The New York Giants held a 21-17 lead over the Washington Commanders with under four minutes remaining in regulation of Thursday night’s divisional game when Giants head coach John Harbaugh sent backup quarterback Jameis Winston onto the field for a fourth-and-1 from the Giants’ 11-yard line.
Harbaugh has used Winston for quarterback-sneak plays throughout the season, so it was logical that many at MetLife Stadium assumed the veteran would take the snap in that situation.
Following the Giants’ 24-21 loss that dropped them to 5-3-1 on the campaign, Harbaugh admitted he didn’t have a play called for that moment.
John Harbaugh credits Commanders for having “good discipline” in key moment
“No, I wasn’t seriously thinking about going for it there,” Harbaugh responded to a question about the play, per the Giants’ website and Jordan Raanan of ESPN. “I thought maybe we could draw them offsides and try to get them to jump. You know, take a shot at it. But they played with good discipline there.”
The Giants did not draw the Commanders offside, and New York ultimately punted following the delay-of-game penalty. With roughly a minute left in the contest, Washington’s Jayden Daniels connected with Stefon Diggs for what proved to be a game-winning 32-yard touchdown pass.
John Harbaugh knew what Jameis Winston was going to yell
Winston generated differing reactions among fans watching the game on social media when he yelled lyrics to the well-known “Who Let the Dogs Out” song as part of his cadence at the line of scrimmage for the fourth-down play. While it made for a humorous moment, one could argue that Winston using a typical cadence could have better disguised whether or not he was actually going to snap the ball.
“Yeah, I knew that,” Harbaugh said about Winston’s cadence. “That was part of the cadence there. That was part of the cadence. Teams do jump in those situations sometimes. That was the idea.”
After his team’s loss, Winston insisted that he was “trying to get them offsides” by using something he and his teammates had worked on during practices.
“Just practicing that with the team,” Winston said of the cadence. “The defenses are trying to jump the rhythm. Came up with that. Wish we could’ve got them to jump offsides.”
The Giants will enter the weekend still leading the 3-5-1 Commanders, the 2-7 Philadelphia Eagles and the 4-5 Dallas Cowboys in the NFC East standings. Dallas hosts the 7-1 San Francisco 49ers this coming Sunday.
