Mistakes Doom Giants in Loss to Chiefs
The New York Giants have nobody to blame but themselves for Monday night’s 20-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
A missed opportunity for a Giants football team still searching for a signature win – a sign- anything that could bring a glimmer of hope to what, up to this point, has been a disappointing season.
For most of the night the Giants hung with the Chiefs. Defensively, Big Blue frustrated quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who looks like a shell of his former MVP-self. The Giants forced turnovers. They hit Mahomes all night. And yet, mistakes and penalties killed the Giants at the most inopportune times.
All of New York watching the Giants final drive: pic.twitter.com/zsqkQavH8Z
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) November 2, 2021
With New York trailing 14-10 late in the third quarter, the Giants got a huge break when Logan Ryan smacked the ball out of the grasp of tight end Travis Kelce. James Bradberry recovered it for Big Blue at the Giants’ 30-yard line.
Helped out by a couple of defensive penalties on the Chiefs, Daniel Jones needed only eight plays to get the Giants into the end zone when he found Evan Engram for the score to put New York up 17-14 early in the fourth quarter.
Perhaps the Giants were primed for a mega upset? Not so fast.
Instead KC tied the game at 17, thanks in major part to an unnecessary roughness penalty on linebacker Tae Carter that moved the ball from the Giants own 42-yard line to the 27. Talk about working with a shorter field.
Late in the game, Darnay Holmes appeared to have what was a game-changing interception of Mahomes at the Chiefs’ own 34-yard line. The Giants would be in field goal range at the very least. Instead offsides was called on linebacker Oshane Ximines, costing the Giants the turnover, and a great opportunity to beat KC.
The Chiefs would receive another gift from the Giants, when a facemask penalty was called on Crowder setting up the Chiefs near mid-field. That was good enough for Mahomes, who connected with Mecole Hardman for 24-yards to set up what would be the game-winning field goal by Harrison Butker.
Instead of coming out of this game at 3-5, and in the mix for the final wild card, the Giants stand at 2-6, starring once again at an uncertain future. They host the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday at 1 p.m.
