The New York Giants set team and league records — the bad kind — in their historic collapse on Sunday, a 33-32 loss to the Broncos in Denver.
The 33 fourth-quarter points surrendered were the most given up in a single quarter in Giants history. For Denver, they were the most scored in NFL history by any team that had been shut out for three quarters.
When Giants coach Brian Daboll was asked about the collapse on Monday, he stressed that the team wasn’t making any quick changes, particularly as it relates to staff changes.
“No, I’m not considering that,” Daboll said. “But we’ve all got to do a better job. It starts with me. There were plenty of opportunities to finish that game the way we wanted to, and we didn’t get the job done.”
The Giants led 19-0 going into the fourth quarter, then responded to the Broncos’ first score with a touchdown. That gave them a 26-8 lead, which they held until there was just 5:01 remaining.
From there, they were outscored 25-6.
“That was a tough one, make no mistake about it, but you’ve got to get back on your horse and get ready to play a very talented team that we just played two weeks ago. Look at the things that we didn’t do quite as well and we’ll get onto Philadelphia with the right mindset,” Daboll said.
The Giants’ head man also refused to point fingers at any particular culprit.
“I would just say this, it’s not about one play, one player, the offensive side, the defensive side, the kicking game,” Daboll said. “There’s plenty of plays and opportunities that we had and we didn’t end up making those plays. Get the results and there’s a lot to learn from it. We played some good football for a while, but at the end of the day, we didn’t finish the game.”
Still, if Giants fans want one play back in particular, it might be the Jaxson Dart interception late that helped spur on the comeback.
Facing a third-and-5 from their own 35 nursing a 26-16 lead with 4:56 left, the Giants called pass, and Dart stumbled while tossing a pass that was intercepted by Justin Strnad, leading directly to another Denver TD. It was the rookie signal-caller’s only turnover of the game, and he accounted for four touchdowns.
“They had some pressure, kind of got tripped up, but I have a lot of confidence in (Dart) and that’s why we called it,” Daboll said, defending the play call. “I thought (assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Mike) Kafka had a good play call dialed up.”
