G-Men fortunate to tie Commanders in thick of playoff race
EAST RUTHERFORD >> Well, it could have and probably should have been worse.
That is the takeaway from the Giants’ 20-20 tie with the Commanders on Sunday at MetLife Stadium, a game with significant playoff implications and one where a loss would have been especially painful. New York (7-41) still must play Washington (7-51) again in two weeks on the road as both teams compete with Seattle for the NFC’s final two postseason spots.
A tie means that the Giants likely won’t have to worry about a head-tohead tiebreaker in the standings with Seahawks, who beat New York and were 6-5 while playing the Rams on Sunday.
Yet it sure didn’t feel that way postgame in the Giants’ locker room. It was a relatively somber, quiet environment, which was understandable for a group of competitive professional athletes who fought for three and a half hours against division rival … just for a consolation prize.
“I think it’s just because we knew we had chances to win the game, and if we just executed, we probably had a really good chance to win the game, you know?” wide receiver Darius Slayton said. “So it’s just disappointing when you don’t do what you need to do to close out games. Even though it technically isn’t a loss, you want to win, you play to win. Nobody plays to tie.”
But if tying was not the Giants’ goal, they needed to do a heck of lot better than mustering three first downs and 45 yards of offense in the second half. Their only points after halftime came when the defense forced and recovered a fumble to put the Giants in the red zone at Washington’s 20-yard line less than one minute into the third quarter.
That usually won’t be enough to beat bad teams, let alone good ones. So the fact that the Giants persevered after allowing a game-tying touchdown with 1:45 remaining in
regulation to even have a chance to win on a miraculous 58-yard field goal by Graham Gano at the end of the overtime?
You have to look at that with a glass half-full mentality if you’re a Giants fan.
“It sucks, but you can’t change it now,” center Jon Feliciano said. “We’ve got to get back, we play the Eagles next week and then we see those guys again the week after. So that’s what I’m focused on.”
Feliciano drew attention for committing a taunting penalty that knocked
the Giants out of field goal range with 6:22 left in the fourth quarter. A 10-point lead in that situation essentially would have been lights out for Washington, so it was simply an inexcusable play.
Feliciano sarcastically said he was penalized for “celebrating with your teammate” as he gestured toward wide receiver Darius Slayton on a 12-yard reception. Clearly the referee thought he was targeting a Washington player, but regardless, it was an ill-advised time to celebrate.
“He had six guys on him on a big play,” Feliciano said. “I tried to celebrate with my teammate, didn’t look at anybody else. I was looking straight at Slay.”
The eighth-year veteran added that the tie “sucks, especially when you’re playing two teams,” indicating that the Giants faced the brunt of poor officially throughout the game.
“I know that’ll probably get me fined, but it was plays after that, too,” Feliciano said. “I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to hit Richie (James) when he’s trying to bring the ball to the ref (on) the two-minute drive (in overtime). That’s a flag.”
Sorry, but excuses are a bad look for a player who was part of a Giants offensive line that simply wasn’t good enough against one of the NFL’s top defensive lines.
This team’s offensive identity is running the ball, yet the Commanders completely stifled the Giants in that regard after halftime. They rushed for 116 yards in the first half and only 18 in the second half and overtime, despite never trailing in that timeframe.
Slayton hauled in Daniel Jones’ only big passing play — a 55-yard bomb on New York’s second-quarter touchdown drive — and then had a costly drop on another deep ball that had the potential to be gamewinning touchdown near the end of regulation.
Those are some of the miscues that the Giants are going to rue when they watch film and eventually prepare for a rematch with Washington.
“It’s kind of a little bit of a different angle when you’re going up that seam, but it’s like I said: I had it, I’ve just got to find a way to bring it in on the way to the ground,” Slayton said. “I chose to turn and jump (rather than run through the ball), so I’ve got to live with what I chose.”
And the Giants must live with an outcome Sunday that was unideal yet far from the worst-case scenario.