{"id":146513,"date":"2021-01-04T00:22:14","date_gmt":"2021-01-03T21:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/giants-one-step-closer-to-nfl-playoffs-after-thrilling-win\/"},"modified":"2021-01-04T00:22:14","modified_gmt":"2021-01-03T21:22:14","slug":"giants-one-step-closer-to-nfl-playoffs-after-thrilling-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/giants-one-step-closer-to-nfl-playoffs-after-thrilling-win\/","title":{"rendered":"#Giants one step closer to NFL playoffs after thrilling win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Giants one step closer to NFL playoffs after thrilling win<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>So, you\u2019re saying there\u2019s a chance.<\/p>\n<p>The Giants and their fans are in for an anxious late night of waiting until the end of \u201cSunday Night Football\u201d to see if they can steal the NFC East title and a playoff berth \u2014 but it sure beats the alternative of watching the Cowboys in that same position.<\/p>\n<p>The best offensive half of the season and a 14-point lead were enough to overcome a slew of mistakes Sunday and beat the Cowboys, 23-19, in a winner-stays-alive regular-season finale. If the Eagles upset Washington later, the Giants will become the NFL\u2019s first-ever 10-loss playoff team and host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a NFC wild-card <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Even if Washington wins to go to the playoffs, the Giants will enter the offseason with good vibes after reaching six wins for the first time since 2016 under first-year coach Joe Judge and breaking a seven-game losing streak against the rival Cowboys.<\/p>\n<p>The Giants survived two dropped interceptions, an interception negated by penalty, two unforced giveaways and a near-Miracle at the Meadowlands heartbreak moment. But Leonard Williams picked up his teammates with a career-best three sacks, upping his season total to 11.5 \u2014 the most by a Giant since 2014.<\/p>\n<p>The last sack put the Cowboys in an impossible third-and-goal situation and forced quarterback Andy Dalton to float a pass toward the end zone that was intercepted by rookie Xavier McKinney. The Giants needed only to gain a first down to run out the clock, but Wayne Gallman fumbled fighting for extra yards after running past the chains.<\/p>\n<p>Gallman amazingly sat on the ball and recovered it in the scrum, and it was upheld on replay review.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" alt=\"Giants NFL playoffs NFC East\" class=\"wp-image-16961554 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/Giants-win-Cowboys-Sterling-Shepard.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=300 300w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/Giants-win-Cowboys-Sterling-Shepard.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640 640w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/Giants-win-Cowboys-Sterling-Shepard.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1280 1280w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/Giants-win-Cowboys-Sterling-Shepard.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/Giants-win-Cowboys-Sterling-Shepard.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2000 2000w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Giants receiver Sterling Shepard scored two touchdowns in today\u2019s win over the Cowboys.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Graham Gano\u2019s 50-yard field goal \u2014 his franchise-record 30th consecutive conversion \u2014 extended the lead to 23-19 with 6:29 left and forced the Cowboys into needing a touchdown to win.<\/p>\n<p>Jaylon Smith sought out Austin Mack to talk trash after the opening kickoff and it seemed the Cowboys were more interested in a fistfight. The after-the-whistle headbutts and pushing backfired with two unnecessary roughness penalties, one of which breathed life into a listless Giants offense.<\/p>\n<p>The Giants led 20-9 at halftime thanks to three touchdown drives to the Cowboys\u2019 three field-goal drives.<\/p>\n<p>The near-comeback started with a 57-yard field goal by Greg Zuerlein on the final play of the half but it was an all-too-familiar scene for the Giants that flipped the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">script<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A pass deflected off tight end Evan Engram\u2019s hands \u2014 a seemingly weekly occurrence for the surprise Pro Bowler \u2014 for an interception. Engram later had another pass zip through his hands for an incompletion. He has been targeted on six interceptions thrown by Giants quarterbacks this season.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Jones threw his 10th and 11th touchdowns of the season in the second quarter, connecting with Sterling Shepard and Dante Pettis. That\u2019s the longest-tenured Giant \u2014 Shepard is the only active player to appear in a playoff game in the uniform \u2014 and one of the newest Giants, claimed off waivers and considered a returner-first.<\/p>\n<p>Bothered by ankle and hamstring injuries for more than a month, Jones was able to extend plays and even employ some of his run-pass-options.<\/p>\n<p>The Giants gained at least 7 yards on each of their first six plays and capped an opening touchdown drive with a 23-yard end-around run by Shepard. Offensive coordinator Jason Garrett had been aggressive and creative in his first game against his former team and didn\u2019t stray to start the rematch.<\/p>\n<p>But the Giants squandered opportunities to build on a 6-3 lead by punting from midfield on three straight possessions \u2014 once after strangely trying back-to-back runs with Alfred Morris to get out of a first-and-15 hole. Morris was in the game as Gallman sat on the bench following a fumbled handoff exchange.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe that\u2019s where he thought up the idea to sit on the ball \u2014 and set up the Giants for a possible playoff berth.\n            <\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/01\/03\/giants-one-step-closer-to-nfl-playoffs-after-thrilling-win\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Giants one step closer to NFL playoffs after thrilling win&#8221; So, you\u2019re saying there\u2019s a chance. The Giants and their fans are in for an anxious late night of waiting until the end of \u201cSunday Night Football\u201d to see if they can steal the NFC East title and a playoff berth \u2014 but it sure&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":146514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/Giants-win-Cowboys-Sterling-Shepard.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[88422,70863,67069,71000,87275,51131],"class_list":["post-146513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-1-3-21","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-daniel-jones","tag-new-york-giants","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-sterling-shepard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}