What else would be expected from the Giants?
Having held fourth quarter leads in 10 of their 12 games this season, the Giants once again proved to be apathetic to prosperity, squandering an advantage for the fifth time this past Sunday in a head-scratching 23-20 overtime loss to the Jets at MetLife Stadium.
The defeat dropped the Giants to 5-7, but in the awful NFC East, they are still tied for first place in the division with the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington, who are also 5-7. The Dallas Cowboys, who were seemingly out of the hunt for the division title after losing eight out of nine games from Sept. 27 through Nov. 26, are near incomprehensibly only one game behind the pack at 4-8 following a 19-16 win over Washington Monday.
NFL rules dictate that one of the four must represent the division in the playoffs. The Giants, who have been beaten in four of their previous five games, seem to want no part of the postseason for the fourth consecutive season.
“It’s tough. Losing sucks,” said the Giants’ dazzling second-year wide receiver Odell Beckham. “Not finishing sucks, but that was the case today and all we can do is move forward.”
After engineering a 17-play, 76-yard drive, leading 20-10 with 8:42 left in the game, Giants head coach Tom Coughlin decided to go for the Jets’ jugular instead of kicking a field goal, arguably a safer path to victory. But quarterback Eli Manning was intercepted by Jets safety Rontez Miles on 4th and 1 from the Jets’ 4 yard line, renewing hope in a Jets’ team that didn’t appear to have a comeback in them.
And to deepen the pain, the Giants’ surefooted kicker Josh Brown missed a 48-yard field goal that would have tied the game in overtime. It was Brown’s first and only miss of the season.