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Trailing 20-7 with under 2:00 remaining in the third quarter, New York Giants were facing a third-and-1 when quarterback Daniel Jones dropped back to pass and launched one toward the sideline where wide receiver Sterling Shepard laid out for it.
Unfortunately, the ball bounced off of Shepard’s fingertips and the Giants were forced to punt from their own 16-yard line.
Riley Dixon’s boot went just 34 yards. Three minutes later, the Arizona Cardinals connected on a field and extended their lead to 23-7 with 12:38 remaining in the fourth quarter.
It was a curious and costly call for the Giants, especially when considering they had the red hot Wayne Gallman in the backfield.
So, whose flub was it? Was it Jason Garrett’s call or did Jones see something at the line of scrimmage and change the play?
“No, I didn’t change the play,” Jones told reporters. “We went through a couple of cadences and got the play in. Saw a matchup there, and I need to give him a better chance to make that play.”
The decision to throw to Shepard would have made sense had the Giants planned to go for it on fourth down. However, that wasn’t their intention and the misfire cost them dearly.
Still, head coach Joe Judge defended Garrett’s call and Jones’ throw.
“There was a matchup we thought we liked right there. There are things we talk about going in terms of game plan and how they played and things we had to do to make plays down the field. That’s part of what we discussed during the week and in practice,” Judge said. “Look, we’ve hit some of those throughout the season as well. They’ve been big plays for us. To sit here and second guess everything we did – we went in, we knew what the plan was. We’ll look going forward to see if that’s the best decision for us or not. We’ll make the decision based on the opponent and how we’re playing in each game.”
The trio can defend the call all they want to. The bottom line is they got it wrong — both in the moment and in hindsight.
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