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NY Giants: The “what-if games” of 2020

By Danny Friedman

LANDOVER, MARYLAND - NOVEMBER 08: Head coach Joe Judge of the New York Giants looks on as he holds a red challenge flag in the second half against the Washington Football Team at FedExField on November 08, 2020 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
LANDOVER, MARYLAND - NOVEMBER 08: Head coach Joe Judge of the New York Giants looks on as he holds a red challenge flag in the second half against the Washington Football Team at FedExField on November 08, 2020 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) /
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ARLINGTON, TEXAS – OCTOBER 11: Michael Gallup #13 of the Dallas Cowboys catches a first down receptions against Ryan Lewis #37 of the New York Giants during the fourth quarter at AT&T Stadium on October 11, 2020 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TEXAS – OCTOBER 11: Michael Gallup #13 of the Dallas Cowboys catches a first down receptions against Ryan Lewis #37 of the New York Giants during the fourth quarter at AT&T Stadium on October 11, 2020 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /

Week 5: NY Giants at Dallas Cowboys

So much went wrong for the NY Giants in this game. Let’s start from the beginning.

It was all too good to be true early and often for Big Blue. After letting up a field goal on the opening drive, the Giants responded with a touchdown drive capped off by an Evan Engram handoff for the team’s first rushing touchdown by a tight end since 1996.

Following their rushing touchdown, the New York defense did their part to put some points on the board.

An errant pass from Dak Prescott off Zeke Elliott’s hands fell right to Kyler Fackrell. Fackrell didn’t look back and knew what to do with the ball as he weaved and bobbed his way through the Cowboys offense-turned-defense for a pick-six touchdown. Two touchdowns in less than two minutes was absolutely massive to get an early start and end the Cowboys winning streak against New York.

The second quarter is where things started to go awry for the Giants.

A brilliant play call led to an unheard-of modern-day Giants fake field goal. Riley Dixon made a perfect pass to a wide-open, uncovered Evan Engram hiding by the sideline and he ran downfield for a walk-in touchdown. The mind-boggling play was too good to be true, as a lineman wasn’t set and nullified the play, much to Joe Judge’s frustration.

A disappointing field goal gave the Giants the lead to go up 20-17 with a minute left in the half. It was too much time for Dallas as they immediately responded with a touchdown drive capped off by a “Philly Special” of their own featuring a Dak Prescott receiving touchdown.

In summary, it was a disastrous ending to the first half for the GMen and things didn’t get much better in the second half. The second half was a close back-and-forth affair with neither team gaining a significant advantage or lead.

The game’s mood and tone completely changed once Dak Prescott went down with an ugly, season-ending compound broke ankle injury. Andy Dalton came in and rallied his team to victory.

The NY Giants took their last lead of the game with a Devonta Freeman 4-yard scamper with 8:46 to play in the game. The offense doubled up by going for two and again shocked everyone by using a tackle-eligible crossfield pass from Jones to Andrew Thomas for the two points to go up a field goal.

Dallas came right back with their own field goal, tying the game and leaving 1:50 remaining on the clock. The Giants’ offense sputtered for the third time in four weeks with a chance to win or tie on their last drive and were unable to score.

Five offensive plays went nowhere and only took up 50 seconds of game clock, leaving 52 seconds left for Andy Dalton to take his shot at winning the game.

Starting from their own 12, Dalton shredded the New York defense.

He sent two straight throws to Michael Gallup and he set them up for the game-winning field goal. The second throw was the backbreaker for NY, as Ryan Lewis got burned down the sidelines and Gallup made a ridiculous, athletic grab as he twisted his body and stayed in bounds to ice the game.

The final nail in the coffin was Zuerlein’s game-winning field goal. In classic style, the ball looked like it was swaying wide before creeping in and barely getting in between the goalposts for the win. New York was staring at 0-5 for the second time in four years.

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