Unbelievable! Giants lose on 63-yard field goal for 2nd straight year | Takeaways

Posted October 07, 2018 at 04:27 PM | Updated October 07, 2018 at 04:39 PM

By Ryan Dunleavy | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Odell Beckham threw a couple verbal grenades at his teammates, Sterling Shepard threw a frustrated couple punches at a trash can and Eli Manning threw a couple costly interceptions.

And a kicker threw the knockout punch to the Giants.

The Giants gave a maximum but sloppy effort on several fronts and fell 33-31 to the Panthers, losing for the fourth time in five games and the 17th time in their last 21 games.

It was an unbelievable back-and-forth game with an almost unbelievable ending. Graham Gano hit a 63-yard field goal with one second remaining, echoing a loss to the Eagles last season on a walk-off 62-yard field goal.

Even with Beckham's critical words about Manning, his teammates' heart and playing in the New York market plus a host of mistakes, the Giants trailed by three points with eight minutes remaining and six when they took over with 2:16 to go.

New York Giants v Carolina Panthers

Streeter Lecka | Getty Images

Beckham was in the middle of most of the good and the bad.

A mistake on a punt return gifted the Panthers an easy special teams touchdown in the first half, but he atoned for it by throwing a 57-yard touchdown pass to Saquon Barkley before halftime. The Giants settled for three other field goals and trailed 20-16 after three quarters.

The Panthers extended the lead to 27-16 courtesy of a touchdown drive extended by a bad penalty call against Giants safety Michael Thomas. Manning, who threw one interception in the first four games, followed it up with his second interception of the second half, both to Paterson native Mike Adams.

Game over, right? No.

Just when the Giants looked dead, Janoris Jenkins made the second interception of the day for a defense that entered the game ranked second-to-last in the NFL in takeaways.

Two plays after the interception, Manning went deep to Beckham for a 34-yard touchdown. It was the first of the season for Beckham, who vented to ESPN about not being put in position to make enough plays by his team's offense and quarterback. Beckham was targeted 14 times.

The Giants scored first to take a 3-0 lead but fought an uphill climb the rest of the day, twice trailing by as many as 11 points. They certainly did not quit or show a lack of heart, but the frustrations boiled over, as best depicted when Fox cameras caught Shepard beating up the trash can by the bench as Beckham tried to calm him.

New York Giants v Carolina Panthers

Grant Halverson | Getty Images

The Giants added a two-point conversion to Beckham's touchdown and trailed 27-24.

The defense bent but did not break. After allowing a fourth-and-1 conversion — a 27-yard pass to Jarius Wright, who beat safety Curtis Riley when everyone in Bank of America Stadium was expecting a quarterback sneak by bulky Cam Newton – moved the Panthers into the red zone.

But the Giants tightened up and held the Panthers to a field zone by using their timeouts.

Manning took over at the 25-yard line with a chance to quiet his mounting critics.

All he did was throw two touchdown passes.

The first was a 55-yarder to Russell Shepard that came off the board on replay review. It went in the books as a 40-yard gain because Shepard was ruled down by contact.

One play later, Manning threw a screen pass to Barkley, who long-jumped his way across the goal line with 68 seconds remaining. Barkley appeared to tweak his knee on the play, but never had to take the field again.

Too much time? Of course. When do the Giants catch a break?

The Giants lost two games on walk-off field goals during the miserable start to the 2017 season, but the Panthers completely mismanaged the clock and were bailed out by Gano's leg.

No solace in cracking 30 points for the first time since the 2015 season finale, either.

Here is a recap of a crazy game:

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