Giants Can't Win Even When They Show Up

PANTHERS 33 - GIANTS 31

Only the Giants could invent ways to lose. On a day where Eli Manning threw for 326 yards, Odell Beckham Jr. had a 180-yard receiving day and threw a touchdown himself, and the Giants score 30 points for the first time in 37 games, New York still found a way to lose.

For a few fleeting moments the Giants had everything going their way. They held Cam Newton and the Panthers to a late field goal with 2:16 to play that increased the deficit to only six points at 30-24. With all that time, and with the way the Giants were moving the football against a typically stout Panther defense, there was a sense that this would be the day.

On second and two from the Giants' own 33 yard line, Eli Manning heaved a pass down field to a wide open R Shepherd who, after falling down to make the catch, got up and dashed home for the touchdown. But, wait that score was just a mirage. Shepherd was touched down at the Panther 15. Still though, New York was in prime position to do something big. With 1:08 to go, Manning hit Saquon Barkley in the flat, who leaped over defenders to fall into the end zone for the go-ahead score. With less than a minute to go it was Giants 31, Panthers 30. This game was over.

Like the Shepered score, that was a mirage too.

Somehow Newton moved the Panthers close enough to attempt a field goal, inspite of the Panthers own hideous play-calling when they ran the ball on third and one with 0:18 seconds to go. With just 0:06 left, Graham Gano connected on a 63-yard field goal to slay the Giants in one of the most painful losses of the entire season.

It was the second straight year that the Giants lost a game on the road in similar fashion. It was Week 3 last year when the Giants lost on a last second, 61-yard field goal by Jake Elliot that sent the Giants to 0-3. That loss pretty much set the tone for the entire season. This loss might have done the same.

The loss erased a lot of good from the game like Beckham's 57-yard touchdown pass to Barkley that got the Giants offense started in the second quarter. But there were moments throughout where Big Blue's own mistakes kept haunting them.

Whether it be the bobbled punt return by Beckham that turned into a touchdown for Carolina that made it 14-3. Or the interception that Manning threw at the Panthers 25-yard line with New York on the move, down only four points at 20-16. Yes, the Giants did a lot to sabotage themselves on this day.

The Giants can blame the officials all they want, the fact is this team is not discipline enough, and isn't good enough to overcome it's own mental and physical mistakes. That is why this team lost 33-31 in Carolina. That is why this team is 1-4 and starring at an uncertain future, a future that feels all to similar to last year's disastrous 3-13 campaign.

So much for change. It's the same 'ole Giants.