DENVER – In overdramatized terms, the Giants left their season to Nic Jones and Beau Brade rather than Dexter Lawrence and Abdul Carter.
It went as bad as it sounds.
Head coach Brian Daboll was right to repeat over and over again Sunday that losing a 19-point fourth-quarter lead and allowing 33 fourth-quarter points in a 33-32 loss to the Broncos wasn’t just about one play.
But the play — and coordinator Shane Bowen’s call — that was hardest for the defense to digest was the decision to send only Roy Robertson-Harris, Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux to quarterback Bo Nix and lose eight in coverage with 33 seconds left. Pro Bowler Lawrence and first-round pick Carter watched from the sidelines.
Linebacker Bobby Okereke sank in an intermediate zone.
Because big-money free agents Jevon Holland and Paulson Adebo were both sidelined with knee injuries, the seven defensive backs included Jones (playing his second defensive play of the season) and Brade (playing first).
Not to mention Deonte Banks, the former first-round pick off the bench that quarterbacks target whenever he steps on the field.
Marvin Mims Jr. caught a 29-yard pass with Dru Phillips draped over his back and five Giants circling the ball, Mims Jr. and receiver Courtland Sutton.
“Leave that to the coaches,” Lawrence said after a long pause for thought when asked about not being more aggressive at the end of the game.
A furious Burns yelled in the tunnel after the loss about the choice to “drop eight” in coverage. That emotion turned dark when Burns shed tears on his locker.
Would he have liked to see the Giants be more aggressive?
“I don’t know all that,” Burns said, calmer. “We ran three and lost eight.”
When asked to elaborate on what he thought of this strategy, Burns pursed his lips and did not respond.
It was reminiscent of when the Giants found themselves in a similar position in the final seconds and deployed a similar soft pass in Week 2 against the Cowboys, giving up field position for the tying field goal and then the overtime victory.
Not the same play calling – as head coach Brian Daboll emphasized for Bowen’s defense – but the same passive approach that Bowen regretted then.
“I wish we were a little tighter (in terms of coverage),” Bowen said on September 18. “Like all those calls that don’t work, (you) guess you’d probably want to go in a different direction.”
After killing the clock, Nix addressed Banks for a 22-yard catch by Sutton that turned a potential 61-yard field goal into a precision shot. The Giants sent four rushers on this play, but it was too little, too late at that point.
“I’m out there making games that come to me,” Banks said. “I was picked for the second play – it was a great play by Sutton. Other than that, I feel like I was OK.”
Burns blamed the defeat on the players’ execution and tried to calm Daboll down, but he did not mention (or exonerate) Bowen one way or another.
“We were put in a position where we could have won, but we returned the favor. I put all of that on us. We have to play better,” Burns said. “Dabes is going to get blamed – his fault and this and that. No. At the end of the day, we’re playing and we have to make this play. It’s our fault.”
Both Burns and Lawrence credited Bowen for putting together a great game last week against the Eagles, after saying they urged him to be more aggressive.
