Under the circumstances — down two starters in the secondary because of injuries, and Josh Norman having had every break go against him thus far in covering Odell Beckham Jr. — Washington couldn’t have asked for a bigger break Sunday than to force and recover a fumble by the Giants’ Shane Vereen as they were driving late in the first half.
Washington blew it anyway, with a particularly inept display of clock management that cost them a chance to score from the Giants’ 4 in the final second, leaving them trailing 21-16 at halftime at MetLife Stadium.
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Trouble loomed when cornerback Bashaud Breeland was knocked out of the game with an ankle injury on the Giants’ second series. Safety DeAngelo Hall was lost to a knee injury after tackling Beckham, after he'd beaten Norman for a big catch in the second quarter.
Yet the Giants never got to capitalize, because of Shane Vereen’s fumble on the next possession at the Washington 34 with 1:10 left in the half.
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However, Washington managed to get to the Giants’ 4 with less than 20 seconds left … and only ran two plays from there, despite having a timeout left. The first was Kirk Cousins missing Jamison Crowder in the end zone with six seconds left, and the next was Cousins getting sacked by Jen Pierre-Paul as time ran out — with a timeout in hand.
Against a defense missing one or both secondary starters, Eli Manning threw for 167 first-half yards and a touchdown, 112 to Beckham and fellow wide receivers Sterling Shepard and Victor Cruz.