Giants head coach Joe Judge insisted that he wasn’t referring to Washington as a clown show in postgame comments last week, but Washington head coach Ron Rivera still took offense and said that Judge should spend more time talking about his own team.
Given the state of the Giants, it’s no surprise that Judge would want to talk about others. They turned the ball over three times, gained 177 yards, and showed little interest in tackling Antonio Gibson on a second half touchdown in Sunday’s 22-7 loss to their divisional rivals.
The loss leaves the Giants at 4-13 for the year and Judge is 10-23 over his two seasons on the job. The Giants lost their final six games this season and they were never closer than 11 points on the final scoreboard. They’ve dealt with injuries and other setbacks, but their performance is all the more disappointing after seeing what the Lions, Texans, and Jaguars did while playing for nothing but pride on Sunday.
Reports late last year indicated the organization wants Judge back for a third season, but an impending change at General Manager and the Giants’ overall lack of competitiveness should leave the question of his future open.
Washington’s win snaps the four-game losing streak that ensured they’d miss the playoffs. Cornerback Bobby McCain returned a Jake Fromm interception for a touchdown and added a second one in the final seconds to ice the win. Defensive lineman Tim Settle recovered a Fromm fumble for the other Washington takeaway.
Gibson ran 21 times for 146 yards and finishes the year with 1,037 rushing yards. It’s his first 1,000-yard season and the team’s first since Adrian Peterson in 2018.
That effort should make him a key part of the offense next season, but the team has work to do on who will be handing the ball off to him if they are going to make the kind of improvement necessary to get back to the postseason.