The Giants have lost games this season, but not like this.
Well, they actually did not lose a game on Sunday. It only felt like they did.
“It just feels, I don’t know, it’s like blah, you know?’’ outside linebacker Oshane Ximines said. “It sucks, because you didn’t win and so it feels like a loss to me.’’
Yeah. Blah. That about sums it up.
When Graham Gano’s desperation 58-yard field-goal attempt fell far short, the Giants walked off the field at MetLife Stadium with a bizarre and unfulfilling 20-20 overtime tie with the Commanders. No one wearing blue knew exactly how to feel and everyone wearing blue agreed that they were not pleased in any way, shape or form about what transpired on an afternoon filled with far more frustration than satisfaction.
“Don’t feel good, it sucks,’’ said Saquon Barkley, who struggled mightily after halftime. “Got a sour taste in your mouth after a tie. Feels like a loss.’’
It was the first tie for the Giants since Nov. 23, 1997, when they left the field even with Washington 7-7 in a game at FedEx Field best remembered for quarterback Gus Frerotte head-butting the wall behind the zone and giving himself a concussion after scoring a touchdown.
This game left the Giants similarly woozy.
They trailed 10-0 in the first quarter and took a 20-13 lead on Daniel Jones’ 6-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Hodgins with 11:34 remaining in the third quarter. The Giants did not manage to find another point the rest of the way.
The Giants (7-4-1) halted their losing streak at two games and made sure the Commanders (7-5-1) stayed in last place in the NFC East. So there’s that. There was not much else.
Jones completed 25 of 31 passes for 200 yards and was the Giants’ leading rusher with 71 yards. Barkley (18-63) scored a rushing touchdown in the second quarter but could not get untracked after halftime, rushing seven times for only 3 yards.
This game was a marked difference from the bold way coach Brian Daboll operated earlier this season. At times, he seemed to be trying to navigate around his lackluster offense. The Giants had three possessions in overtime, and it was ugly stuff. The second series was promising, as a reception and run by Barkley produced a first down and back-to-back catches by Hodgins got the Giants near midfield. An ugly third-down play — Jones ran into Barkley and Richie James in the backfield — set up fourth-and-3 from the Washington 45-yard line.
“There was a miscommunication there. That was a play that we need to do better at,’’ Daboll said of the third-down atrocity.
Daboll opted to punt the ball away, with 1:42 remaining in OT. Was he playing for a tie?
“To punt it and put them down there, I thought our defense had a chance to keep them down there and maybe get the ball back with, call it, 35 seconds — somewhere around there, somewhere around midfield and give ourselves another chance,’’ Daboll said, “rather than if you don’t get it and then they kick a field goal, and they were going with the wind, so that’s the decision I made.’’
Clearly, Daboll had no confidence in his offense finding a way to get the 3 yards needed to extend the possession. It nearly paid off when Kayvon Thibodeaux stormed in for a blindside sack of Taylor Heinicke at the Washington 2-yard line, but the ball did not come loose.
“I’m surprised but the guy gets paid, the guy’s not gonna let that ball go,’’ Thibodeaux said. “We know the ball is the money.’’
The Giants indeed got the ball back, on their own 43-yard line, with 28 seconds remaining. They got to the Washington 40 before Gano came up short with a kick that would have been a franchise record had he made it.
Thibodeaux called his first-ever tie game “super random’’ and described an unsettling feeling.
“Just looking around like, you didn’t even realize it was over,’’ he said. “It was like ‘all right, it’s over, everyone can leave now.’ And we just walked out.’’
There is so much for the Giants to look back on and shake their heads. They got a big lift from the return of outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari but could not hold the seven-point lead in the fourth quarter. The Commanders put together a 90-yard drive and when practice squad call-up Zyon Gilbert could not cover or tackle Jahan Dotson across the middle, Dotson scored on a 28-yard catch-and-run to tie the game at 20 with 1:45 left in regulation.
The Giants had chances to win it. Darius Slayton, who played well, was open but could not come away with a leaping grab that would have put his team in field-goal range. Midway through the fourth quarter, Slayton caught a pass for 12 yards to the Washington 35-yard line but center Jon Feliciano was called for a taunting penalty when he celebrated the catch with a flex pose directed at Slayton, but deemed to be too close to Commanders players.
“We’re all pretty disappointed with the result,’’ Jones said. “Certainly not the one we were looking for.’’
