Odell Beckham Jr. up to his old one-handed tricks in a Giants loss
Wide receiver Odell Beckham #13 of the New York Giants scores a fourth-quarter touchdown past cornerback Will Blackmon #41 of the Washington Redskins at FedExField on Nov. 29, 2015 in Landover, Md. Credit: Getty Images / Patrick Smith
LANDOVER, Md. -- One of these days, Odell Beckham Jr. will make a remarkable, one-handed touchdown catch that he'll allow himself to celebrate after the game.
The second-year receiver hauled in the most eye-popping play of the game Sunday, a diving 21-yarder in which he extended his left hand for the ball, secured it with his right, and slid through the FedEx Field end zone for a fourth-quarter touchdown.
His reaction to this catch?
"We lost the game," he said. "It's not really something that's as important right now."
It also was Week 12 a year ago when Beckham burst onto the NFL scene with a stunning, one-handed touchdown catch against the Cowboys. That grab, which occurred a year ago last Monday, launched Beckham's rise not only as an NFL player but as a cultural icon. It helped put him on the covers of magazines and video games, sprouted a mini-industry of viral videos that showed people mimicking the play, and made him a commercial commodity.
"It's crazy how much things have changed in 365 days," Beckham said earlier in the week, reflecting on the anniversary of that catch. But like this one, it came in a loss that muted his enjoyment.
"I hate losing, period," Beckham said after the Giants fell to Washington, 20-14. "You get a chance to make a play in the end zone, and I just want to give it my all every single time. But it's never fun coming up on the bottom."
Beckham was one of the few functional pieces of the Giants' offense on Sunday, making nine catches for 142 yards and the TD. He also was targeted 18 times, accounting for more than 35 percent of Eli Manning's 51 attempts, and at times seemed frustrated by the Washington defense. Defenders also were called for two facemask penalties as they grabbed at him to bring him down.
"We threw a number of flies and we didn't hit many of them," Manning said of trying to find Beckham on deep passes. "But we needed one there and he made a great play for us."
"You just have to keep going," Beckham said of facing a defense essentially designed to stop him. "You keep scratching and clawing, fighting for crumbs. Then sometimes the big ones will pop. They did a great job of knowing their assignments and trying to take away certain things. They did a good job today."
Beckham's newest teammate, receiver Hakeem Nicks, was impressed watching Beckham play -- and make the kind of catch he had seen on television.
"He can go get it, but I never doubted him," Nicks said. "He's shown enough people he can go do that. That's kind of like a routine catch now. If he doesn't catch it, we're going to be like, 'What?' He's a natural athlete with natural ability to do things like that."
Beckham wanted nothing to do with glorifying highlights that come in defeat, though. His focus is on improving himself and the team.
"I'm going to come in to work [Monday], Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, for the rest of the week, for the rest of this year, and I'm going to give it my all every single day," he said. "There is no time to slack off or do anything like that. There's just time to take it up to another notch."
And perhaps add to his oeuvre . . . in a victory.
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.
