It took 100 years for the Giants to lose 10 games in a row for the first time.
Next week, they can accomplish the dubious franchise record for the second time in as many years.
With an offensive game plan Sunday that showed zero faith in promising rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart to throw the ball into the MetLife Stadium winds and against one of the NFL’s most ferocious blitzing defenses, the Giants squandered a gift-wrapped opportunity to end their misery and lost 16-13 to the Vikings.
The Giants (2-13) retained possession of the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft in what looks like a two-team race that should be decided next week in a head-to-head matchup with the equally hapless Raiders
Will Reichard’s go-ahead 30-yard field goal with 4:15 left in the game at the end of a 14-play drive lifted the Vikings, who survived an injury to starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
Losers of nine straight, the Giants had a chance to tie, but Darius Slayton dropped a first-down pass with room to run and Dart was sacked on fourth down.
The game turned competitive in the final 25 seconds of the first half, when the Vikings inexplicably tried to pad their 10-point lead by setting up a screen pass and wound up going into the locker room clinging to a 13-10 advantage.
Brian Bruns came unblocked off the edge, flattened McCarthy and jarred the ball loose for Tyler Nubin’s scoop-and-score 27-yard touchdown return. Burns’ 15th sack of the season resulted in the second takeaway by the Giants (Paulson Adebo interception) and what could’ve been their third takeaway and second defensive touchdown if not for Abdul Carter’s offside penalty wiping out Jevon Holland’s 96-yard pick-six.
To make matters worse for the Vikings, McCarthy injured his right hand on the play and was ruled out for the game. Undrafted rookie Max Brosmer, who threw four interceptions in his only start earlier this season, replaced McCarthy and somehow out-dueled Dart (7-of-13 for 33 yards).
The Giants tied the score at 13-13 on a 14-play drive that chewed more than nine minutes off the third- and fourth-quarter clocks. A chunk of it was done without three starters on the offensive line (left tackle Andrew Thomas, left guard Jon Runyan Jr. and center John Michael Schmitz).
Dart threw his broken necklace to the sideline just before throwing a fourth-down completion to Slayton. With the ball near midfield, Dart pump-faked and threw, and was drilled for a third-down sack by Eric Wilson.
But, for the second time in the game, the Giants’ drive was extended by a helmet-to-helmet roughing-the-passer penalty. In his NFL debut, Ben Sauls’ 39-yard field goal tied the score with 11:06 remaining.
Carter, who cost the Giants a second-quarter touchdown by being in the neutral zone at the snap, tried to make up for his mistake. On the third-down do-over after the lost touchdown, he pressured McCarthy into the arms of Chauncey Golston for a sack, and then he added his own sack (third straight game) in the fourth quarter.
When a similar play to Holland’s negated pick-six happened going in the other direction, there was no penalty to offset the takeaway.
Byron Murphy intercepted a pass that bounced off Theo Johnson’s hands and returned it 15 yards to set up a touchdown. The Giants had great third-down coverage but forgot to account for McCarthy’s legs, which were airborne as he absorbed contact at the goal line and finished off his 12-yard scramble for a 13-3 lead with 2:01 remaining.
The Giants ran the ball 15 times before Jaxson Dart put the ball in the air. Dart’s first drop-back in the middle of that stretch of handoffs went for naught because he was sacked at the 10-yard line on fourth down.
A return to the red zone resulted in Dart’s first official pass attempt – off the hands of Theo Johnson. Another sack of Dart brought up a fourth down, and the Giants weren’t as greedy the second time around as the rookie Sauls converted a 27-yard field goal for his first career points.
Dart’s first and only completion of the first half – a 2-yarder – came with 102 seconds remaining in the first half and followed an interception and two other near-interceptions.
Seeing the Giants’ offense sputter should have been enough for Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell to turtle up, but he got greedy, lost his quarterback and breathed life into a dead team.
But nothing can save the Giants from themselves.
