The New York Giants suffered a crushing defeat on Sunday, where they lost 33-32 to the Denver Broncos in a historic collapse. With 6:00 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Giants held a 26-8 lead over Denver, but proceeded to surrender 25 points in the final six minutes to lose the match. According to CBS, NFL teams had won 1,602 consecutive games when leading by 18 points in the final six minutes of a game, until Sunday, when the Giants surrendered their once seemingly insurmountable lead. While the team’s defensive scheme played a major part in this collapse, the difference in the final score ultimately came down to Irish placekicker Jude McAtamney’s two costly extra-point misses. During postgame media availability, McAtamney told the New York Post, “It’s on me…I missed vital points at vital times today. I’m not gonna shy away from that.” McAtamney had been filling in for the injured veteran Graham Gano, where he also beat out veteran placekicker Younghoe Koo in what was described as a “legit competition” by the Athletic’s Dan Duggan. This is McAtamney’s second consecutive week missing an extra point attempt – a play that has a 95.8% league-wide average success rate this season, according to StatMuse. The Giants rank dead last in that category, converting the extra point 76.5% of the time (13/17).
This is not the first adversity that McAtamney has faced in his American Football career. Collegiately, he played at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he lost his starting kicking job in the 2023 season after converting 66.7% of his field goal attempts, and 95.8% of his extra point attempts in 2022. The Giants initially signed McAtamney through the National Football League’s international pathway program in 2024, where he appeared in one match last season, but primarily loitered on the practice squad. Heading into next week, the Giants will determine whether to keep McAtamney as their starting placekicker or move in a different direction, where they will take on the rival Philadelphia Eagles at 17:00 GMT.
