Five Difference-making Plays in New York Giants' 21-18 Loss vs. Washington Commanders

These five plays made a difference in the New York Giants' failure to win their first game.

Sep 15, 2024; Landover, Maryland, USA; New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers (1) holds his face after dropping a pass against the Washington Commanders in the second half at Commanders Field. / Luke Johnson-Imagn Images

They say football is a game of inches, but the New York Giants' grueling 21-18 loss to the Washington Commanders was more about a handful of plays that led to one of the early painful losses in the team’s 2024 season. 

Heading into their first divisional matchup of the year, the Giants were expected to see some improvements on both sides of the ball as they faced a Commander's team that they’ve fared well against in recent meetings. 

Despite a miserable showing in Week 1, there was hope that quarterback Daniel Jones would turn things around against a weak pass defense in Washington and the front seven, headlined by outside linebackers Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux, would get to work in putting the heat on Jayden Daniels and a mediocre offensive line in front of him. 

To their dismay, the Giants did many things right and had their grand opportunities to steal another victory on the road, which could have been their first and third straight win in the nation’s capital. Yet, on the other side, a few plays helped the losing fate sneak up and eventually grab hold of their afternoon with a limited Commanders offense that saw all 21 of its points come from kicker Austin Seibert.

Among the many in a gut-wrenching defeat, these were the five that stole a hard-fought win from the hands of a troubled Giants squad, now 0-2 and heading into the toughest gauntlet of its schedule.

Graham Gano Injures Hamstring on Opening Kickoff

Before the Giants knew it, the opening kickoff would be the play that ultimately sealed their chances of defeating the Commanders.

On the first boot of the game, the Giants reverted to their old woes on special teams and nearly let Washington return one to the house for a touchdown. Running back Austin Ekeler received the ball at the Commanders' 2-yard line and took it 98 yards to the other end of the field for a momentary score quickly called back due to a holding penalty by linebacker Nick Bellore.

In the process, Gano, the 37-year-old veteran who missed most of the 2023 season with a left knee injury, pulled his hamstring to stay in lockstep with Ekeler and make a tackle to save the potential score. It might have been a big mistake for a guy whom the Giants desperately needed to carry their special teams operation on Sundays because it ended up compiling onto a groin injury he suffered the day before that landed him on the injury report. 

Gano’s injury wasn’t the worst part about it, though. As a result of the Giants' lack of foresight to add a backup leg to the 53-man roster, they were forced to play the remainder of the contest without a kicker. They never called Jude McAtamney up from the practice squad, and after a missed PAT attempt by punter Jamie Gillan in the first quarter, they had to resort to four-down territory with no chance to add points to the board via field goals.  

At various points in the afternoon, New York had what would have been golden opportunities for Gano, had he been healthy, to take the shot. Instead, Brian Daboll’s offense had to hope for end zone finishes that did come on three separate occasions, except each without the help of extra points on the backend, as the Giants would miss two 2-point conversions later in the game that could have broadened their lead.

The most certain thing is that if the Giants had Gano remained healthy on the opening drive and active for the rest of the game, it could have been a tale of the tape on Monday morning in East Rutherford. The Giants might have had a few more points on the board, and it would have taken more than Seibert’s heroics for the Commanders to steal victory from the jaws of defeat.

Devin Singletary’s Fumble

With a 12-9 lead nearing the end of the first half, the Giants offense had a big opportunity staring them in the face. 

After Jones and company went ten plays and 69 yards in the final two minutes to punch in their second touchdown with Malik Nabers, New York had the chance to return from the break and build a two-score game on the Commanders, a deficit that could have been an insurmountable advantage for the visitors.

However, the turnovers were returned on just the fourth play from scrimmage in the third quarter. The Giants moved the ball 30 yards on two pass plays before setting up a second down and 13 at the Washington 47-yard line, with some offensive cohesion building in their gears.

On the next play, Devin Singletary took the handoff and bounced it left to the outside for another flashy 15-yard gain that would have extended the Giant's drive to the Washington 32. Before he could do that, the ball was jarred loose from his grasp by the flying punch of cornerback Benjamin St.-Juste and recovered by safety Jeremy Chinn to stifle the team’s latest knock on the door. 

Only a few chunk plays from reaching payday again, the Giants could have found the endzone for the third possession in the last four and taken a domineering nine-point lead into the heat of the third quarter. Instead, they were forced to hand the ball over to Jayden Daniels and the Commanders offense that went back 56 yards in nine plays to kick their fourth field goal and even the score at 12-12.

The turnover was a strange sight for Singletary, who had just one muff in 17 games last season with the Texans and was doing a solid job protecting the football at the first and second levels. He could have finished the drive by notching his second touchdown to add to his 132 yards on the ground, but he was left shaking his head at the lost opportunity to endear himself to the fanbase with a comeback performance in Week 2. 

After Singletary’s fumble, the Giants would not get that close to the end zone again until the onset of the fourth quarter. In the meantime, it allowed Washington to add six more points of their own to flip the momentum back in their favor with a 15-12 lead. 

Brian Robinson Gashes the Giants for 40 yards

If there was one thing the Giants defense didn’t do that I mentioned in my keys to the game analysis, it was to slow down the Commanders' run game, led by Brian Robinson Jr.

Robinson, the team’s third-round pick out of Alabama in 2022, is more known for his strength and toughness at 228 pounds than his speed in the open field. Still, he managed to torch the Giants defense on the ground with 17 carries for 133 yards and an average carry of 7.8 yards that was the best marking of his NFL career. 

To make matters worse, Robinson’s efforts marked the first time the Commanders had a 100-yard rusher in 22 consecutive games. His total output was larger than the rushing production New York allowed in both games against Washington last season and was buoyed by two chunk runs, one of which gashed the Giants for a whopping 40 yards. 

With 6:36 left in the third quarter, the Giants had the Commanders in a 3rd-and-1 situation at their 39-yard line, looking to finally earn a stop that would force the rival’s first punt of the contest. After Daniels connected with Terry McLaurin to trim the distance down to a yard, Shane Bowen’s crew had Robinson tied up at the line of scrimmage and ready to collapse for a big fourth-down draw that would have been a win in the defensive column. 

Before they could do it, Robinson eventually found his way to a hole in the middle and broke free, taking the pigskin 40 yards to the New York 21-yard line for the largest rushing play of the game. It was one of seven third-down conversions the Giants allowed on the day and would boost the 215-yard rushing total for the Commanders as well. 

No surprise to anybody, the play would help set up another makeable kick from 29 yards for Austin Seibert seven snaps later. Seibert’s sixth field goal of the game tied the contest at 18 a piece and capped off another stellar drive for Washington that initially looked like it would go the Giants’ way. 

Malik Nabers’s Drop

Every time Malik Nabers touches the football, he views it as the most important play that will determine his team’s fate on Sunday. Nothing made that truer than the one target he dropped that shut the door on a statement win for the Giants. 

In just his second game since being taken No. 6 overall in April, Nabers was magnificent and completely balled out to lead the Giants receiving corps. He had ten catches on a team-high 18 targets for 127 yards and a touchdown, averaging a massive 12.7 yards per catch. 

With the ball near his hands, Nabers seemed almost unstoppable, and the Commanders lackluster secondary had no answer for taking the game plan out of his reach. On a few occasions, the rookie even found a way to escape from loose tackles to tune a short haul into gains as large as 28 yards that gashed the Washington defense and had New York’s offense on a roll. 

Yet, when it mattered most, Nabers had his first rookie moment in the NFL that was no doubt tough to swallow. On the Giants' last drive of the game, Jones targeted his new favorite pass catcher on a 4th-and-4 play from the Washington 22, a short sluggo route on the outside which got open but was dropped along the sideline to prevent the drive from extending closer to the endzone. 

Nabers had all the room he needed to make the grab and secure the first down to give the Giants the ball inside the Commanders 20-yard line with two minutes left in regulation. For the first time in his young career, he did the unthinkable, and New York could not deal the lasting punch, losing possession on downs with the game still even at 18-18. 

This drop was not the only play that would haunt the Giants as they looked back on what could have been, but it certainly was a teaching moment that would keep Nabers up at night as he learned how to win at the highest level. He might feel down for costing his teammates a hard-fought win this time, but with growth, he has all the abilities to be the one that seals the deal in more tight games like Sunday’s. 

The Commanders used the novice’s mistake to power their ride to a game-winning field goal two minutes later, but Nabers will look to avenge himself when the two sides square off again in two months. 

Noah Brown Left Wide Open for 34 yards 

After Nabers’s disastrous drop in the previous drive, the next and final play that cost the Giants wasn’t the game-winning field goal but, more importantly, the big catch that led to it. 

Like they had all afternoon, the Giants' defense had one job: to stop the Commanders from approaching field goal range and force overtime with another opportunity for their offense. Just two plays into the drive, that assignment was all but over as Daniels connected with his receiver Noah Brown for 34 yards upfield to begin the team’s fateful match to victory. 

On the play, the Giants deployed a split package with two safeties up top, Jason Pinnock and Tyler Nubin. The objective was for each player to have responsibility for a player and a gap, but in the end, that didn’t work. Brown somehow was left wide open up the middle and made the grab with ease before he was tracked down by Cor’Dale Flott, who was playing on the outside. 

After that mishap, the Commanders moved the ball 31 yards in seven plays and the final 1:08 of the fourth quarter to set up one last chip shot field goal for Seibert. They made it without a doubt and ripped the hearts out of the Giants, who fought all game long but just didn’t play enough complimentary football to get the job done. 

Final Thoughts

It’ll be the biggest lesson heading into Week 3 that New York needs to be stout in all three phases if they’re going to win football games against tougher opponents. This was a Commanders team that they dominated and had chances to conquer once again, but the story of little mistakes continues to dictate the toughest losses of the Giants' recent history, and it hurt them in the latest instance as Brown flashed vertically to make the eventual result feel inevitable.

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