Trailing 24-23, Big Blue faced a first-and-goal at the New England five-yard line with 2:06 on the clock and just a single timeout left for the Patriots.
Churning out a handful of runs could have shaved another 45 or 50 seconds off the clock, but the Giants instead tossed two incomplete passes -- including a controversial lob to Odell Beckham -- and took a sack before kicking a go-ahead field goal with 1:50 remaining. Brady took it from there, carving out a masterful 12-play march to set up Stephen Gostkowski's game-winning 54-yard boot with six ticks left on the clock.
After the loss, Giants coach Tom Coughlin wasn't in the mood to debate his thinking.
"The other guy (Brady) finished the game," Coughlin said, per Tom E. Curran of CSN New England. "We didn't get it done. We could have had the game over and been kneeling down. There was that circumstance. We could have scored a touchdown and went for two, they couldn't kick a field goal, they had no timeouts, there was all kinds of things that could've happened. That is why you play the game."
Giants quarterback Eli Manning said the decision to unfurl three straight passes also channeled off what the Patriots defense was showing.
"We had some runs called and they weren't going to let us run," Manning said. "They had goal-line personnel in and they just weren't going to let us run the ball in that situation so the one to Odell on first down was actually a run call but (I) threw the pass on the outside and just kind of (realized) that was the way it was going to be, they weren't going to let us run the ball right there."
It's never a good idea to hand Brady the ball with the game on the line -- he's won it a million times -- but we can't kill the Giants for seeking a touchdown. Punching it into the end zone would have changed the narrative for New York, but Coughlin said it best.
One quarterback got it done, the other did not.
