KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Prime time has not been kind to Daniel Jones and the Giants. It was cruel to them Monday night.
Locked in a taut battle with the Chiefs, the underdog Giants battled long into the evening, taking a lead early in the fourth quarter and threatening to dig Patrick Mahomes and his mates into a deeper hole than they already were in.
There was no upset, though, as the Giants and Jones could not take enough advantage of one of the worst defenses in the NFL and Mahomes, far from brilliant, was able to pick apart the Giants on a final drive that ended with Harrison Butker’s 34-yard field goal with 1:07 left and sent the Giants home with 20-17 loss at Arrowhead Stadium.
Jones tossed short touchdown passes to tight ends Kyle Rudolph and Evan Engram, but the Giants could not do enough with the ball in their hands to escape with a victory.
The Giants’ last-gasp offensive series was doomed, as they had no timeouts to work with and it ended with a whimper.
With the game tied at 17, the Chiefs (4-4) got a huge break when Mahomes was intercepted by Darnay Holmes, but Oshane Ximines was called for an offside penalty. There was also a questionable 15-yard facemask penalty on Tae Crowder after a 14-yard reception by Travis Kelce. A 24-yard shovel pass to speedy Mecole Hardman set up Butker’s game-winning kick, completing a nine-play, 53-yard drive.
The Giants are now 2-6 in what in every year since 1978 would have been midseason, before this year’s increase to a 17-game schedule. This means the Giants are on pace for a four- or five-win season, which would represent a disappointing backslide after they finished 6-10 in 2020, Joe Judge’s first year as head coach.
Jones dropped to 0-6 in his career in prime-time starts. He completed 22 of 32 passes for 222 yards and shook off an interception on his first pass. Mahomes (29 of 48, 275 yards) found Tyreek Hill 12 times for 94 yards and one touchdown.
Once again, the Giants are on a once-a-month win cycle. They went 0-for-September, beat the Saints in New Orleans in early October and beat the Panthers last week in late October.
The return of rookie Kadarius Toney (4-26) did not provide any fireworks and the Giants lost Sterling Shepard to another injury.
Down 14-10, the Giants were bending but not breaking on defense and came up with a key turnover when Logan Ryan yanked the ball loose from Travis Kelce. James Bradberry recovered the fumble and returned it 13 yards to the Giants’ 43-yard line. From there, Toney finally got cooking with catches for 11 and 6 yards and the Giants cashed in when Engram — yes, Evan Engram — crossed in front of safety Daniel Sorenson on a 5-yard touchdown reception, with Jones leading Engram the way he needed to be led. The Giants were ahead 17-14 with 14:53 remaining.
The lead did not last long, but this does not mean the Giants caved in on defense. They forced the Chiefs to need 14 plays to advance 57 yards, stiffened when Mahomes was sacked by Trent Harris — activated off the practice squad earlier in the day — to force a Butker field goal to make it 17-17.
The Chiefs got the ball at the start of the game and went to work, carving up the Giants with dinks and dunks and shovel passes. With the greatest of ease, the Chiefs marched to the Giants’ 5-yard line, got a bit too cute with their play-calling and then lost the ball when Mahomes fired too hard to Jerick McKinnon. The ball deflected up into the air and was intercepted in the end zone by a diving Julian Love. It was interception No. 10 for Mahomes and continued a confounding turnover pattern.
That burst of defensive opportunism was doused when Jones on his first pass of the night looked for Darius Slayton but never saw linebacker Willie Gay, who intercepted the ball and returned it to the Giants’ 13-yard line. Four plays later, Mahomes located Hill in the back of the end zone for a 7-0 Chiefs lead.
The Giants went three-and-out on their next possession but three straight Mahomes misfires got the ball back in the Giants’ hands. They got a huge boost from John Ross’s leaping grab against safety Daniel Sorenson for a 50-yard pickup. The next play was a bit of trickery, as Jones flipped to Toney and Toney fired 19 yards to Shepard. Soon enough, the Giants were on the Kansas City 1-yard line and Rudolph was breaking free for his first touchdown reception with the Giants — the first for any Giants tight end this season. That completed an 85-yard drive to pull the Giants even.
It became uneven when Derrick Gore started gashing the Giants in the ground game, finishing what he started with a 3-yard scoring run to make it 14-7.
A 41-yard gain on a screen pass by Devontae Booker — yes, Booker — got the Giants on the move again, but they stalled on the Kansas City 13-yard line and Graham Gano’s 23-yard field goal pulled the Giants within 14-10.