Halftime in the NFL lasts 12 minutes. The Giants needed it to last longer. Much longer.
The feel-good vibes generated on a picture-perfect Sunday afternoon during the ceremony honoring Eli Manning? They were but a momentary respite from the cold, hard facts of the reality the Giants are living. They are in a bad, bad way, and the atmosphere at MetLife Stadium is rapidly deteriorating. As is the Giants’ season.
The Giants once again were headed for a victory until they got ambushed by another defeat, this time gagging up the seven-point lead they managed to grab early in the fourth quarter. They gave up the final 10 points of the game in the last 4:13, the deciding three points coming on Younghoe Koo’s 40-yard field goal with no time remaining for a 17-14 Falcons victory that falls in line with some of the classic Giants losses of this desultory period.
“I don’t think we’re a bad team,’’ running back Saquon Barkley said. “This is the NFL, there’s no bad teams in the NFL. I won’t consider us a bad team. We’ve just got to figure it out. That’s the difference.’’
It is easy to hit the sarcasm font here and lay into Barkley, but at least he is trying to throw some spackle on a crumbling blue wall. The Giants are 0-3 and this has to be some sort of low point in the worst cycle (18-49 since the start of the 2017 season) in franchise history.
The home team was booed off the field at halftime, trailing 7-6 to a bad Falcons team. Co-owner John Mara was booed, lustily, when he stood behind the microphone and announced Manning’s induction into the Ring of Honor and the retiring of Manning’s No. 10 jersey. Early in the third quarter, tight end Evan Engram — who lost the ball on a fumble late in the second quarter, playing for the first time this season — was actually cheered when he trotted off the field as he was subbed out.
Sure, there were cheers when Barkley leaped over the pile for the first post-ACL touchdown of his career, with 12:53 remaining, and even louder cheers when Daniel Jones pumped his fist after powering into the end zone on the two-point conversion for a seven-point Giants lead. The Giants did not do much right after that and the moans and groans were as predictable and inevitable as another Giants collapse, as they lost for the second consecutive game on a last-second field goal.
“I don’t think that’s fair to Mr. Mara,’’ Barkley said of the harsh halftime reaction. “He’s a great owner.’’
Jones, asked about Engram getting jeered, said “I’m not sure I really understood that.’’
The Giants are 0-3 and allowed the Falcons to gain their first victory of the season. After starting out 0-5 in 2020 in Joe Judge’s first season, the Giants are 0-3 in year No. 2 for Judge. Frustration is rampant and patience is nearly extinguished.
Judge was not going to touch the booing scenario.
“Go criticize the crowd? What, are you kidding me?’’ he said.
Judge is largely emotionless in his postgame press conferences. He was about to make his exit after this latest loss, stopped and said “We’re going to be all right, guys. We’re going to be all right.’’
This is a beaten and battered team. The Giants in the first half lost linebacker Blake Martinez (knee) and receivers Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton to hamstring injuries. Martinez could be a long-haul deal.
“I don’t lose hope,’’ safety Logan Ryan said. “Lose by a field goal and ‘Oh man, the season’s over.’ That’s not the case.’’
The Giants are remarkably reliable in how they lose. They were hit with eight more penalties, burned timeouts and failed, once again, to play up to the level of Jones, their improving quarterback. Jones did drop a shotgun snap for an 11-yard loss that short-circuited a second-quarter drive.
“Guys are frustrated and certainly disappointed in the result,’’ Jones said. “We all want to win and expect to win.’’
The Falcons, in the fourth quarter, put together a 15-play, 72-yard drive that should have ended when Matt Ryan floated a pass into the end zone in the direction of only cornerback Adoree’ Jackson, who dropped what could have been a game-sealing interception. Given another life, Ryan took advantage of a pass interference call on Logan Ryan and then passed to tight end Lee Smith for the game-tying touchdown with 4:13 left.
“Misjudged the ball and dropped it,’’ Jackson said. “I was pissed at myself.’’
Tie game with plenty of time left. The Giants could not sustain a drive, as Jones was sacked for a 9-yard loss. Needing a good punt from midfield to pin the Falcons back, the Giants did what losing teams do, as Riley Dixon knocked the ball into the end zone. A 28-yard catch-and-run by Cordarrelle Patterson — “Really good call for the defense we were in,’’ Ryan said — was followed by a 25-yard completion to rookie tight end Kyle Pitts to set up the winning field goal and the final salvo from the crowd.
“We’re this close, we’re this close, we keep saying it,’’ Barkley said. “Someone has to do something about it.’’
But who?
