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Oct 19, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; New York Giants fans react in the fourth quarter against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High. Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

What Went Wrong in Giants' Fourth Quarter Flop

Originally posted on New York Giants on SI
By Geoff Magliocchetti | Last updated Oct 20, 2025 5:56 PM ET

The New York Giants endured the worst kind of Colorado avalanche on Sunday afternoon against the Denver Broncos.

Big Blue's latest heartbreaking defeat came in the form of a 33-32 thriller where participation was hardly appreciated: the Giants let up a lead that reached as high as 19 after holding the Broncos scoreless for three periods. Mostly mum in the aftermath, head coach Brian Daboll offered a fleeting analysis of what went wrong over the final 15.

“We ran some plays that we thought were good plays, some plays that we ran earlier," Daboll declared.

"We didn’t do enough to convert on some third downs. It’s not one play, it’s not one side of the ball, it’s collective ... All the way down to the end, 60 minutes. They made one more play than we did. There are a lot of plays that could have changed the outcome of that game, not just one.”

Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

To Daboll's point, the Giants' demise was spelled out through all three phases of the game: defensive lapses allowed Denver to score quickly and often while offensive countering proved ineffective.

The Giants' margin was also partly created through missed extra points from the leg of backup kicker Jude McAtamney, who stepped in for the ailing Graham Gano on injured reserve.

The 33-point onslaught thus denied New York a chance for a statement victory against the AFC West leaders. It continued momentum and brought about the emergence of a freshman backfield battery Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo.

A Dart mistake came to partly define the day, as his interception that landed in the arms of Justin Strnad accelerated the Denver comeback by setting them up in the red zone after the deficit was shrunk to two possessions.

“My feet got a little stuck in the ground. That’s just unacceptable. I’ve got to be better," Dart said. "I can't do that. We were in full control of the game. In that situation, you can't do that. That was an unacceptable mistake."

Sunday's game thus proved to be historic for all the wrong reasons: the defeat ended a 1,602-game winning streak for teams that owned a three-touchdown lead with six minutes left in regulation. Denver also set a record for most fourth quarter points scored for a team that had been shut out over the first three periods.

The closer was perhaps all too familiar to Giants fans, with Sunday's loss through Wil Lutz triple conjuring brutal memories of the Week 2 defeat at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys. The respective final possessions of regulation took 37 and 25 seconds and Denver pulled their somewhat lengthier one which was earned with no timeouts in their pocket.

Now, the Giants' key becomes recovery: the schedulemaker did them no favors in hindsight, as New York is forced to immediately leap back into the divisional fire with a trip to Philadelphia next Sunday (1 p.m. ET, Fox).

Perhaps buoyed by resiliency brought about a brief go-ahead drive of recovery, Dart, who ended that drive with a one-yard scoring punch-in, vowed to not let the ugly vibes from Denver become contagious.

"We'll play in six days, so you can't let one loss lead to another," Dart said. "You've got to fix the things that you messed up on and we've got to finish games. We have to be able to finish the game. We have good leaders on the team, we have good players, we have to find ways to finish the game and bounce back."