Giants Show Up Too Late & Let Redskins Take Control Of NFC East

Well I want to say I’m surprised but I’m not. In the biggest game of the year to date against an opponent they’ve handled with ease & coming off a bye, the Giants choked away an opportunity to put a stranglehold on the division. Instead of playing like there’s something on the line they laid an egg for 3 quarters. After fans were starting to accept their fate, Odell Beckham reeled us all back in with this unreal grab:

In typical Giants fashion though, that catch just roped fans into believing only to crush our hopes again as the defense couldn’t get a timely stop on the Skins final possession. No takeaways (DRC simply whiffed on an easy pick-six early). No sacks. Cousins was left untouched to do whatever he wanted and Washington still almost gave the game away. The Big Blue D is never going to stuff their opponents. Opportunistic plays are a must and they didn’t get any today.
This loss isn’t on the defense though. Outside of Hosley getting lit up by D-Jax on a play where he was only on the field because DRC got hurt, they weren’t terrible. The offense just couldn’t get anything going until it was too late. Iffy play-calling & Eli wasn’t good at all. INTs aside (a couple off his receivers’ hands but that’s nothing new) his accuracy was erratic & his decision-making was questionable at best. If he was unlucky on some of his turnovers, he was lucky he didn’t have more. The offensive line was decimated & won’t be at full strength for the rest of the year now that Schwartz broke his leg. His receivers didn’t do him any favors outside of ODB stealing 6 points. That doesn’t matter. Eli’s gotta find a way to get points on the board in the first 45 minutes of football.
So now what? Well, now the Giants need some help from their biggest rivals. The Redskins have just one division loss & a pretty easy schedule the rest of the way now that Romo is hurt (DAL, CHI, BUF, PHI, DAL). The G-Men have 3 NFC East losses now and not only have the Panthers & Vikings coming up but a HUGE rivalry game against the Jets next weekend. It’s hard to imagine NY will go 4-1 – so if they’re hoping 8-8 gets the job done they’ll need the Skins to lose at least 2 of their remaining division tilts to have tiebreaker hopes. It’ll never be easy with this squad, but the way this season has gone they’ll have another shot at some point to take charge. It’s just hard to believe the Giants will all of a sudden have what it takes to finish when it comes.