Consider this a learning experience for Malik Nabers.
Without kicker Graham Gano, who suffered a hamstring injury on the opening kick-off that forced him out of the game, the New York Giants opted to go for it on a 4th-&-4 from the Washington 22-yard line with 2:04 left to play.
Daniel Jones’ short pass to the right sideline intended for the star rookie receiver, who had already made 10 catches for 127 yards and a touchdown, went through his hands as he fell out of bounds.
The Commanders proceeded to make Nabers and the Giants pay, going 64 yards to set up Austin Seibert’s seventh field goal of the game, a 30-yarder as time expired to relegate New York to a 21-18 loss.
“I’m disappointed,” Nabers said. “No matter how good of a game you can play, that last play came down to me. I’m hurt that I let those veterans down. I know what kind of player I am… I know what kind of confidence they have in me. I don’t ever want to let my team down.”
Had the Giants had Gano, they likely would have come away with the victory considering punter Jamie Gillam missed an extra point, which prompted head coach Brian Daboll to go for a pair of two-point conversions after touchdowns that were not converted.
Along with those three points off the board, a healthy kicker would have prompted the easy decision to kick a field goal late in the game rather than go for that fourth down that Nabers failed to reel in.
“We thought Graham would be OK,” head coach Brian Daboll said on his decision not to have a backup kicker despite Gano battling injury issues throughout the week. “He got hurt chasing down a hamstring. He didn’t hurt his groin, he hurt his hamstring… I’m not a doctor… Anybody could get injured.”
Now at 0-2, the Giants find themselves staring down the barrel of a nightmare start to the season with matchups against the Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, and Seattle Seahawks coming up in the next three weeks.
Quarterback Daniel Jones improved from his miserable Week 1 showing, completing 16 of 28 passes for 178 yards and two touchdowns to go with an additional 32 yards. He was supported on the ground by 95 yards and a touchdown from running back Devin Singletary.
Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, a talent the Giants wanted during the pre-draft process, was an efficient 23 of 29 passing for 226 yards but could not author a touchdown in six red zone trips.
Despite possessing the ball for just 8:21 of a possible 30 minutes in the first half, the Giants scored a pair of touchdowns to take a 12-9 lead into the break.
Washington’s Austin Ekeler took the game’s opening kick-off to the house, which featured Gano going down with that hamstring injury, but it was called back because of a holding penalty.
Daniels embarked on a 9:36 drive, which got Washington down to the shadow of the Giants’ end zone, but a false-start penalty on a 4th-&-1 attempt forced the hosts to a field goal.
The Giants immediately responded with its first touchdown of the season, a seven-yard rush from Devin Singletary to put New York up with 1:06 to go in the first quarter. The score was set up by a 28-yard reception from Jones to Malik Nabers on a 3rd-&-12 to get inside Washington territory.
With no Gano, Gillam missed the extra point to make it a 6-3 Giants lead.
The Commanders reeled off two more lengthy drives in the first half, but both stalled in New York territory, forcing them to settle for field goals to take a 9-6 lead with 1:50 to go before the break.
In the two-minute drill, though, the Giants made the most of their limited time, eating up 69 yards in 1:42 as Jones hit Nabers for a four-yard touchdown reception — the rookie receiver’s first score in the NFL.
Jones completed 5-of-8 passes in that drive, with three of them going to Nabers for 40 yards. He had just three completions on the day before that final drive.
New York failed the two-point conversion attempt, limiting their lead to three points at the half.
Singletary fumbled on the Giants’ opening possession of the third quarter to snuff out a promising drive, leading to the Commanders’ game-tying field goal.
A Brian Robinson Jr. 40-yard rush in which he emerged from a rugby-like scrum to break loose set up a fifth Washington field goal after stalling in the red zone yet again, this time from 29 yards out for Seibert, to give the Commanders a 15-12 lead with 2:47 left in the third.
The Giants came up with a lengthy drive that spanned into the fourth quarter, going 70 yards on 13 plays in 6:15 to take an 18-15 lead following another failed two-point conversion with 11:32 to go. Jones connected with Wan’Dale Robinson from seven yards out.
Nabers extended the drive when he reeled in a four-yard reception on a 4th-&-3 from the Commanders’ 31-yard line.
Behind a 27-yard screen pass to Ekeler, the Commanders tied it up with 7:12 to go with his sixth field goal of the afternoon.
