Perhaps this latest fourth-quarter giveaway will be what the New York Giants need to see to fire defensive coordinator Shane Bowen.
For a fifth time this season, Big Blue (2-10) lost a game in which they were leading in the final frame, which is the most in the NFL, after Jake Barnes’ 59-yard field goal with 28 seconds left in regulation drew the Detroit Lions level at 27 apiece. Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs, who went off for 219 yards on just 15 carries, took the first play from scrimmage in overtime and streaked 69 yards for what ultimately was the game-winning score in a 34-27 result that relegated the Giants to a sixth straight loss on Sunday afternoon at Ford Field.
New York drove down to the Lions’ 27-yard line on their overtime possession, but quarterback Jameis Winston was sacked by Aidan Hutchinson on a 4th-&-5 to end the game.
Gibbs’ game-winner was his third huge gain of the afternoon, reeling off a pair of 49-yard rushes earlier in the game — one of which went for a touchdown.
Interim head coach Mike Kafka is not blameless in this. The Giants could have opened up a six-point lead with 2:59 remaining with a field goal while on the Detroit 6-yard line. Instead, he went for it, and Winston missed Theo Johnson to turn it over on downs.
“We had an opportunity at the end of the game, took a really good team to overtime,” Kafka said. “We’ve got to find a way to finish those games. We really believe in our players and our coaches. They’re battling their heart out for us.”
The Giants led by 10, 27-17, with 12:16 remaining in the game after a circus-worthy touchdown in which wide receiver Gunner Olszewski connected with quarterback Jameis Winston for a 33-yard score.
Yes, you read that right.
Olszewski, who received the ball on an end-around, pulled up and threw a 14-yard pass that Winston had to come back for. Not only did the quarterback catch the pass, but he broke out of the clutches of linebacker Derrick Barnes to rumble the final 19 yards for the 33-yard touchdown to put the Giants up 10 with 12:16 to go.
Filling in a second-straight week for the concussed Jaxson Dart, Winston completed 18 of 36 passes for 366 yards, two passing touchdowns, and an interception.
After his receiving touchdown, which came on the heels of safety Jevon Holland’s first interception in two years — he reeled in Jared Goff’s deflected pass off the hands of Amon-Ra St. Brown — momentum was solely the Giants’. But Bowen’s defense bent, and the Lions were immediately back in it when Gibbs broke off a 49-yard touchdown run to pull the hosts back within three.
With their final possession of the fourth quarter, Detroit drove 53 yards on 13 plays to set up Bates’ game-tying field goal.
Wan’Dale Robinson had a career day, hauling in nine catches for 156 yards and a touchdown. Most of that came in a monstrous first quarter, in which he caught four passes for 106 yards and that score.
It gave the Giants a 7-0 lead just over two minutes into the game, which came on a trick play that saw running back Devin Singletary accept a pitch and return it to Winston with a lateral pass. After side-stepping a hit, Winston bombed it 39 yards to the open Robinson in the end zone.
A Yunghoe Koo field goal gave the Giants a 10-0 lead after the first quarter, making it the first time since Week 9 of the 2020 season that New York had a 10-plus-point lead after the opening frame.
The Lions got to within three just over three minutes into the second quarter when St. Brown went in from 12 yards out off a quick screen, but the Giants answered right back three minutes later.
Set up by a screen pass to a wide-open Tyrone Tracy Jr., who took it 42 yards into Detroit territory, Winston hit Isaiah Hodgins in the back of the endzone on a 3rd-&-8 from the Lions’ 12-yard line to go up 17-7.
Gibbs single-handedly got the Lions right back in it with 2:16 to go in the half. He first went between the tackles and broke one 49 yards down the right sideline down to the Giants’ 3-yard line before catching a scoring screen pass on the very next play to cut New York’s lead back to three. Two quick drives from either side resulted in field goals before the break, with the Giants up 20-17.
