Big Blue holds up its end, but can’t grab playoff spot
Wayne Gallman dropped the football and the Giants’ playoff hopes to the turf on Sunday, only to recover his own fumble in a 23-19 victory that kept Big Blue’s heart barely beating into the Sunday night game, where an Eagle victory over Washington would put the Giants in the playoffs. No such luck.
“I’m sorry I caused drama,” Gallman said with a wry smile.
Gallman fumbled the ball untouched at the Giants’ 33 yard line with 58 seconds remaining while trying to ice the regular-season finale against the Cowboys with a four-point lead.
Officials signaled Cowboys ball when the pile broke up and Dallas linebacker Jaylon Smith emerged holding the football. But the on-field officials changed their ruling and determined Gallman had recovered his own fumble.
A replay review showed Gallman did in fact regain possession. And the Giants held on for their first win in four games despite scoring only three points in the second half.
“When it initially hit the ground my stomach dropped a little bit, but he got back on it, so it’s all good,” wide receiver Sterling Shepard said.
In the Giants’ win, Shepard scored a career-high two touchdowns, one rushing and one receiving. He was on his way home to sit on the couch and begrudgingly hope for an Eagles victory.
“I won’t be caught dead in an Eagles hat, but I’ll be rooting for them,” Shepard said.
Leonard Williams recorded a monster game on defense, with a career-high three sacks to give him 11.5 on the season while playing on the $16.1 million franchise tag. He will command a major payday on his new contract.
Williams’ second-down sack and thirddown QB hit ended the Cowboys’ final drive at the Giants’ 17. Andy Dalton threw the ball up for grabs on third down as he rolled out toward Williams, and Giants rookie Xavier McKinney grabbed his first NFL interception in the end zone.
The Giants took over at the 20 with 1:15 remaining. Gallman took his handoff on first down for five yards. On second down, Gallman burst through the middle of the line and was free on the second level of the defense, but he suddenly dropped the ball out of his right arm to the turf, then sat down on top of it trying to recover.
But the Cowboys dove on top of the pile, and it looked like Dallas had recovered. One replay even showed the ball popping into the air out of the pile during the scrum. Gallman was screaming at the Cowboys players while the officials were sorting out the confusion.
“I sat on the ball first and then I picked the ball up and I put it in my arms like this on the ground,” Gallman said, cradling his arms to his chest. “It just was a big pile. The refs, I wouldn’t say they were late, but they saw 54 (Cowboys linebacker Jaylon Smith) had the ball. He took it from me when I was down in the pile. But I had the ball already. I knew I was down. I was just waiting for the right call to be made. And I was stressing that on the field.”
Eventually, Gallman was saved when the referees determined that the runner was down with possession and the replay appeared to show an angle of Gallman clutching the ball to his chest before it was ripped out.
The Giants nearly had squandered their first 20-point first half since Week 9 with some critical drops early in the third quarter.
James Bradberry dropped an interception in Dallas territory on the opening drive of the third quarter. After a Dallas punt, tight end Evan Engram then dropped a Daniel Jones pass that tipped up and was intercepted by the Cowboys’ Wilson.
Dalton immediately then drove for a touchdown, though Dallas coach Mike McCarthy declined to go for two and kicked an extra point, leaving his team down four points.
McCarthy coached a poor game. He also failed to throw a challenge flag on a Dante Pettis 10-yard catch in the fourth quarter that set up the Giants’ only points of the second half: a 50-yard Graham Gano field goal. Replays showed Pettis did not catch Jones’ low pass.
Jones and the Giants offense did very little in the second half, actually, but they scored enough in the first half to create enough room for the team to hold on.
Jones completed 17-of-25 passes for 229 yards, two touchdown passes, with one interception and one fumble. He threw two TD passes for the first time since Week 8 against the Buccaneers. He finishes his second NFL regular season with 11 total TD passes in 14 games.
Jones did damage in the first half, though, when he completed 10-of-15 passes for 150 yards and two TDs with the one fumble. He fumbled a handoff exchange to Gallman but also threw a 10-yard TD pass to Shepard and a 33-yard TD pass to Pettis.
With the victory, the Giants finished 4-2 in the NFC East for the first time since 2016, the last time they made the playoffs.
Sunday’s win snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Cowboys going back to Dec. 2016. The Giants also snapped an eight-game losing streak to the Eagles this season.
Judge was not concerned with the past on Sunday, however. He was much more focused on his team making sure it was safe and smart on Sunday night during this COVID-19 pandemic.
“My words to the team was just pretty much how proud I was that they kept playing, what they’ve been able to do sticking together as a team, the progress we’ve made,” Judge said. “And then ultimately, whatever happens (Sunday) night, let’s just be ready to go come into work (Monday) and do whatever we have to do.”