New York’s 23-17 win Sunday was decided by a single yard. The Jaguars were about to complete at least a game-tying touchdown drive when Christian Kirk’s forward progress was stopped by Fabian Moreau and Xavier McKinney at the Giants’ 1 with about three seconds left.
The Jaguars were out of timeouts and didn’t have enough time to line up and run another play.
The Giants improved to 6-1 thanks to the critical stop.
First-year coach Brian Daboll was “happy” with the play and liked watching his players compete to stop Kirk, but he wasn’t pleased with the Giants’ overall play.
“It was good to get a win, (but) it shouldn’t have come down to that, though,” he said during his postgame news conference.
IYER: What’s wrong with the Buccaneers? Six things holding Bucs down in 2022
Why did Daboll feel this way? He felt that the team came up short on both sides of the ball.
This is a fair assessment from Daboll. The Jaguars outgained the Giants 452-436 and averaged 7.0 yards per play. And while the Giants’ offense performed well, especially on the ground, it scored just one red-zone touchdown in five trips.
So again, critical moments, that was good. But we gave up too many yards. We didn’t capitalize in the red zone; didn’t finish the game the way we should have finished the game. So, you know, there’s always things to clean up.
MORE: How Joe Burrow made history with 501-yard game against the Falcons
Still, Daboll was able to become first Giants head coach since 1929 to start his career 6-1.
Despite their flaws, the Giants are turning themselves into one of the NFL’s most surprising — and best — teams.
