The Giants entered Sunday as three-point underdogs on the road to the Jaguars despite their 5-1 record, as oddsmakers seemed to believe their luck might run out against a Jacksonville team that’s been a bit unlucky themselves.
Trailing by four entering the fourth quarter, New York scored 10 unanswered in the fourth to take a 23-17 lead with just a minute to play, forcing the Jaguars to try and march 75 yards for a game-winning score. Trevor Lawrence nearly got the job done, moving Jacksonville 74 yards in the 1-minute drill, but came up painfully short as the clock ran out.
To set all of that up, the Jaguars picked up a 4th-and-15 on a dart across the middle that also got a roughing the passer tacked on, moving Jacksonville to the 18 with 16 seconds to play.
.@Trevorlawrencee threads the needle!
📺: #NYGvsJAX on FOX
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/WfxxCNrfTZ pic.twitter.com/ICQDgBqnZt— NFL (@NFL) October 23, 2022
A pair of incompletions to the end zone set up a third down where Lawrence hit Christian Kirk on the 1, but the Jags defense popped Kirk in the air and then held him out of the end zone as the clock ran out.
GAME OF INCHES AND SECONDS!
The pass is caught, but the @Giants D keeps the Jags out of the end zone as the clock hits 0️⃣. #NYGvsJAX pic.twitter.com/efSZ7tOMrT
— NFL (@NFL) October 23, 2022
The reverse angles show just how close Kirk came but also that he was clearly short, with the Jags doing a terrific job on the initial tackle and then rallying to the ball to ensure he couldn’t get a second effort to cross the goal line.
What a wild ending in Jacksonville 😳 #NYGvsJAX pic.twitter.com/cwH1wYPycb
— NFL (@NFL) October 23, 2022
That stand gave the Giants the win to move them to 6-1 on the season, while the Jaguars slip to 2-5 with some painful losses along the way — from a gambling perspective that stop was important for money line bettors, obviously, but also kept the game under the total of 43.5.