Once the dust settles after the Giants’ inconceivable fourth-quarter collapse against the Denver Broncos, the number that will live on in infamy is 1,602.
That’s how many consecutive games NFL teams had won after leading by at least 18 points in the final six minutes.
Until Sunday, that is.
The Giants’ 33-32 loss to the Denver Broncos will go down as one of the most improbable and excruciating defeats in franchise history.
But somehow 1,602 doesn’t even capture the full magnitude of the meltdown at Empower Field at Mile High.
Brian Daboll’s Giants led 19-0 going into the fourth quarter, 26-8 until there was 5:13 left in the game and 32-30 until Broncos kicker Will Lutz drilled a game-winning 39-yard field goal as time expired.
The Broncos’ 33 points were the most ever scored by a team that had been shut out through three quarters.
The 33 points were the most allowed by the Giants in a single quarter in franchise history, according to Stathead’s Katie Sharp.
And the 33 points were one shy of the NFL record for points allowed in a fourth quarter, falling just shy of the 34 surrendered by the Chicago Bears in a 2007 loss to the Detroit Lions. The Bears never led by more than 10 points in that one.
The Giants had a 99.8% win probability with 7:12 left in Sunday’s game, according to ESPN Analytics, and an 89.3% win probability with 37 seconds remaining.
“There’s no way in hell we [should] lose that game,” Giants pass rusher Brian Burns said. “We gave that to them.”
Denver rallied for four fourth-quarter touchdowns, Jaxson Dart threw a back-breaking interception, and Giants kicker Jude McAtamney missed his second extra point of the game with 37 seconds left in regulation.
Yet the Giants still had a chance to win, as McAtamney’s missed extra point came after the Giants had retaken the lead, 32-30, on Dart’s diving touchdown run.
But in a drive that began with 33 seconds left and at the Broncos’ 23-yard line, Denver quarterback Bo Nix picked up 56 yards on four plays without a timeout to set up Lutz’s walk-off winner.
“I don’t even know how we scored 33 points in a quarter,” Nix said. “That’s kind of insane.”
How exactly did the Giants get here? Previous weeks informed Sunday’s loss.
For the third season in a row, the Giants are navigating an injury to primary kicker Graham Gano, who is currently on IR with a groin issue.
Before Week 4, the Giants signed veteran kicker Younghoe Koo to their practice squad, only to roll with the neophyte McAtamney instead.
On Sunday, McAtamney’s first missed extra point followed the Giants’ second touchdown. After their third touchdown, the Giants chased that lost point and attempted a two-point conversation — and failed — which left them with a 19-0 advantage.
McAtamney’s missed extra point after the Giants’ final touchdown then gave Denver the chance to win the game, rather than tie it, with their last-second field goal.
“Got to make the kicks,” said McAtamney, who is now 9-of-12 on extra points. “Not going to shy away from that. I’ll take full responsibility.”
Dart, in his fourth career start, had not committed a turnover in any of the previous seven quarters before Sunday’s costly interception.
The Giants were up, 26-16, with under five minutes to go when Dart made an off-balance throw across his body while facing pressure on 3rd and 5.
The pass was intercepted by linebacker Justin Strnad at the Giants’ 40 and returned to their 19-yard line. The Broncos scored a touchdown less than a minute later.
“I’ve got to be way better than that,” Dart said. “That s–t’s unacceptable.”
Injuries to safety Jevon Holland in the first half and cornerback Paulson Adebo in the third quarter left the Giants with a depleted secondary, and the Broncos took advantage.
Denver’s offense totaled a whopping 231 yards in the fourth quarter and scored on all five of their possessions.
On the first play of the Broncos’ final field-goal drive, the Giants dropped eight men into coverage and rushed only three, allowing Nix ample time in the pocket. Dexter Lawrence and Abdul Carter were not on the field as Nix found Marvin Mims Jr. for a 29-yard completion.
Three plays later, Nix completed a 22-yard pass to Courtland Sutton with Deonte Banks, who had replaced Adebo, in coverage.
The scene was eerily reminiscent of the Giants’ Week 2 overtime loss to the Dallas Cowboys, when Dallas picked up 21 yards and made a game-tying field goal in the final 25 seconds of regulation. The Cowboys’ drive that day included an 18-yard completion from Dak Prescott to Jake Ferguson with the Giants in soft quarters coverage.
“I gotta be better,” defensive coordinator Shane Bowen said after the Week 2 loss, acknowledging he told the team he wished he “would have been a little bit tighter” and “made a little bit of [a] different call.”
Daboll was seen yelling at Bowen after Sunday’s loss in Denver but denied being upset with him.
“We lost the game,” Daboll said. “It was upsetting.”
The Giants’ win probability was 99.3% with 6:38 left in the fourth quarter as Denver faced 4th and 3 while down, 26-8, according to Next Gen Stats.
That made the Broncos’ eventual win the most improbable comeback of this season and the eighth-most since the NFL introduced Next Gen Stats in 2016.
Even in 2010, when the Giants blew a 21-point fourth-quarter lead to the Philadelphia Eagles and lost on Desean Jackson’s walk-off punt-return touchdown, the Giants didn’t have a three-score lead as late as they did on Sunday.
That day, the Eagles cut their deficit to 14 points with 7:28 left in regulation.
Sunday’s loss dropped the Giants to 2-5, erasing the momentum from last week’s 34-17 win over the defending champion Eagles.
“This one probably hurt more than the other losses,” Lawrence said. “Yeah, this one hurt.”
