Anatomy of a Play: What on Earth were the Giants doing at the end of the first half?

What were the Giants trying to accomplish with that Saquon Barkley run at the end of the first half? Brian Daboll and Tyrod Taylor explained it all.

The New York Giants and head coach Brian Daboll had a real shot at upsetting the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night. Big Blue’s defense played lights-out football most of the time, aided by Buffalo’s scattershot offense, and Daboll — who got his current gig after a highly successful tenure as the Bills’ offensive coordinator — certainly knew what to attack on the other side of the field.

With 14 seconds left in the first half, the Giants were up 6-0, and they had the ball at the Buffalo one-yard line after a defensive pass interference call on Bills cornerback Kaiir Elam. First-and-goal, 14 seconds left, you figure you have two or three pass plays to try and get the ball in the end zone, and you can still kick a third field goal if things don’t work out.

That’s not what happened, of course. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor audibled to a run play at the line of scrimmage, and running back Saquon Barkley went absolutely nowhere. The Giants tried to spike the ball before the half ended, but that didn’t happen, either.

Understandably, Daboll was Not Amused.

According to both Daboll and Taylor, Daboll did exactly that.

“Had a play called, it was a run-action pass play and [Taylor] ended up alerting it to a run,” Daboll said, quite tersely, after the game. “Didn’t get it off.”

Daboll said that Taylor had been told that he couldn’t alert to a run under any circumstances, but “he saw a look based on the play that we had, and he ended up alerting it.”

Daboll was going on precedent here — the Giants had been stopped on third-and-1 with 12:50 left in the first quarter (a two-yard loss on a Barkley run), and with 3:41 left in the first quarter (a two-yard pass to Barkley that was negated by an illegal motion penalty on receiver Wan’Dale Robinson), so Daboll wanted something else this time around.

It just wasn’t what was planned.

“Yeah, it was a decision, looking back on it, definitely shouldn’t have made,” Taylor said. “Alerted to a run, thought I saw a look that was beneficial for us, and it wasn’t the right call. That falls on me, as a quarterback, as a leader, as the one that’s communicating everything to everyone – got to be better in that situation.”

Taylor also said that he thought he’d have time to spike the ball after the unsuccessful run, but “ultimately, I should have just let the play on and shouldn’t have alerted it.”

That’s for sure. The Giants made history in the 14-9 loss, and in none of the ways you want to make history.