The Takeaways, Week 5: New York Giants at Washington
October 14, 2026
by Steve Thomas
Well, folks, I can’t say that a 27 – 27 tie was on my bingo card this week. I was expecting a Washington win in a slugfest, but I never expected these teams to score this many points, particularly given the poor weather at the stadium during the game. Certainly, Washington needed a win to salvage their season, but a tie at least keeps them alive in the division somewhat. It took quite a bit of utter nonsense by both teams to get this game into the position in which neither team actually won – a comedy of errors, actually. We’ll get into all of it in this edition of The Takeaways.
Poor playcalling and execution at the end of overtime
Can we all admit that (1) Washington royally screwed up their final couple of plays in overtime, and (2) that screw up was primarily the fault of both Dan Quinn and Jayden Daniels? There was zero sense of urgency by Washington in their entire final possession in overtime. They unnecessarily allowed the clock to run down way too far for no reason. What turned out to be the final play of the game was an exercise in coaching and quarterbacking incompetence. What was Quinn thinking by calling a pass in that situation? The obvious call would’ve been to have Daniels quickly move to and kneel on the hashmark from which Drew Stevens preferred to kick, then quickly ground the ball with a few seconds left. Or just spike the ball first and not worry about the hashmark side. I simply don’t understand what on earth was the point of calling a pass play in that situation or what they were trying to accomplish. The team was already well within Stevens’ kicking range. Then, the fact that Daniels then felt the need to scramble around and waste time instead of just quickly throwing the ball away is just incompetence on his part. I’d like to point out at this point that these bitter end of game highjinks were completely unnecessary if the team had called more appropriate plays and had a sense of urgency of any sort. It was a total clown show. And this wasn’t the only example of poor playcalling in this game; it’s just what I’m fixated on after the end of the game. I could go on and on here.
Defensive collapse
I’ll state the obvious here and say that Washington’s defense – the one on which they spent a ton of money in the offseason – utterly collapsed in the second half, giving up 24 points in the second half of the game. This is, of course, something they’ve done before. If this group had kept even a shred of the quality play, pressure, and disruption in the trenches that they accomplished in much of the first half, the poor playcalling and game management by Daniels in overtime would never have happened. It was an extremely poor effort by the defense in second half. I’m not sure there’s anything the team can do about it for now other than hope things get better since there isn’t really a savior sitting on the bench right now.
Welcome back, Bill
Washington running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt actually surfaced, for the first time this season, rushing for 82 yards on 11 carries, for an average of 7.5 yards per carry, including a long of 33 yards. Even if you remove the 33 yard run from his stats, his yards per carry was still at 4.9 yards per carry. It remains to be seen whether Croskey-Merritt could achieve these kinds of results in 20 carries, but for now, at least, he did his job. Washington is in desperate need of a productive running game that doesn’t involve the quarterback, and for one game, at least, they got it. More of this, please Washington, and less of Jayden Daniels running.
Washington’s secondary can’t stop Malik Nabers and Isaiah Likely
I warned everyone in our Hog Sty Podcast last week and in our written game preview that one of the big keys to this game for Washington was going to be controlling Nabers and Likely. Washington failed in this regard. Nabers had 11 receptions for 121 yards and 1 touchdown, and Likely had 11 receptions for 94 yards and 2 touchdowns. These two players made the difference for the Giants . Both Amik Robertson and Rasul Douglas had some good moments, but not nearly enough. Washington failed in the most important aspect of the defensive game plan this week, and that was to limit the impact of Likely and Nabers. Likely, in particular, really took advantage of Washington’s secondary at times. This needs to get better, quickly, or else some of the teams on Washington’s schedule this year are really going to do some damage.
Washington needs to send a thank you gift to Dominic Zvada
The truth is that the Giants should have won this game. The only reason they didn’t is that their kicker, Zvada, had a game that was every kicker’s nightmare. And not because of anything Washington’s defense did either; he just missed kicks, going 2 for 5. I could excuse his 57 yard miss, but the other two, especially the game-winner in overtime, would be inexcusable if I were a Giants fan. Everyone needs to send silent thanks to Zvada for allowing Washington to stay in a game that they should’ve lost.
Referees continue to be bad at their jobs
I’m not one to usually blame referees for how games turn out, and I’m not going to do it here either, except to say that they made several suspect calls against Washington or which benefitted the Giants, particularly in the secondary. No, there’s no conspiracy here, and no, the NFL isn’t out to get Washington. Those sorts of accusations are just the tinfoil hat conspiracy theories of fans who love their team. All my point is that, in this game, these poor calls directly benefitted the Giants on multiple occasions. The NFL needs to make the referees do better, even though I know they won’t.
That’s it for this week. I’ll be back next week after Washington’s blowout loss to matchup against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football.