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There were a handful of questionable coaching decisions and plays that were made at the end of the Giants’ 34-27 loss to the Saints that raised eyebrows.
The first was, while trailing 34-24 and driving into New Orleans territory with the ball, why the Giants didn’t kick a field goal with about three minutes remaining, to quickly cut the deficit to one score.
They moved the ball to the New Orleans 27-yard line with 2:56 remaining with two timeouts still to use, but opted to continue to play for the touchdown.
Right tackle Marcus Mbow was then called for a false start, and then quarterback J.J. McCarthy took a sack for an 8-yard loss.
The Giants then ran two more plays before settling for a Dominic Zvada 41-yard field goal to cut the lead to 34-27 with 2:04 remaining.
Giants head coach John Harbaugh defended his actions, saying, “We went for the field goal as fast as we could, as soon as we could with a reasonable chance to make it.”
Harbaugh then said he wanted to get a touchdown there, to cut the deficit to three points.
“We had a chance there to hit a couple of shots and maybe score a touchdown,” he said. “So, at that point, we were trying to get it done by 2:13. That’s the time management there. We weren’t able to quite get it done by 2:13 with the clock and all that. But in the ideal world, you’ll get it done by 2:13, that’s what we’re shooting for.”
Harbaugh added, “We’re trying to get two scores and the two-minute warning is valuable if we can get it done. We want that two-minute warning to count for us. That’s what we’re trying to get done. That’s the goal.”
The next mistake came when Zvada’s ensuing kickoff was short enough for Bryce Lance to field it 5 yards deep and return it, thus not allowing the Giants to stop the clock at the two-minute warning.
Lance’s return ended with 1:58 on the clock, essentially taking away a free timeout from the Giants.
“You want to kick it out of the back of the end zone, that’s the goal, that’s what we were hoping to do,” Harbaugh said.
Had Zvada done that, it would have forced New Orleans to run a play before the two-minute warning.
When asked why not just kick the ball out of bounds, Harbaugh said, “We thought he could get it out of the back of the end zone.”
Zvada said, “That was a mistake I made, and I’m going to have to work on. That goal was to try to get it out of the end zone, so we stop the clock before the two-minute warning and save a timeout.”