The Giants nearly stole the NFL's Week 6 spotlight on Sunday night, coming within one yard of upsetting the Bills on the road. It's arguable they should've had at least one more play to seal the deal, with Buffalo's Taron Johnson avoiding an apparent defensive holding penalty with his game-winning coverage. But the end-game officiating shouldn't be New York's greatest concern.
Sunday's game, promising as it may have been from an effort standpoint, wasn't lost primarily because of a debatable no-call at the end of regulation. On a day where the Giants defense actually came to play, slowing Josh Allen to the point a win was even within reach, Brian Daboll's offense suffered from more foundational issues, including a curious crunch-time strategy.
It's true that quarterback Tyrod Taylor, starting in place of an injured Daniel Jones, was poised down the stretch, coolly guiding New York to Buffalo's 1-yard line on a 12-play series after a missed Bills field goal. He looked primed to stun his former team with quick decisions and crisp short-area darts. But after a pass interference on Buffalo gifted the G-Men a final play, Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka elected to put the fate of the would-be comeback on ... an immediate jump-ball throw to Darren Waller.
Waller had five catches on the night and generally offers reliable hands. At 6-foot-6, lined up on Johnson (5-11), he also had a significant height advantage. But the play call reduced Taylor's options to one, refusing to spread the Bills' defense out in any way. It also left plenty of fans wishing for a handoff to the Giants' 232-pound bell-cow running back in Saquon Barkley. Or perhaps even a QB sneak -- a play that has resulted in first downs or touchdowns at a rate of close to 80% since 2016, per the New York Times.
One call doesn't make or break a game and/or a season. And again, Johnson's visible hold of Waller could've easily warranted another penalty, giving the Giants a do-over. But the situational flub wasn't the first for New York this season, in which 30 other teams are averaging more scrimmage and passing yards per game. Consider that Daboll's squad was equally, if not more, disappointing at the close of the first half, when the Giants had a first-and-goal from the Bills' 1-yard line with 11 seconds left, only to run the ball and fail to subsequently stop the clock.
Daboll may have ripped Taylor on the sidelines for the gaffe, as the broadcast clearly displayed, but at some level, that failure is also on Daboll and his staff. Was the situation practiced? Was it called correctly in the moment? With all those headsets, why was a hurry-up spike not successfully conveyed to the men on the field? The execution was poor, but so was the oversight. It's now become a common occurrence in Giants games, seeing Daboll visibly barking at players for fundamental missteps. The more it occurs, however, the more one has to wonder: Maybe the common thread here is the man in charge of the 1-5 football team.
It's ironic, in a way, because in Daboll's debut season, he received almost all the credit for the Giants' move from annual mediocrity to surprising contention. He won Coach of the Year for "his" rejuvenation of both Barkley and QB Daniel Jones. A year later, while his defensive coordinator, Wink Martindale, appears to be onto something, at least staying competitive in back-to-back fights with the Dolphins and Bills, it's Daboll and his offense that have fallen all the way back to Earth.
In the end, of course, he can also only do so much with the talent (or lack thereof) at his disposal. Consider that we've reached yet another October where the Giants could desperately use offensive line and receiving help ahead of the trade deadline. But the QB management might also deserve a closer look after Sunday's game. No one's mistaking Taylor, 34, as much more than a decent option off the bench at this point in his career. But the way he actually operated the pocket under pressure, keeping the Giants in the game against a far superior opponent, calls into question whether Daboll and Co. have properly evaluated the real starter, Jones, who's once again banged up and enduring rookie-level mistakes in Year 5.
As Giants fans know too well, these issues aren't singular or simple. So the last thing New York needs to be doing after Sunday's game is pointing at the end of Week 6's loss, wishing the officials would've had better eyesight. Instead, the whole operation, starting with Daboll up top, needs to take a good, long look in the mirror.