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The box score reads that last Thursday was the most prolific passing night of J.J. McCarthy’s young career.
Watching the fourth quarter of the Giants’ 24-21 loss to the Commanders suggests something very different.
At the end of a game in which McCarthy threw for a career-high 293 yards, the Giants took responsibility out of his hands and tempered excitement that he has had a breakthrough — cooling the runaway hot-take train that he could challenge Jaxson Dart as the starter next season — by showing the level of conservative play-calling typically reserved for backup quarterbacks.
Is that an indication of a lack of trust entering a daunting part of the schedule, including facing three of the NFL’s top-six scoring defenses over the next four games?
“No, no, no,” head coach John Harbaugh said. “It’s a very fair question. I think he’s proven that he’s capable of winning games and making the plays, and I probably feel more strongly about that now than ever. It was his third [start] … but he’s earned that right. I’m excited about where he’s going [moving] forward and our chance to close out some games.”
On the Giants’ two possessions with a four-point lead after the defense forced interceptions, offensive coordinator Matt Nagy called six runs on six plays and it led to two punts.
“Defense gives you two opportunities to end the game — especially on down and distances where you feel like you can get it — so as an offense that’s frustrating going to the sideline, keeping putting them in a position to go out there and ice the game,” tight end Isaiah Likely said. “As an offense, we need to look ourselves in the mirror.”
As he often does, Jameis Winston replaced McCarthy to run a quarterback sneak on third-and-1 at the 11-yard line rather than handing to Cam Skattebo (who gained 9 yards on the previous two carries) or using a play-action fake. It failed to gain more than a few inches.
One possession later, McCarthy kept the ball on a poorly blocked third-and-3 quarterback sweep. A 2-yard loss essentially killed any chance of keeping the offense on the field or attempting a field goal.
“That has a chance to crack them,” Harbaugh said. “It’s a quarterback-driven run with an extra blocker. They had everybody up on the line.”
Compare those risk-averse play calls to Week 1, when Nagy had Dart throw three times — and Dart converted third-and-9 and third-and-3 through the air — to run out the final 5:21 of a win against the Cowboys.
“We thought we could get it with the runs,” Harbaugh said. “Also keep the clock running and make them burn the timeouts. We thought we could do both. But, looking back on it, I think a good pass there might’ve been good too. Being successful really is the bottom line. It’s not like we’re trying to play it safe. We’re not afraid to throw the ball there.”
When the Giants finally had no choice but to go to the air — needing to gain 20 yards over 38 seconds to attempt a 50-yard game-tying field goal — McCarthy was flustered. He threw two jump balls against all-out blitzes — the second was intercepted — rather than working the underneath routes and utilizing two timeouts.
“We would be better [off] finding a better situation [than] trying to score points as quickly as we were,” receiver Malik Nabers said. “Just making smart decisions on what we want to get to after seeing the Cover Zero [defense] they were giving us at the moment. So, trying to just get the ball out fast instead of trying to create a home run ball. Just have to be better in the situation.”
Likely, who was open on underneath routes over the middle all night, had five yards of separation and was looking for the ball when McCarthy threw the game-sealing interception in Nabers’ direction.
Quarterbacks have completed 24 of 28 passes with a 105.1 passer rating when targeting Likely between the numbers on passes on targets of 0-9 yards in depth, according to Pro Football Focus.
“Decisions the quarterback makes, that’s the one they make in a split second,” Harbaugh said. “Those aren’t really high-percentage throws necessarily, but they can be back-breakers.”
Nagy mostly has been critique-free this season, showing route creativity and balancing run-pass through three different starting quarterbacks and an underwhelming running back rotation.
The bad taste of a Thursday loss just lingers a few extra days.
“We had two opportunities to put the game away and we didn’t,” left tackle Andrew Thomas said, putting the “embarrassing” blame on the offensive line. “Not good enough.”
