Another game, another loss.
This was a plot twist and yet a familiar ending.
This time, the Giants engaged in a wild, unpredictable and often entertaining four quarters with the Rams on New Year’s Eve.
A game they could have and should have won became yet another game they shouldn’t have but ultimately did lose.
A brutal botched two-point conversion, an ill-advised play-call in the closing minute and a predictable missed 54-yard field goal with 30 seconds remaining condemned the Giants to a 26-25 loss that sent the MetLife Stadium crowd home to ring in the new year hoping for a brighter 2024 for their favorite team.
Here’s a look at some of the highlights and lowlights:
Comments made by Brian Daboll, Saquon Barkley and Tyrod Taylor about the unsound decision to run the ball on second down with 42 seconds left all sounded as if they were trying to protect offensive coordinator Mike Kafka.
The Giants were at the Rams’ 34-yard line and, in many cases, that was one yard inside the 35-yard line destination considered to be in field goal range.
This was not one of those times.
It had already proven to be a tough day to kick, with three missed extra points – one by Giants’ kicker Mason Crosby, two by Rams rookie Lucas Havrisik.
It had already been established that the 39-year old Crosby has lost leg strength from his glory days with the Packers.
From the 34-yard line, the Giants had set up a 52-yard field goal attempt for Crosby. They needed to pass the ball to gain at least an additional five yards to make it a more makeable kick.
Sure, there are risks of throwing the ball – a sack or an interception. The play call should not have been a draw to Barkley, a play that lost two yards, a result that could not have come as a surprise, considering he averaged only 3.3 yards on his 12 rushing attempts.
That made it a 54-yard field goal try for Crosby and at this late stage of his career, kicking in tough conditions, that was not going to happen.
Barkley said: “I don’t make that decision. I don’t call the plays. That’s not to diss the coach or coaches. They probably had a situation, they knew what we needed to get to — the line that we had to get to for the kick — and that’s the decision that they made and the Rams made a good play. The defense made a good play.’’
Taylor said: “I didn’t call the plays. I have confidence in every play that we call, putting us in the right situation to go out there and execute. I mean, at the end of the day we didn’t do a good job of executing that draw play and have to learn from it and move forward.’’
All Daboll said was: “I’d just like to have the play back.’’
That is as close to a second-guess as Daboll will make up at the podium.
Unlike Barkley and Taylor, though, Daboll is the only one who has veto power on any call Kafka makes.
Moving forward, it makes you wonder if Daboll will consider taking over the play-calling on offense in 2024.
We had a Sterling Shepard sighting.
He got on the field for five snaps on offense and had one pass thrown his way. He dropped it and looked anguished afterward.
What a rough close to his Giants career and likely his NFL career for the 30-year old wide receiver, the longest-tenured Giants player.
This game was unusual in that the Giants made some truly eye-opening plays that, in the end, went for naught.
They scored touchdowns on an 80-yard pass from Taylor to Darius Slayton and a 94-yard punt return by Gunner Olszewski.
This is the 99th season of Giants football and this was the first time they had two touchdowns of 80 or more yards in one game. Including the postseason, that is 1,454 games played.
Taylor threw the ball 60 yards in the air on his 80-yard touchdown bomb to Slayton. And yet he misfired on what probably was one of the easier throws he needed to make all season when his awkward-looking flip-toss floated behind the reach of Barkley on a failed two-point conversion try.
“That’s part of the game,’’ Taylor said. “You play the game long enough, you’re going to make some throws, you’re going to miss some. Hopefully you make more than you miss but yeah, in that situation, just was a lack of execution on my part.’’
Taylor looks at ease when he talks about the plays he made and the plays he missed, which is a sign of a true professional.
Taylor was sacked six times.
That increases the Giants’ sack total this season to a ridiculous 83. Of course, that leads the league. Of course, it is an outrageous and untenable total. Of course, it is embarrassing.
It is rare when you can look at a negative team statistic and insist it be cut, not in half, but by two-thirds before it is acceptable, but that is the case here.
Tommy DeVito has been sacked 36 times, followed by Daniel Jones (30), Taylor (16) and even wide receiver Parris Campbell (1). Some of these sacks were on the quarterbacks. Most of them are on an offensive line that continues to be the bane of the Giants’ existence.
Another game, another full workload for Bobby Okereke and Xavier McKinney. They both were on the field for all 62 snaps on defense. What else is new?
This runs their impressive streak to 1,063 snaps this season, every one of them on defense.
Okereke is not used often as a pass rusher and he came into the game without a sack. He was part of the pressure package against the Rams and he came up with his first sack with the Giants and then combined with Rakeem Nunez-Roches for a half-sack.
What a wonderful debut season it has been for Okereke with the Giants.
It is always dangerous to put too much stock into what you see in these late-season games, as far as then projecting what might be possible the following season.
Dane Belton, a second-year safety, has not been a regular part of the defensive package. He was forced onto the field after Jason Pinnock went down and out with a foot injury.
Belton played 46 of the 62 snaps on defense and all he did was twice intercept Matthew Stafford and recover a fumble by wide receiver Demarcus Robinson forced by Adoree’ Jackson.
Belton is one of those guys with a reputation for always being around the ball. In six career NFL starts he has four interceptions.
The last time the Giants scored on a punt return? It has been more than eight years.
The last time they did it was during the 2015 season when Dwayne Harris took a punt 80 yards for a touchdown in a 23-20 overtime loss to the Jets.
Taylor threw for 319 yards. Incredibly, that was only the second time a Giants quarterback reached 300 passing yards in a game this season.
The first and only other time was back in Week 2, when Jones threw for 321 yards in the comeback victory in Arizona.
All you had to do was listen to the way Rams coach Sean McVay answered a series of questions after the game to read between the lines and come to the conclusion he must have been incredibly relieved to get on the charter flight back to Los Angeles with a win.
He knew his team was fortunate to do so.
McVay said: “There were a lot of things that we tried to do to not win this game today, but our guys found a way.’’
He also admitted “we were a little off’’ and acknowledged that committing three turnovers and giving up a 94-yard punt return for a touchdown were not conducive to winning football.
“When you turn it over as many times as we did, in situations that we really haven’t, that’s what’s going to end up happening,’’ McVay said. “For us to be able to come away with a win in spite of everything that occurred is really very abnormal, and so that’s where I’m grateful.’’
What a shame for the Giants that “very abnormal’’ has too often been the norm for them.
The Bills surely were grateful the Giants imploded down the stretch of a 14-9 loss in Buffalo.
The Jets lost to the Giants 10-7 before the Giants went “very abnormal’’ and the Jets were 13-10 winners in overtime.
The end of the season cannot come soon enough for the 2023 Giants.