Kayvon Thibodeaux, Giants goal line stands hold off Commanders in playoff push

LANDOVER, Md. – Kayvon Thibodeaux’s first NFL touchdown and two goal line stands lifted the Giants to a 20-12 win over the Washington Commanders on Sunday night, inching them closer to the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2016.

“It was a game that you knew you had to dig deep,” Thibodeaux, the Giants’ No. 5 overall pick, said after the highlight performance of his rookie year. “I didn’t get here because I was waiting or sitting back or wanted to see what was going to happen. I take everything that’s been given to me. I take everything that’s in front of me.”

Thibodeaux racked up 12 tackles, a sack fumble returned for a TD, and a goal line stop of scrambling Washington quarterback Taylor Heinicke on the defense’s final fourth-quarter stand.

“He gave us a lot of juice,” head coach Brian Daboll said. “I’m glad we drafted him.”

Two controversial calls by the officials on Washington’s final possession helped the Giants seal their first NFC East win of the season.

An illegal formation flag on Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin negated Brian Robinson Jr.’s potential game-tying 1-yard TD run with 1:01 remaining.

Then Giants corner Darnay Holmes was not flagged for defensive pass interference on a fourth down pass breakup with 48 seconds to play, even though Holmes was draped all over Washington wideout Curtis Samuel.

“They left me over there on that island, and I’m the type of guy that loves to be on that island,” Holmes said. “Every time I hit that field I tell myself I’m a closer and I’m an eraser. That’s just what it is.”

Heinicke had tried to hand the Giants the game with 1:08 to play, throwing a pass directly to corner Nick McCloud in the end zone. But McCloud had dropped the pass intended for Commanders receiver Jahan Dotson, leading to the home team’s last gasp.

Daboll’s Giants (8-5-1) got big plays in prime time from some of their biggest names on Sunday, though, which is how they snapped a four-game winless streak.

That included Dexter Lawrence’s red zone strip-sack, recovered by Leonard Williams, with 6:06 left in the fourth quarter. Azeez Ojulari split the sack with Lawrence.

On offense, Daniel Jones played efficient, turnover-free football with 160 yards passing and 35 yards rushing. Saquon Barkley gained 48 of his 87 rushing yards on the Giants’ final field goal drive to stretch their late lead to eight.

And the win increased the Giants’ playoff berth probability from 46% to 87%, per FiveThirtyEight.com, while the Commanders fell to (7-6-1) with a 35% postseason chance.

“It was a big game, a big moment,” said Barkley, who went for 120 total yards and a touchdown. “We needed our big-time players to make big plays, and you see a lot of those guys stepped up: Daniel, Kayvon, Dex, Leo. All those guys stepped up and made big plays.”

The Giants might need only one more win in their final three games to clinch a postseason berth, too, unless the Detroit Lions (7-7) or Seattle Seahawks (7-7) run the table to trump a hypothetical 9-7-1 final Giants record.

They have three regular season games remaining: Christmas Eve at the Minnesota Vikings, a Week 17 home finale against the Indianapolis Colts, and a Week 18 rematch at the Philadelphia Eagles. Philly likely will have the NFC’s No. 1 seed clinched by then and could be resting tons of starters.

“It’s a good feeling,” safety Julian Love said. “I think this is a big game, on the road, against a division opponent. It gives us an opportunity, and that’s all you want.”

Washington had begun charging back from an 11-point second half deficit on Sunday with a 19-yard Heinicke TD pass to Dotson with 8:38 to play in the third quarter.

The Commanders missed a long extra point, though, after a questionable offensive pass interference call on a successful two-point try. That kept the Giants up 14-9.

“Don’t ask me about the referees because I can’t answer the question,” Washington coach Ron Rivera said afterwards, disgusted with the officials.

The teams then split field goals. And with the Giants up 17-12 midway through the fourth quarter, Heinicke hit a 61-yard bomb to Dotson down to the Giants’ 30-yard line, only to see Lawrence’s strip sack snuff the drive out.

The play wasn’t initially ruled a fumble, but Daboll successfully challenged that the ball was out. Then Barkley set up Graham Gano’s second 50-yard field goal of the evening for the 20-12 lead with 1:55 to play before the wild finish.

The Giants rode a huge second quarter to a 14-3 halftime lead headlined by some of their biggest names. Thibodeaux, playing like a man possessed, strip-sacked Heinicke and returned the fumble one yard for his first NFL touchdown and a 7-3 lead with 13:10 left in the second quarter.

The No. 5 overall pick had sacked Heinicke in overtime of the teams’ 20-20 two weeks prior but hadn’t knocked the ball out. So he finished the job Sunday.

“He had that look in his eyes like, ‘I know who my matchup is, and I’m gonna win it,’” Love said of Thibodeaux. “And that’s what [defensive coordinator] Wink [Martindale] hit us on all week: if you win the matchup across from you, we have a shot. And today [Thibodeaux] was winning his matchup most of the day.”

It wasn’t just the sack. With 10 minutes left in the second quarter, Thibodeaux already had seven tackles, including six solo and three for a loss, plus a QB hit, the sack, forced fumble, recovery and TD.

He was hustling downfield constantly to chase down ball-carriers, too.

Jones and the offense then piggybacked on the defense’s score with an 18-play, 97-yard TD drive that ate up eight minutes and 35 seconds of game clock.

Jones completed 10-of-12 passes on the drive for 91 yards, sending passes to five different receivers. That included three receptions each for Richie James and Isaiah Hodgins.

The money play was Jones’ 11-yard completion to James on 4th and 9 from the Commanders’ 35-yard line just before the two-minute warning.

Barkley capped the drive off with a 3-yard touchdown run out of the Wildcat with Jones sweeping behind him with some effective misdirection. And that 14-3 lead at 1:43 of the second quarter held until half.

It marked the Giants’ first double-digit halftime lead since Week 17 of the 2020 season against the Dallas Cowboys, per ESPN Stats and Info. That ended a streak of 30 games without one, the second longest in the NFL behind only the Jets’ 32.

“It feels good to get the win, it’s a big win for us,” Jones said. “Playing meaningful games here in December is where you want to be. But we still got three more important games for us, and we haven’t achieved that goal yet.”

INJURIES AND INACTIVES

Thibodeaux got poked in the left eye on the Commanders’ final offensive play. “It’s alright,” he said. “It’s got a little wink to it.” … Holmes got hurt on a third-down run stop in the third quarter. His left arm was hanging limp as he labored off the field, and he went into the medical tent. But he returned in the fourth … Corner Fabian Moreau also was in the medical tent in the first half but stayed in … Corners Adoree Jackson (knee) and Rodarius Williams, wide receiver David Sills, linebacker Tae Crowder, and guards Shane Lemieux (toe) and Jack Anderson were inactive for Sunday’s game. Lemieux didn’t even make the trip. Williams and Crowder both are in Daboll’s doghouse after complaining about playing time on Twitter … The NBC broadcast reported at halftime that Giants tight end Nick Vannett had gone to the locker room for X-rays. Vannett returned to play a handful of snaps in the second half.