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Facing a second-and-20 with 4:39 remaining in the game and the score tied at 17, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes dropped back and fired a pass to wide receiver Byron Pringle.
New York Giants cornerback Darnay Holmes dove into the lane and came down with an impressive interception deep in his team’s own territory. It set Big Blue up for victory — a season-saving upset.
But then came the yellow flag.
Linebacker Oshame Ximines, who had played decently to that point, jumped offsides. It gave the ball back to Mahomes and breathed new life into the Chiefs.
Roughly three minutes later, the Chiefs would connect on a short field goal and go up, 20-17. That would turn out to be all she wrote.
“You just can’t have penalties like that. Point blank,” head coach Joe Judge said after the game. “That comes down to how we execute on the field and make sure we coach it better so that doesn’t happen again. We have to do a better job all the way around.”
Ximines made no excuses for the error, calling it “unacceptable” and saying it never should have happened.
“That’s never a play you want to give up. I’ve been playing ball for a long time and jumping offsides is never acceptable,” Ximines said. “It’s not something you want to do or be responsible for.”
The penalty was especially hard on Holmes, who had been struggling this season.
“I was really excited for Darnay. Darnay has been working really hard. We really played that game how we wanted to play for the most part,” safety Logan Ryan said. “We talked about it and I’m sure Oshane is going to talk about it. It’s just unfortunate, we wish he didn’t do it, but it’s something that you have to learn from. Hopefully he’ll learn from it, so it doesn’t happen in a game.”
Ximines immediately apologized to Holmes.
“I definitely [apologized]. I talked to him. It could have been his first pick on the season. That’s honestly what [expletive] me off the most. That’s my dog right there. It could have been a good play for him. We got to move on from it,” Ximines said.
The Giants have been doing a lot of “moving on” this year, especially following costly penalties. It’s in stark contrast to the disciplined program Judge is attempting to run.
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