The Giants finally recorded their first touchdown late in the fourth quarter against the Falcons. But instead of kicking an extra point to pull within one, coach Pat Shurmur opted to go for a two-point conversion.
Eli Manning, however, failed to convert the attempt, leaving the Giants trailing 20-12 with less than five minutes to play.
"I’m sure you’ll have some questions about the two-point play," said Shurmur, who is in his first year with the organization. "I just felt like we discussed, internally, the math on that. I just felt like we had a good play.
"I liked our two-point play selections and we just didn’t quite get it done. At the end there you saw, had they not kicked the field goal, I felt good about our second two-point play which we scored on at the end.
"I felt like I wanted to be aggressive for our guys. … We were struggling to move the ball, we were that close and I thought we had a play."
The aggressive approach was successful later in the fourth quarter when Barkley converted the two-point play after receiver Odell Beckham Jr. scored the Giants' final touchdown, but there wasn't time to capitalize on New York's late success as it fell to Atlanta 23-20.