Giants battle back to force overtime, but fumble game away in 20-17 loss to Panthers

The Giants battled back after trailing for most of Sunday’s game, but it will be a long flight home from Germany as the Carolina Pathers won 20-17 on a 36-yard field goal by Eddy Piñeiro in overtime.

The Giants were down 10-0 at halftime on Bryce Young’s five-yard touchdown pass to rookie tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders and a Piñeiro field goal. However, they struck back on their first drive of the second half on Tyrone Tracy’s 32-yard run to make it 10-7.

Carolina restored their 10-point lead with an 80-yard drive that was finished off on a one-yard Chuba Hubbard touchdown run. Hubbard was running through tacklers all game long as he rushed for a career-high 153 yards.

In the fourth quarter, the Giants cut Carolina’s lead to 17-14 on a two-yard run by Daniel Jones with 8:33 remaining and then got the ball back when DJ Davidson recovered a Hubbard fumble. However, Josey Jewell intercepted Jones inside the 10-yard line to preserve the lead with under six minutes remaining.

New York got the ball back with two-and-a-half minutes remaining and Jones completed five passes in a row to get them into range for Graham Gano’s game-tying 42-yard field goal with five seconds left to send the game into overtime.

The Giants won the toss and got the ball first in the extra session, only for Tracy to lose a fumble on the first play to set up the winning kick.

Here are the key takeaways…

• Things didn’t start too badly for the Giants as former Panther Brian Burns had a sack on Carolina’s first offensive series to force a 3-and-out. Then, on their first offensive snap, New York picked up 43 yards when Jalin Hyatt drew a pass interference penalty on a long pass. Everything unravelled after that, though, as Jones made another slow start as he was just 1-for-5 for three yards in the first quarter.

• The Panthers are notorious slow starters but that wasn’t the case in this game. Young completed seven of his first eight passes and Hubbard rushed for 84 yards in the first quarter alone.

• Carolina got some good contributions from their rookies in the passing game in the first half as Sanders, Jalen Coker and Xavier Legette combined to catch six passes for 75 yards and a score. That’s the kind of thing a struggling team would want to see in a game like this but other than Tracy, the Giants’ rookies didn’t make much of an impact before half time with Malik Nabers held to just two short catches. Nabers, who was struggling with a hamstring issue, made a nice catch in the fourth quarter and ended up with six catches for 50 yards.

• Jones had just 54 passing yards in the first half, although the Giants had three drives where they got into Panthers territory. Those drives ended with a missed field goal, a punt, and a turnover. The turnover came on a play where Jones rolled out and had his pass tipped into the air and picked off. New York also had a drive that stalled when Jones was sacked on a 3rd-and-short flea-flicker as he hesitated to pull the trigger even though two players were wide open.

• One major bright spot was Evan Neal, who was making his first start of the season at right tackle. He showcased excellent strength and power as a run blocker and didn’t give up any pressure in the first half. Neal continued his good work in the second half as he had a solid block on Tracy’s touchdown run. While it previously seemed like this regime might be ready to give up on the former top-10 pick, Neal’s performance suggests that perhaps he has a chance to realize his potential after all.

• Neal wasn’t the only struggling youngster to get an opportunity and make the most of it in this game. Hyatt, who entered the game with just one catch for six yards, had three of his four catches on the last drive of regulation in addition to drawing the early penalty.

• Tracy had another big game on the ground as he ended up with 105 yards, but it was his bobbled catch on third down that led to Jewell’s interception in the red zone and his fumble on the first play of overtime was obviously costly. Clearly Tracy needs to develop his all-round skill set now that he’s earned himself a starter’s workload.

Upcoming schedule

The Giants now head to their bye week but will face two games in five days when they return, starting with a home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, Nov. 24th at 1:00 p.m. ET.