DROP DEADLY
WR’s gaffe, return TD seals Big Blue’s fate
IT arrived like a mid-summer electrical storm, in the form of a stunning sequence of a couple plays that lasted only a few minutes in real time and just 58 seconds on the game clock.
It completely changed a game the Giants had to have. And it was a sequence that might have left the Giants 2017 season of promise flashing away before their disbelieving eyes.
The end result was a 24-10 Giants loss to the Lions in their home opener before a packed house at MetLife Stadium eager to turn last week’s dreadful 19-3 loss to the Cowboys into a speck in the rearview mirror.
The downfall of the game — and very possibly the Giants’ season — began with the Giants, down 17-10 early in the fourth quarter, making a significant move to tie the game. Eli Manning lofted a perfect pass down the right sideline that hit as softly as a butterfly right between the 1 and the 5 on receiver Brandon Marshall’s jersey.
The play was going to go for some 30 yards, move the Giants into Detroit territory and change the momentum in favor of the Giants, whose offense had been struggling all game (all season, really).
Marshall had his man beaten — and the ball bounced off his jersey and to the ground. The Giants still had a chance, but on third-and-8, Manning completed a 7-yard pass to tight end Evan Engram. How perfect a metaphor is that for the Giants’ offense through two games.
“That was the moment,’’ Marshall said in a quiet moment standing in front of his locker. “That was the biggest play of the game.’’
On fourth-and-1, the Giants, the air of their momentum sucked out of the building by that Marshall drop, punted.
Brad Wing’s punt traveled 60 yards before it landed into the arms of Lions returner Jamal Agnew, who took it 88 yards for his first NFL touchdown, giving the Lions a 24-10 lead and shattering the spirit of the Giants and their fans.
Roger Lewis had the first crack at Agnew, but he overran the play and helplessly watched Agnew begin his serpentine route through the rest of the Giants’ punt coverage team.
“I should have used the technique that coach [Tom Quinn, the special teams coordinator] always teaches us and come with a shorter stride, but I kind of overran it,’’ Lewis said. “I missed the opportunity. I wish I could get it back.’’
So does Giants long snapper Zak DeOssie, who had the next shot at Agnew, but was left in a pool of sweat on the turf by a juke move.
Then came Rhett Ellison, whom Agnew wrong-footed and left sprawled on the field turf.
“The guy just made a great play,’’ Ellison said. “They outplayed us on that one play.’’
Agnew’s final move came against Wing, who never had a chance and was lucky not to snap an ankle try- ing to figure out which way he was going to get deked.
“To be honest, what was going through my mind was, ‘Don’t let the long snapper tackle me and don’t let the punter tackle me,’ ’’ Agnew said.
It was a terrible chain reaction of plays in a short few moments that might well have wrecked the Giants’ season of promise before it began, and none of it would have happened had it not began with that dropped pass by Marshall 13:54 remaining in the game.
“If I make that play, I’m confident that we go down and score and that [punt return] doesn’t happen,’’ Marshall said. “So that’s on me. I let my team down. I got an opportunity to make a big play and change the momentum … and I lost it.
“It was a perfect pass. I beat the guy really bad at the line of scrimmage, I knew the ball was coming, I saw the ball, at the last second lost it in the light and then I picked it back up and I just dropped it. I let the team down and that can’t happen.’’
Yes, Marshall started the debilitating sequence, but that punt return cannot happen, either. Not on a team as offensively challenged as the Giants are with so little margin for error.