Giants turning point
With 30 seconds left, no timeouts, and facing third-and-1 from the Giants’ 46, the Panthers handed off to Christian McCaffrey on a run up the middle. The defense appeared to stop him short, but the running back was awarded a first down. That allowed the Panthers to spike the ball to stop the clock with 11 seconds left, take one last shot at a pass into the end zone (which fell incomplete), and calmly bring Graham Gano in for the winning field goal. Had the fourth-down run resulted in a fourth down with the clock running, the Panthers would have had to scramble to bring in their field-goal unit or attempt to go for it on fourth-and-1.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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