New York Giants Grab The Lead
Nobody expected the New York Giants to win their season opener in Dallas, but they did a good job of exceeding expectations early in the game by forcing turnovers. With both offenses struggling in the first half, they forced a fumble and an interception on back to back possessions. The fumble was returned for a touchdown, while the interception led to points as well. This helped the Giants get a lead in the first half, which they held all the way until the fourth quarter, where disaster struck.
Dallas Cowboys Take Advantage Of Mistakes
Dallas Cowboys fans couldn’t have been confident when the Giants had the ball deep in their territory with just minutes to go. But the Giants made some catastrophic errors from that point on, which led to their demise in a game where they led by double digits with less than ten minutes to play.
The problems for New York started when they had the ball at the five yard line with around two minutes to go. All they had to do was score a touchdown to guarantee victory, or just run the ball three times to drain the clock and force the Cowboys to use all of their timeouts. Somehow, they failed to do either of those things!
First, New York Giants coaches instructed running back Rashad Jennings to not score a touchdown, as they wanted to waste as much time from the clock as possible. While that decision was debated, it at least made some sense as running out the clock would have been a prudent move. But it was the Giants’ next decision that really haunted them.
Rather than run the ball three times and give the ball back to Dallas with less than a minute to go, the Giants passed the ball on third down. The pass fell incomplete, and the Giants were forced to kick a field goal with no additional time coming off the clock. That field goal gave the Giants a six point lead. Naturally, the Cowboys then took the ball and scored a touchdown just before time expired, leaving the Giants to wonder what had just happened.
Both Giants coach Tom Coughlin and quarterback Eli Manning accepted blame for the decision making that went into their collapse, but that’s irrelevant. All that matters is that the Giants lost and the Cowboys won, a result that will have a huge impact on both teams as they compete for supremacy in the NFC East.
By: Jason M. Sanin]]>
