The Giants blew their division lead in a spectacularly dumb ending against Washington

The New York Giants were in first place in the NFC East at the same time that Philadelphia Eagles and Washington were seemingly in freefall and the Dallas Cowboys had lost Tony Romo yet again -- this time for the season. The Giants aren’t in great health, but they were best positioned to win the division. All they had to do was not blow it.

They blew it.

On the road against Washington, a bottom-10 defense, New York was held scoreless for the first 50 minutes of the game. They finally got on the board on a long touchdown pass to Rueben Randle, and then pulled within one score, 20-14, on a miraculous catch by Odell Beckham, Jr.

With under 30 seconds remaining in the game, the Giants had a chance at a last second touchdown drive. They proceeded to shoot themselves in the foot.

First, Dwayne Harris made just about the worst decision he possibly could on a punt return.

The Giants salvaged some of the field position that Harris lost thanks to a Washington holding penalty that put the Giants on the 16-yard line as opposed to the 20-yard line for a touchback. They couldn’t get back the time that Harris wasted, however. Instead of having 27 seconds left on the clock, the Giants had just 19.

The Giants did a good job getting down the field, making their way to the 37-yard line for one last play. They tried to make their way to the end zone wth a series of laterals, but the play, and the game, ended when Manning threw a terrible pass across the field.

Manning threw three interceptions and finished with a 59.4 passer rating against a secondary that had been giving up the sixth-worst passer rating to opposing quarterbacks this season entering Sunday’s game.

Now Washington leads the NFC East at just 5-6. We can’t wait to see what terrible and fascinating ways it comes up with to blow the division lead next week when it hosts Dallas.

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