On the final play of the game, the New York Giants almost came away with the biggest upset of the 2023 season. But Darren Waller was unable to come down with a Tyrod Taylor pass in the end zone, and they were defeated by the Buffalo Bills 14-9.
The replay showed that Bills cornerback Taron Johnson had interfered with Waller by holding him. But the referees neglected to throw a flag as New York was handed its fourth straight defeat.
There are no moral victories in the NFL. And despite the fact that they fared better than most expected, there’s little solace in a team being 1-5. However, the team played with heart and effort and were competitive in a game for the first time in a month.
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With all that said, here are four takeaways from Sunday night’s game.
An inexcusable mental error at the end of the first half led to New York’s downfall
This game will be remembered for two plays. The first one was the final play of the game, and the second one was the play at the end of the first half.
New York was up 6-0 and facing a first and goal at the Bills one-yard line with no timeouts and 14 seconds remaining. Tyrod Taylor seemed to check to a run play and handed the ball to Saquon Barkley who was tackled immediately by Terrel Bernard and Christian Benford for no gain. New York scrambled to get in position to spike the ball, but time expired and the team missed a golden opportunity to take a two-possession lead.
Head coach Brian Daboll was livid when speaking to Taylor as the two walked off the field. This was an inexcusable blunder as it would eventually lead to the team’s downfall. This is simple situational football. You simply cannot run the ball in that situation.
Had New York came away with a field goal, they would’ve had a 9-0 lead and have a firm grasp of the game. In addition, if they had those three points, then they would have only been down 14-12 instead of 14-9 during the final drive of the game and would have needed only a field goal to win.
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Bobby Okereke was the best player on the field
A huge positive for the New York Giants on Sunday night was that the defense was stellar and shut out the Bills until the first play of the fourth quarter. A huge reason for this was that linebacker Bobby Okereke was the best player on the field.
He finished the game with a team-high 11 tackles. More importantly, he was instrumental in forcing two turnovers. He forced Gabe Davis to fumble on the Bills’ second possession of the game which was recovered by Micah McFadden, and then in the second quarter, he tipped a Josh Allen pass that was intercepted by McFadden.
In holding the high-powered Bills offense to their lowest point total of the season, thanks to one of their biggest offseason acquisitions gives optimism that the defense will continue to improve.
Saquon Barkley provided a fourth quarter spark for New York Giants
After missing the previous three games due to a high-ankle sprain, Barkley made his return on Sunday night. After being held in check for most of the evening, the superstar running back provided a spark in the fourth quarter.
With New York trailing 7-6 on its first drive of the fourth quarter, Barkley exploded on back-to-back runs of 19 and 34 yards, respectively. The drive would eventually culminate in a Graham Gano 29-yard field goal to put New York back in front 9-7. Barkley would finish the game with 93 yards on 24 carries and had four receptions for five yards.
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The offensive line showed signs of improvement
After surrendering 18 sacks in the previous two games, many were expecting the team’s patchwork offensive line to give up an abundance of sacks to a Bills defense that led the league in sacks. But with Justin Pugh making his first start of the season and with Taylor showing better pocket awareness, Taylor was only sacked three times on the evening.
Pugh deserves a ton of credit as he started the game at left guard, but then moved to left tackle when Joshua Ezeudu left the game in the first quarter with a foot injury. Although he was beaten off the edge a few times and had to be given help, he played as well as could be expected for someone seeing their first NFL action of the year.
Although the offensive line is still the biggest issue on the team, there’s optimism that when Andrew Thomas returns he and Pugh and help make the line respectable.