The New York Giants came into the matchup with the Washington Football Team with a 1-7 record and just six days since their Monday Night loss to Tampa Bay. Washington on the other hand came in with a 2-5 record, off of a dominant win over Dallas, and a bye week to get healthier. And yet Washington fell behind by a score of 20-3 at the half. And a valiant comeback in the second half fell short as the Giants held on to win 23-20.
The biggest issue this game was the turnovers by the Washington offense. On their first play, a 20 yard completion to Antonio Gibson turned into a fumble that had a rugby scrum of 30 yards. The Giants turned that into a field goal. After some defensive stops on both sides returner Isaiah Wright muffs and punt and sets up a Giants touchdown. At that point the snowball had started rolling.
The most unfortunate thing about today’s game was the gruesome injury to starting quarterback Kyle Allen. While being sacked Allen was leg whipped by Jabrill Peppers and his left ankle was dislocated. Coach Rivera said after the game that he didn’t know much, but that definitely should be a season ending injury. Alex Smith came and started slow but started to get it going.
In the second half, Washington woke up and started moving the ball up and down the field. Smith looked extremely comfortable and Terry McLaurin and Cam Sims had some impressive catches. However two bad turnovers on their last two drives ended up being the downfall of the team. Five turnovers is not winning football.
So now at 2-6 there may need to be a reassessment of the goal of winning the division. There were two winnable games against the Giants that the team let slip away. The Detroit Lions are up next and they just lost today to the Vikings. However Alex Smith will be the starter going forward, Dwayne Haskins will now be the backup. The defense will need to sure up the run, and the offense will need to not the turn the ball over. This was a very winnable game and the team needs to shore up it’s mistakes otherwise winnable game will continue to slip away.
