On Sunday, in the battle of New York between the Jets(4-3) and Giants (2-6), the Giants were one yard away from winning their third game of the season. The Giants played most of the game without either of their top two quarterbacks. Daniel Jones missed his third consecutive game with a neck injury. His replacement Tyrod Taylor, suffered a rib injury in the second quarter, and undrafted rookie free agent Tommy DeVito had to play the rest of the way
With 28 seconds to go, the Giants led 10-7 and had a 4th and one from the Jets’ 17-yard line. The Giants had been running the ball well all day against the Jets and racked up 203 rushing yards. If they get the first down, the game is over. If they make the field goal, the Jets would have to score a touchdown to win.
Ultimately, Giants coach Brian Daboll decided to kick the field goal, and the unthinkable happened: Graham Gano missed a very makeable 35-yard field goal. Gano missed two field goals on Sunday.
The Jets, who struggled on offense all game long, were able to drive 58 yards, and Greg Zuerlein would make 35-yard at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.
In the extra session, Zuerlein would make a 33-yard field goal, and the Jets would win 13-10 in OT.
After the game, Daboll was asked about his decision to kick the field goal.
“Kick a field goal there, and they have 24 seconds with no timeouts, and they need a touchdown,” he said. “So, counted on making the field goal, and then they’d have 24 seconds with no time outs, still have to drive it the length, and our defense was playing well all game. That’s why I made the decision.”
Before their game-tying drive in regulation, the Jets had struggled on offense. After scoring a touchdown in the first quarter, the Jets either punted, had a fumble, or a turnover on downs, which led to Daboll’s decision to kick the field goal.
“It’s a decision that we made to try to kick a field goal with Graham(Gano),” Daboll said. “Our defense was—they were like, 0-for-12 on third down. They were playing well. That’s the decision we made. It didn’t work out.”
Jets coach Robert Saleh thought kicking the field goal was the right move.
“I felt like kicking the field goal was the right thing to do,” he said. “You make it a touchdown lead, no timeouts, 30 seconds left. I probably would have done the same thing.”
Saquon Barkley, who rushed for 128 yards on a career-high 36 carries, wanted the ball in that spot, but he’s okay with Daboll’s decision.
“We have Graham Gano, one of the greatest kickers of all time to be honest,” Barkley said. “That’s life, sometimes it doesn’t go your way, but we’re going to continue to have faith in him. We had faith in him coming into that moment, and we’ll continue to have faith in him after that moment. That’s football. That’s life. It didn’t go our way and that’s the situation, but as a competitor – yeah you want the ball, but I’m not going to harp in that situation. I’ve got to find a way to get the first down before that.”
In hindsight, it wasn’t the right call, but in all reality, Daboll made the right call. The Jets were not scoring a touchdown in that spot. In fact, it’s shocking that the Jets were able to get in position to kick the game-tying field goal.
Regarding the Jets, their defense is carrying this team. They have now won three straight, and they are finding ways to win games. Zach Wilson(17/36, 240 yards, touchdown) found a way late in regulation and OT.
In the future, they will need Wilson to make a few more plays, and if he can do that, the Jets can make the playoffs.
Notes:
-Both offenses struggled on Sunday; the Giants and Jets converted only four of 34 third-down opportunities, including zero on 18 attempts in the first half.
-The teams combined for 24 punts, the highest total in an NFL game since Oct. 11, 1998, when the Raiders and Chargers punted 27 times
-Kayvon Thibodeaux recorded a career-high 3.0 sacks of Zach Wilson to raise his team-leading total to 8.5 – more than twice his rookie total of 4.0.
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