The New York Giants defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars, 23-17, on Sunday but it wasn’t easy. The game came down to the final play, the final second and the final yard.
It should not have gotten that far.
The Giants dropped six passes on the day, were penalized eight times for 67 yards, and allowed Jacksonville to convert on six third-down attempts and two fourth-down attempts.
They may have gotten the win, but it wasn’t exactly a satisfying one for Big Blue.
“Made it tougher than we needed to,” head coach Brian Daboll said after the game. “Good to get a win. Shouldn’t have came down to that, though. . . Didn’t finish the game we should have finished the game. There are always things to clean up.”
In addition to their drops, penalties and third-down struggles, the Giants also made other mental mistakes.
Late in the game, with the clock ticking down, running back Saquon Barkley failed to stay in bounds. He attempted to, but his foot slipped and slid into the white. That error, which was confirmed upon review, put quite a bit of time back on the clock and gave the Jaguars extra life.
“Yeah, we should have stayed inbounds. Put it on me. We’ve got to do a better job than that,” Daboll said.
“Just got to do better. Not going to make any excuses. Just got to be better. That’s really it,” Barkley said. “I’m expected to understand the situation. I knew the situation. I tried to get down, but got to do a better job of it.”
The subdued nature of the team following their sixth win of the season does come with a silver lining, however. In years past, the Giants would have found a way to lose that game and they would have treated it like a moral victory. Here in 2022, they got the win and they’re almost taking it like a loss.
“To get to where we want to go, we have a lot to improve on,” safety Julian Love admitted.
Talk about culture change.
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