When New York Giants quarterback Tyrod Taylor missed a wide-open Saquon Barkley on a two-point conversion attempt that would have put his team up late, all he wanted was an opportunity at redemption.
That came with 1:08 remaining on the clock when the Giants got the ball back at their own 35-yard line.
On the first play of that drive, Taylor hit Barkley right in his hands — he wasn’t going to miss twice — but the running back dropped the ball.
Sensing he had to create some magic of his own, Taylor took the second-down snap and scrambled for 31 yards, setting the Giants up at the Los Angeles 34-yard line. A quick spike on first down stopped the clock with 42 seconds remaining.
The Giants were still breathing and they had a shot, but they had to chew up more yardage. The aging Mason Crosby had already missed an extra point earlier in the game and neither kicker was finding any success on the day.
That’s when things got weird.
Whether it was head coach Brian Daboll or offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, someone called a run up the middle with no timeouts. Barkley was taken down two yards in the backfield.
“Yeah, I’d like to have it back,” Daboll told reporters after the game.
Daboll repeated that same line three times, refusing to provide any additional context to the decision-making. And while the Rams did call a timeout to stop the clock, the damage had already been done and the Giants couldn’t recover. Crosby eventually missed a 54-yard field goal wide left.
“I don’t make that decision. I don’t call the plays,” Barkley said. “That’s not to diss the coach or coaches. They probably had a situation, they knew what we needed to get to—the line that we had to get to for the kick—and that’s the decision that they made and the Rams made a good play. The defense made a good play.
“I kind of look at it as you don’t really know what’s the right call. If it works, it’s the right call. If it doesn’t, it’s a bad call. However you want to look at it. If we run the ball, we throw the ball, we call that play and I break and I get 20 yards and we spike it, it’s a great call. That’s the NFL. They made a good play. We still had an opportunity to win the game and we fell short, but a lot of opportunities, a lot of plays left on the field.”
No one in the Giants’ locker room was without blame on Sunday but it could have all been forgotten if the coaching staff just made the right calls in the final moments.
