Giants vs. Commanders Recap: Did Big Blue Blow Their Chance? | Blue Rush

RUN! There are losses, and then there are really, really tough losses, and what the Giants went through Thursday night was one of those really, really, really tough losses. A lot of lead changes. If I would have told you in the fourth quarter, the Giants would take the lead on an incredible J.J. McCarthy to Isaiah Likely 66-yard touchdown pass with a little over eight minutes to go, and then after that, the Giants would intercept Jaden Daniels not once but twice down the stretch in the last five or so minutes. Jayden Daniels, the Commanders quarterback, who hadn't thrown an interception all season, that the Giants would get him twice, you would say, well, wow, that is a great Giants victory. It should have been 21-17 Giants victory. It was not. And the reason I think it was not a victory is because after the defense got the ball back twice to their offense. On two separate possessions, the Giants went three and out. You can't do that. It's not about clock management. It's about winning the game on offense. They did not let J.J. McCarthy throw the ball once. Three runs on the first possession. One was a failed quarterback sneak by backup quarterback Jameis Winston, who comes in to do those sneaks. You've got to convert the first down there. That's all there is to it. And then after the second interception by Darius Washington, the Giants get the ball. They don't need to think about running out the clock. They need to think about getting a first down and ending it. And they run it twice with Cam Scadaboo, and then they run it a third time with J.J. McCarthy, which was a very poor idea. Third and three, gets stuffed for a two-yard loss, and the Giants have to punt it away. Jordan Stout, who's been the best punter in the league, has a terrible 12-yard shanked punt. And away we go. Jaden Daniels, given a third chance to win the game, goes down the field and scores a touchdown to Stefon Diggs. And even after that, the Giants had a little less than a minute left. And why were they in such a rush? It made no sense for the Giants to be in such a rush. All they needed, the first pass from McCarthy to Malachi Fields gets them into Washington territory. At that point, they have two timeouts left. No rush, no calm down, right? All you need to do is get in position to kick a field goal and send the game into overtime. Except they throw the ball twice down the field. The last one is a Hail Mary, kind of a jump ball to Malik Nabers. What a bad game. He lost his first. Fumble of his NFL career earlier in the game. He goes up. Rasul Douglas makes the interception. Game over. So look, the Giants are still in first place. They will be in first place no matter what the Cowboys do Sunday against the 49ers. But this was a rough one. This is the first time in the John Harbaugh era with the Giants that they lost the game in which they were leading in the fourth quarter. So, you know, this is the kind of the game where people looked at and say, wow, this would have happened to the Giants last year. We heard so much this season that the Giants wouldn't have won this game last year. Well, this is the kind of game the Giants lost many of the last several years. Now they've lost another one like this, the first one for John Harbaugh. The sky is not falling. They're still in first place, but they've got to pick it up because Schedule gets tougher after having this weekend off. They played the Jaguars, might be one of the best teams in the league, certainly one of the best teams in the AFC. So they've got to clean it up, stop having the rookie Dominic Zavada miss field goals, convert when they need to on offense, and they should be okay. But yes, there's no question this is a tough one, and it stinks.