Giants 19-17 Win vs Bengals Helped By Two Veterans Once at a Crossroad

Once upon a time, the futures of kicker Graham Gano and quarterback Colt McCoy respective careers were cast in doubt due to injury. But when their team needed them most, they were there in what's been a moving story of resiliency.

Giants kicker Graham Gano, who last year had season-ending surgery on his kicking leg, admitted that at one point, he didn’t know if he’d ever get a chance to kick in the NFL again.

Meanwhile, quarterback Colt McCoy, who suffered an ugly-looking broken right fibula in his leg during a game in 2018 while as a member of the Washington Football Team that cast his football future in doubt, admitted to wondering if he might have a future in the game after that.

Fortunately for the Giants, both players signed with them as free agents. And both were right there at the ready when their teams needed them the most.

Gano, the 33-year-old Scottish born kicker, has been Mr. Automatic for the Giants. His four field-goal conversions against the Bengals—49, 40, 39, and 32 yards respectively—accounted for 12 of the Giants 19 points on a day where the team lost quarterback Daniel Jones in the second half.

Gano, who this season has made 25 out of 26 field-goal attempts, has now converted 24 consecutive successful attempts, having broken a tie with Aldrick Rosas (20 in a row from 2018-19) for the second-longest streak in Giants history. Josh Brown holds the franchise record with 29 successes in a row from 2014-15.

Gano has been so good that the Giants rewarded him with a contract extension two weeks ago.

“I’m just so excited to be here and happy to be playing football again,” he said. “About a little over a year ago, I wasn’t sure if I was going to play football again after having the surgery on my femur, so it’s just a true blessing to be able to play the game I love and I love being up here and playing with this team.”

Gano, who recently recovered from a bout with COVID-19, which he said left him with an aggressive fever, body aches, and the loss of smell and taste, admitted that he was a little in his first game action since recovering fatigued.

He took the blame for the Bengals’ first-quarter 103-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, which tied the score 7-7 and which became the longest play in Bengals team history.

Although that score didn’t turn out to be the backbreaker, Gano stepped up to assign the blame to himself.

“That was all my fault. I’ve got to kick off better directionally – you know, I hit it down the middle of the field and that just puts the team in a bad position,” he said. “At the end of the day, I’ve got to make that tackle, too. I thought I had him and just did a poor job tackling.”

Nov 29, 2020; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; New York Giants quarterback Colt McCoy (12) runs during the fourth quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium.

Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports

McCoy, the 34-year-old quarterback, has always taken pride in keeping himself ready, and that preparation served him well when Jones had to leave the game early in the third quarter.

McCoy has appeared in 41 career games with 28 starts. When his number was called, the last thing on his mind was any sentimental feelings about how far he had come since suffering that gruesome injury.

“I try to live in the moment. This locker room was extremely excited afterward. We work so hard and I didn’t want to let anybody down in here, coaches, players,” he said.

“I think I’ll reflect on that at some point, it was obviously a really tough thing to go through and I think it was a lot worse than what everybody outside of me and my family knew, but to be standing here and playing a half of football, I’m excited for it.”

McCoy finished the game completing six out of 10 passes for 31 yards and a long of 15. The Giants converted just one of their seven third-down attempts with McCoy in the saddle, but he still did enough to move the offense down the field for the Giants to cap three drives with field goals by Gano.

McCoy mentioned several times that he felt bad for Jones, whose status moving forward is uncertain depending on the outcome of an MRI scheduled for Monday.

Regardless, McCoy plans to approach the coming week the same as he always has

“I work hard in practice and I know my teammates have confidence in me, and I just tried to go out there and secure the win for us,” he said. “It felt good to get out there, call some plays and execute. There’s a few I’d really like to have back, but always thankful to get a win.” 

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