Giants Q&A: Did win help save Pat Shurmur's job?
Giants head coach Pat Shurmur looks on from the sideline in the first half against the Redskins at FedExField on Sunday in Landover, Md. Credit: Getty Images/Patrick McDermott
The Giants have won two in a row. If they win a third, might it be enough to save Pat Shurmur’s job?
It’s hard to tell what ownership is thinking exactly, but before the season, co-owner John Mara said he would not judge the season by wins and losses but by whether he felt things were moving in “the right direction.” The caliber of opposition was questionable the past two weeks, but it’s hard to argue that they are not. Which may be why Shurmur included himself when rattling off a list of people for whom Sunday’s win was important.
“We’re not doing it for those reasons,” he said when asked if the two-game winning streak might earn him a third season as the team’s head coach. “How anybody evaluates that, that’s out of our control. It really is. We don’t worry about that.”
A home win over the Eagles on Sunday would match last year’s win total. A modest achievement to be sure, but one nonetheless.
What happened to Dwayne Haskins?
He injured his ankle while taking a sack on the first play of the third quarter. Washington’s rookie quarterback limped off the field gingerly and was carted to the locker room. He returned to the sideline later in the game but did not go back in action.
“Dan told me not to go,” Haskins said, referring to Washington owner Daniel Snyder. When the owner talks, that’s that.
Speaking of ankles . . .?
“Feels good,” Daniel Jones said of the sprain that kept him out of the previous two games.
Could the Giants have won at the end of regulation?
Sure. They tried a long pass on the final snap from the Washington 45, but only after Shurmur sent the kicking unit onto the field for a 63-yard field-goal attempt and then got cold feet and called them back.
“I had a little flashback: Didn’t something happen like that in the Alabama-Auburn game?” Shurmur said of the most famous case of a long field-goal attempt being returned for a touchdown. “As you can imagine, the headsets were blowing up and we just decided that the best thing to do was try a Hail Mary.”
It probably helped sway the decision that Aldrick Rosas missed a 53-yard attempt wide left earlier in the quarter.
How did that late decision sit with Rosas?
He seemed miffed as he came off the field for the offense and plopped himself on the bench. “Any time, in that deep range, in that time of the game, obviously I wanted to come out,” he said. “I felt like I could have put the game away in the fourth quarter with that miss. I just wanted to come out and bring the guys home [on the potential 63-yard attempt].”
What happened to Alec Ogletree?
The starting middle linebacker woke up with back soreness that was affecting his legs. He went through pregame warm-ups and was active, but about 20 minutes before kickoff, the Giants decided he would play only in an emergency. That bumped David Mayo to the defensive signal-caller and the every-down linebacker and gave Deone Bucannon his first start as a Giant.
Bucannon had been feeling under the weather most of the week but said he woke up Sunday morning feeling better. “Good thing,” he said.
Any other injuries?
Rookie receiver Darius Slayton got his leg rolled up on and was in and out of the game dealing with it. Right tackle Mike Remmers suffered a concussion in the first half and was replaced by Nick Gates.
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.
