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Sometimes, prosperity can be a deceptive dance partner.
Perhaps the possibilities were too tantalizing for the Giants to handle Thursday night.
A first NFC East title since 2011 and a virtually stress-free final seven games awaited the Giants with a win over the Commanders at rain-soaked MetLife Stadium.
Four days earlier, the Giants drove a stake through the hearts of their most hated division rival, the Eagles, with a win in Philadelphia.
Thursday night, they had the chance to do the same to the Commanders but couldn’t handle the assignment, suffering a crushing 24-21 defeat on a frantic Washington late comeback.
A win over Washington and the Giants would have walked away with a commanding four-game lead over the Commanders — also having clinched the season series with a tie and a win.
“Embarrassing … that’s all I got,’’ Giants left tackle Andrew Thomas said afterward in the hush of the stunned home locker room.
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“This was one that got away,’’ Giants head coach John Harbaugh said. “It would have been nice to open up the lead in the division. We didn’t open it up as much as we could have if we’d won. We’ve got a lot of tough games. What do we have, seven games left? It’s going to be seven dogfights.’’
The loss brought the Commanders (3-5-1) and Cowboys (4-5) back into contention and threw the Giants (5-3-1) right back into the division blender thanks to their epic fourth-quarter meltdown.
According to Next Gen Stats, a Giants win would have raised their chance to make the playoffs to 78 percent. The loss left them at a 50 percent chance to get in.
It’s rare that, this early in an NFL season, a team faces a game as pivotal as the one the Giants played Thursday night. Opportunity knocked loudly, and the Giants failed to answer.
The dagger was a 32-yard Jayden Daniels scoring pass to Stefon Diggs to go up 24-21 with 57 seconds remaining in the game.
The Giants got the ball back one more time and drove it to the Washington 48-yard line, but quarterback J.J. McCarthy was intercepted by Washington cornerback Rasul Douglas at the Commanders 11-yard line with 25 seconds remaining to seal the game.
Just moments earlier, it appeared the Giants had victory well in hand.
They took a 21-17 lead on an electric 66-yard scoring pass by McCarthy to Isaiah Likely with 8:13 remaining in the game.
On the play, McCarthy stood in the pocket and rifled a pass downfield in between Washington linebackers Sonny Styles and K’Lavon Chaisson, and Likely was off to the races.
“Coach [Matt] Nagy [the offensive coordinator] called a great play, J.J. threw a great ball and I saw nothing but green grass,’’ Likely said.
“The throw to Isaiah Likely against the blitz was just crazy,’’ Harbaugh said of McCarthy, who finished 23-for-36 for a career-high 293 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. “It’s probably as good a play as you’re going to see in the National Football League all season, honestly.’’
The Giants then appeared to seal the game with two massive defensive plays.
First, safety Jevón Holland picked off a Daniels pass intended for tight end Chig Okonkwo at the Giants 2-yard line with 5:25 remaining. It was Holland’s fourth INT of the season.
But the offense couldn’t sustain a drive to run out the clock and, after Washington got the ball back, it was Giants safety Ar’Darius Washington picking off Daniels, who again was trying to hit Okonkwo, with 2:15 remaining in the game.
And again, the Giants failed to produce a first down and burn clock.
“We had the opportunity twice to close the game out … not good enough,’’ Thomas said.
The Commanders took advantage of one more chance the Giants offense gifted them, taking the ball over at their own 29-yard line with 1:47 remaining.
From there, it took only three plays to move the 71 yards for the go-ahead TD.
Washington had taken a 17-14 lead on a 31-yard Daniels scoring pass to Antonio Williams with 6:56 remaining in the third quarter.
The Giants then wasted a marvelous 37-yard McCarthy pass to Malik Nabers to get the ball deep into Washington territory when Nabers fumbled the ball away moments later when he was hit by Commanders linebacker Frankie Luvu with 4:06 remaining in the third.
The Giants stopped the Commanders on a fourth-and-1 from the Giants 31-yard line with 9:04 remaining in the game and set themselves up for that 66-yard McCarthy strike and the lead.
But the Giants wilted in the face of the prosperity, ruining McCarthy’s career performance, Likely’s nine catches for 127 yards and the TD and running back Cam Skattebo’s 78 yards rushing and two TDs.
His second TD, a 13-yard run in the third quarter, gave the Giants a 14-10 lead at the time and that meant a second celebratory backflip in the end zone.
This time, though, his teammates Malachi Fields and Darnell Mooney got into the act and joined him with backflips of their own.
By the end of the night, after the meltdown the Giants never saw coming, that celebration felt like it had taken place weeks ago.
And now, instead of proceeding ahead on cruise control to the playoffs, the Giants will be back to the grind.
“It’s disappointing, but you can’t let it bring you down,’’ Harbaugh said. “Our spirit is going to be fine. We’re not going to curl up. We’re not going to stop fighting. It’s going to be a long weekend.’’
