Giants kicking themselves after losing on Commanders' seventh field goal

LANDOVER, Md. — The Giants’ kicker situation doomed them in Sunday’s 21-18 loss to the Commanders.

Graham Gano, who was listed with a right groin injury on Saturday’s injury report, got hurt on the opening kickoff. As Gano was trying to run down Austin Ekeler on a 98-yard touchdown return that got called back because of a holding penalty, he injured his right hamstring.

Gano tumbled to the grass after he was blocked on the play and never returned, and now the Giants are left looking for answers after an 0-2 start to the season.

It might have been an even more frustrating defeat than the 28-6 loss to the Vikings in the opener because of how winnable a game it was.

How often does a team score three touchdowns, not allow any and still lose?

It had never happened in NFL history in a regulation game.

Austin Seibert, who had just signed with the Commanders a few days ago, won it with his seventh field goal of the day, a 30-yarder as time expired.

The Giants had the opportunity to elevate kicker Jude McAtamney, a rookie who played at Rutgers, from the practice squad before facing Washington but elected not to do so.

Punter Jamie Gillan began practicing kicks on the sideline immediately after Gano got medical attention. Gillan kicked in college for Arkansas Pine-Bluff and was an all-Southwest Athletic Conference selection at the position in 2018. He made a 40-yard field goal last season at New Orleans, but his extra-point try on Devin Singletary’s early touchdown hooked wide right on Sunday. That miss changed the entire course of the game, as coach Brian Daboll elected to go for two on two subsequent touchdowns and the Giants were unsuccessful.

With the score tied at 18 and just a little over two minutes left, the Giants had a chance to kick the go-ahead field goal at the Washington 22, but instead of asking Gillan to match last year’s 40-yard feat, Daboll left the offense on the field. Daniel Jones’ pass to Malik Nabers on fourth-and-4 was on target and would have been a first down, but he dropped it, his lone blemish on a big day that included his first touchdown catch.

Afterward, Daboll defended his decision.

“We went for it there at the end of the game,” he said. “I thought our chances were good throwing it to Malik with Daniel. I thought our chances were good. Better than making a 40- or 39-yard field goal. So that’s what we decided to do.”

Daboll said there was a yardage point at which he would have let Gillan kick, but he wouldn’t reveal the number.

The whole kicking situation spoiled what was a solid all-around game for the offense.

Singletary ran for 95 yards on 16 carries, including a 22-yard scamper. Nabers had 10 catches (on 18 targets) for 127 yards. His 4-yard touchdown catch right before the half gave the Giants a 12-9 lead that stayed that way after the two-point conversion pass failed.

Jones bounced back from the Week 1 debacle by throwing two touchdown passes with no interceptions for a 100 rating. His second TD pass, a 7-yarder to Wan’Dale Robinson, gave the Giants an 18-15 lead early in the fourth quarter. But instead of trying an extra point to go up by four, they went for two, and Jones’ pass to Darius Slayton was incomplete.

“Disappointed in the outcome. Proud of the way the guys competed,” Daboll said. “Thought the quarterback played well. A play here or there, we came up short on, and that’s the outcome of the game.”

There will be other games that will stay with Nabers throughout his career, but this one — featuring his first touchdown and costly drop — no doubt will be one he won’t forget.

“It’s really about going back in my head and seeing how I could have done it different with the mistakes I made and hoping to get it back,” he said. “Just got to move on.”

Asked if he believes he should catch every ball, the No. 6 overall pick said, “I mean, they’re high on me. They’re passing me the ball. They know I can make plays, I’m sure. Out of 1,000 times, they’re going to continue to call that play and go at me on fourth down again. So obviously I want to make that play.”

Nabers is right about all of that. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t growing pains.

“I’m disappointed,” he said. “I mean, no matter how good a game you can play, that last play came down to me. I’m hurt that I let all those veterans down. I mean, they know what kind of player I am.”

Nabers said Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns and Isaiah Simmons — all defensive players — sought him out after the game.

“I know what kind of confidence they got in me,” he said. “I’m just hurt I let those veterans down. I don’t want to ever let my team down. That’s the main motto in my head. Don’t let my team down. [And today] I let my team down.”

By Kimberly Jones

kimberly.jones@newsday.comkimjonessports

Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.