if not for the penalty.
McKissic scored a two-yard touchdown run to give Washington a 14-10 advantage at halftime.
Another scoring opportunity came around the six-minute mark of the third quarter when Jones threw a deep pass to Darius Slayton.
Washington blew their coverage, leaving Slayton all alone to catch the ball.
Sadly, Slayton dropped a well-placed pass even if there were no defenders near him.
That incompletion will haunt Slayton until he bounces back with a big game.
The Giants should have had a 30-20 lead if Slayton made that easy catch.
Instead, New York settled for another field goal from 55 yards to make it 26-20.
Having a 10-point lead puts more pressure on Washington to score on two possessions.
But two plays later, Heinicke threw a perfect touchdown pass to Ricky Seals-Jones at the back of the end zone.
Dustin Hopkins converted the extra point to give Washington the lead, 27-26.
Two Costly Penalties
Washington got much help from New York’s violations as they were executing the game-winning drive.
On second-and-one at the Washington 47, the Giants’ Lorenzo Carter committed a neutral zone infraction.
That blunder gave Washington five yards which were enough for another first down.
Then with five seconds left in the game, Hopkins missed a 48-yard field goal try.
But his team got another lease in life after Dexter Lawrence jumped offside.
This time, Hopkins did not miss his second attempt from 43 yards.
That’s a painful penalty from Lawrence because it cost them a match that was theirs.
As shocking as it may sound, the Atlanta Falcons might even defeat them if the same mental errors persist in Week 3.
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