The Biggest Head-scratching Sequence in Giants' Week 9 Loss

The New York Giants have rendered a few head-scratching in-game decisions, such as this sequence from their Week 9 loss.

Nov 2, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll stands on the sidelines against the San Francisco 49ers during the second half at MetLife Stadium. | Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images

In the grand scheme of things, the fact that the New York Giants managed to successfully convert a third-quarter field goal in their 34-24 loss to the San Francisco 49ers doesn’t matter now that the game is in the rear-view mirror.

But what is particularly perplexing is the sequence leading up to that decision.  

Before getting into that, Giants head coach Brian Daboll was asked why he decided to kick a field goal despite being three yards from paydirt.

“If it were a certain distance, we would have gone for it. Made it a 10-point game, I believe. That's the reason why,” Daboll explained.

He didn’t elaborate on what the “certain distance” was, but from the sound of things, it wouldn’t be surprising if he was leaning on an analytics chart to decide for him rather than relying on that confidence he claims to have in all his players to get the job done.

But what’s really mind-boggling is the two preceding plays. On 2nd-and-9, Jaxson Dart ran wide left to pick up four yards. Then on third down, the Giants, instead of taking a shot to the end zone, threw a pass to Devin Singletary in the flat. 

Singletary picked up two yards on the play, but really had no chance of hitting pay dirt against a quick and athletic 49ers defense that immediately swarmed to the spot and stopped him three yards short.

Two things make this sequence of calls perplexing. First, why call for a slower-developing play inside the opponent's 10-yard line against a fast defense that all game long flowed nicely to the ball carrier on anything that went wide?

A quicker pass over the middle, or even a run up the middle, might very well have yielded better results, yet, for reasons only known to the coaches, they opted to try to get their guys out in space.

The other thing about this sequence is that if they were going to go to the flat, one might have thought the intention was to go for it if they didn’t make it.

But again, instead of trusting the players to go for it by running something over the middle — the shortest distance to the goal is usually to go straight ahead — they settled for the field goal.  

Points are points, and the Giants certainly are not exactly oozing points in their games this season. While there’s no guarantee that they would have hit paydirt, there was also no guarantee that Gano would convert on the field goal, given he had missed a chip shot late in the second quarter.

That said, the decision arguably represented a four-point swing: instead of a 20-14 game, it turned into a 20-10 game, and the Giants were never able to close the gap.

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