Giants get huge performances from Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley to take down Commanders
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LANDOVER, Md. — Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley just won the biggest game of their lives. So where are they going next?
For the moment, the answer is simply Minnesota for the Giants’ Week 16 game against the Vikings.
A trip to the playoffs, however, became much closer to a reality Sunday night because Jones and Barkley both delivered the kind of performances the Giants absolutely needed to pull off a 20-12 victory over the Washington Commanders at FedEx Field.
The Giants, by improving to 8-5-1, now own the tiebreaker over the Commanders, who slipped to 7-6-1. At the moment, the Giants are the No. 6 seed in the NFC.
Jones finished the game 21-for-32 for 160 yards and ran eight times for 37 yards, but as so often is the case with the Giants’ quarterback, he was better than the numbers indicated. Jones was at his absolute best when he led his team on an 18-play, 97-yard scoring drive that ate up most of the second-quarter clock.
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Barkley, meanwhile, emerged from a four-game slump to account for 87 yards on the ground and 120 yards from scrimmage while also scoring the Giants’ only offensive touchdown. He had 48 yards on a drive that set up a Graham Gano 50-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter to make the score 20-12.
To be sure, the Giants’ defense did its part, too, contributing a touchdown and coming up with a goal-line stop on the Commanders’ final possession.
But this game was always going to be about Jones and Barkley because this season has been so much about the two men who can be free agents after the season.
Hints have been dropped recently by coach Brian Daboll that make you believe the head coach loves what he has seen from his quarterback this season. In fact, even after his team was trounced last week by the Eagles, Daboll found time to praise Jones the following day.
“He’s good,” the coach said when asked about how Jones has dealt with intense pass-rushing pressure this season. “I think he’s (done) a nice job really since we got here. In the pocket, taking care of the football, making the right decisions. So again, when you get pressure right away in the pocket and there’s not much you can do, then the most important thing is to take care of the ball and live to see another day.
“There are other times he’s created lanes and made some loose plays, whether it be with his feet or throwing the ball. There are other times he’s been able to throw on time and make the right decisions.”
Jones pushed all the right buttons in the second quarter Sunday in what had to be the best drive of his life.
The offense had done nothing in the opening quarter, but Kayvon Thibodeaux turned the momentum early in the second quarter with the kind of play a general manager and coach dream of seeing when they make a player the fifth overall pick in the draft. The rookie linebacker bull rushed Washington left tackle Charles Leno and stripped the ball from quarterback Taylor Heinicke.
Thibodeaux was rewarded with more than a sack, however. He also picked up the loose ball and ran it in from the 1-yard line for his first career touchdown. It was also the Giants’ first defensive touchdown of the season.
Better still, the Giants’ defense followed up with a stop, although the Commanders did enter New York territory for a third time in the first half before punting.
The Commanders celebrated when they downed the ball at the 3-yard line.
Jones took the Giants 97 yards on 18 plays by completing 10 of 12 passes for 91 yards. He actually took them 102 yards because the Giants were backed up five yards at one point by a false start penalty on rookie Evan Neal.
What was the best moment of the drive?
Maybe it was the third-and-nine rope Jones threw to Richie James that went for 10 yards and a first down. Jones was under heavy pressure, but hit James in the numbers.
Or maybe it was his fourth-and-nine throw to James that kept the drive alive just before the two-minute warning.
It was all brilliant. Jones threw to five different receivers and took 8 minutes and 35 seconds off the clock. The drive ended with Barkley taking a direct snap and running three yards untouched into the end zone.
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The Giants went into the locker room with a 14-3 lead and were getting the ball to start the second half, the exacta every NFL coach is looking for when his team wins the coin toss.
By now, however, you know that nothing comes easy for the Giants and this didn’t either.
They failed to take advantage of their opening possession of the second half and the Commanders countered by going 91 yards on six plays to pull within five points. Heinicke, after a pedestrian first half, was brilliant on Washington’s only touchdown drive, completing all five of his passes for 81 yards. The first three throws went to Terry McLaurin and covered 51 yards and the last two went to rookie Jahan Dotson for 30 yards, including a 19-yard touchdown.
Washington’s bid to cut the lead to three with a two-point conversion was wiped away by a holding penalty and then the Commanders missed the extra point, keeping the Giants lead at 14-9.
The Giants answered with a 50-yard field goal to go back up by eight with 3:15 left in the third quarter, but the Commanders got back to within five early in the fourth quarter with a field goal of their own. Another 50-yard field goal by Gano made it 20-12 and the Giants were in for another wild ride to the finish, which came on a fourth-down incompletion by Heinicke that could have drawn a pass interference call on Darnay Holmes.
No flags were thrown and the Giants moved a step closer to ending their five-year playoff drought.
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Bob Brookover can be reached at rbrookover@njadvancemedia.com.
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New York Giants defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux (5) scoops up the ball and dives into the end zone for a Giants touchdown after Thibodeaux strip sacked Washington Commanders quarterback Taylor Heinicke during the second quarter on Sunday, December 18, 2022 in Landover, Md.
© Andrew Mills/nj.com/TNS