New York Giants head coach Joe Judge in the first half at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022. — Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

Washington Sweeps Giants, 22-7 in Regular-Season Finale

Giants head coach Joe Judge's second season ends with a worse record than last year as the Giants head into the off-season with more questions than answers.

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
Jan 9, 2022 4:50 PM EST

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New York Giants

Washington Commanders

East Rutherford, N.J. - The Washington Football Team recorded its first sweep of the regular-season series with the Giants since 2011 thanks to a 22-7 win over their NFC East rivals at MetLife Stadium.

The Football Team took an early lead over the Giants, starting with a nearly six-minute opening drive engineered by quarterback Taylor Heinicke that spanned 76 yards and ended in a 23-yard field goal by Joey Slye, who also had another 23-yard field goal later in the game as well as a 43-yarder.

Slye's 43-yarder came within the closing seconds of the first half, adding three points to a 79-0 scoring advantage by opponents over the Giants within the final two minutes of the first half of games this season.

Safety Bobby McCain picked off Giants quarterback Jake Fromm, who was making his second career start, in the third quarter, returning the ball 30 yards to make it a 12-0 game.

In the fourth quarter, the Giants finally got on the board when Fromm threw his first career NFL touchdown pass to receiver Darius Slayton, a 22-yard strike. It was the first touchdown reception by a Giants receiver since Week 7.

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Washington scored 10 points to widen their lead, including an 18-yard touchdown run by running back Antonio Gibson and Slye's 23-yard field goal to ice the victory.

McCain later added another interception to his total, that one coming on the game's final play as the Giants, facing a 4th-and-3 from the Washington 16-yard line.

At the end of the first half, the Giants had a rather odd play-calling sequence. Backed up on their 2-yard line, the Giants lined up in a heavy personnel package and had Fromm run a quarterback sneak up the middle on second down. When that failed, they called the same play on third down, the play call again failing and leading to a Giants punt.

Judge explained his intention was to avoid having another safety, as was the case last week against the Bears.

Injury Update

Giants guard Will Hernandez, who likely played in his final game as a Giant, aggravated an existing ankle injury and was ruled out of the game toward the end of the first quarter. Matt Skura moved to right guard, and Ben Bredeson was inserted at left guard. Hernandez had been the only Giants offensive line starter not to miss a snap before this week.

Hernandez, a second-round draft pick by the Giants in 2018, is set to be an unrestricted free agent this off-season and is not expected to be back with the Giants.

Notables

Edge Lorenzo Carter capped a solid final quarter of the season by recording ten tackles, second on the team behind linebacker Tae Crowder. Carter also had a sack, a quarterback hit, and a tackle for loss. The sack makes Carter the first Giant since Olivier Vernon (2016) to record at least 1.0 sack in four straight games in a season. Carter's tackle for a loss also tied him with Chris Canty and Dalvin Tomlinson (21) for the eighth-most tackles for loss in Giants history.

Defensive back Logan Ryan, who finished with seven tackles, now has 117 tackles as a Giant, putting him past Antoine Bethea and Gibril Wilson (110) for the second-most tackles in a season by a Giants defensive back.

Leonard Williams finished with five tackles on the season, bringing his total to 82, tying him with Michael Strahan (82 in 2005) for the second-most tackles in a season by a Giants defensive lineman.

What's Next?

The more important story is yet to be written: What the Giants team ownership plans to do in the coming days and weeks. General manager Dave Gettleman is not expected to return after the Giants finished 19-46 in four seasons under his watch.

But questions regarding head coach Joe Judge, who has gone 10-23 in two seasons and who finished his second season with a worse record than his 6-10 rookie campaign, are also expected to dominate discussions in the coming weeks.

Ideally, the Giants should let the general manager, whoever he or she may be, make that decision. But will team ownership give Judge a pass given all the injuries the roster had? Will they buy into Judge's insistence that the team is closer to being what it needs to be rather than being far away?

Fasten your seatbelts, Giants fans. It's going to be an interesting few weeks ahead.