Sunday’s game between the New York Giants and New York Jets was one of the more ugly games you will ever see. Weather, of course, was a contributing factor given that it rained heavily for most of the game.
During the second quarter, the Giants, who were already shorthanded without Daniel Jones, lost Tyrod Taylor to injury and turned to rookie Tommy DeVito.
The Giants clearly had no confidence in DeVito as they stuck primarily to the run for the remainder of the game.
Devito threw the ball just seven times for a total of minus-1 yards.
Because of that approach, the Giants set an all-time NFL record with minus-9 net yards passing in an overtime game.
The New York Giants had -9 net passing yards against the Jets today.
That is the fewest net passing yards for a team in an overtime game in NFL history. pic.twitter.com/Q4X87awLct
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) October 29, 2023
Head coach Brian Daboll was comfortable just playing for field position and relying on Big Blue’s defense to hold a three-point lead.
“I’d say this: This game, I kind of figured this is the way the game would be played out,” Daboll told reporters after the loss. “We were going to run the ball regardless. With the weather conditions and the way our defense was playing, we knew it would be kind of a fourth-quarter game. I felt comfortable with him running the offense. But again, the plan was we were going to keep it on the ground quite a bit based on the weather and based on how we thought the game was going to be played out, and it played out pretty much the way we thought it was going to be played out. Just came up short.
“Weather, control the game, thought our defense was going to play well, figured it would be a close game. Saquon (Barkley) had some good runs. We had some opportunities. Just trying to win the game a little bit of an old-school way today.”
Setting the all-time NFL record for passing futility in an overtime game is a microcosm of how the Giants’ season has gone.