- The Denver Broncos defeated the New York Giants 33-32, scoring 33 points in the fourth quarter.
- Denver quarterback Bo Nix became the first player in NFL history with two passing and two rushing touchdowns in a single quarter.
- The loss puts further pressure on Giants head coach Brian Daboll and his staff.
NFL teams had won 1,602 games when leading by 18 points or more in the final six minutes.
Then the real 2025 New York Giants appeared against the Denver Broncos, who scored 33 points in the final quarter after being shut out for the first three. The Broncos walked away winners, 33-32, on Wil Lutz’s game-winning 39-yard field goal as time expired.
It was a stunning collapse for ‘Big Blue,’ even for their standards of routinely giving away games they should win during the era of head coach Brian Daboll, whose clubs have continued the tradition set in place by his predecessors.
This is the proud professional New York football franchise, mind you.
Daboll, even with his one playoff win during his first season that feels like forever ago (it was three years ago), should join them as the latest failed Giants coaches. Soon.
Only two teams have scored 33 points or more in a quarter since 1991, according to The Associated Press. Teams leading by 19 points, as the Giants did, or more at the start of the fourth quarter had won 108 straight games (playoffs included) before the Broncos rallied for 33-32 win against the Giants. (The last team to do so was the Minnesota Vikings’ comeback against the Indianapolis Colts, coached by Jeff Saturday, in 2022.)
The first move Daboll should make before seeing his own name on a pink slip is hand one to defensive coordinator Shane Bowen. Allowing the Broncos to go 56 yards in four plays with no timeouts and needing to prevent a field-goal attempt is more than fireable – even if his unit looked elite for the first three quarters.
Brian Burns, who had two sacks and is up to 9.0 on the year, was videotaped leaving the field complaining about Bowen’s decision to drop eight into coverage on the first play of the Broncos’ final drive – it was a 29-yard completion that catalyzed the game-winning possession.
Of course, general manager Joe Schoen is not without blame. Kicker Jude McAtamney missed two extra points and was this staff’s choice over Younghoe Koo, who is on the practice squad. Only the Giants are routinely put behind the eight-ball because of personnel choices at the place-kicking position. It’s inexcusable.
The scoring for Denver started auscpiciously, as Troy Franklin somehow reeled in a two-yard touchdown pass from Bo Nix that was deflected at the goal line. The Giants even had their own lucky score on the next possession, with Theo Johnson also catching a deflected pass and taking it 41 yards to the house, to make it 26-8 with 10:14 left. And Denver didn’t score again unitl 5:13 remained.
Rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart delivered a back-breaking interception with a 10-point lead and Nix found RJ Harvey to make it 26-23. A three-and-out from New York left the door open, and Nix capped a drive in which the Broncos only needed a field goal to tie with a touchdown that gave them a 30-26 lead with 1:51 left. That was the first of three lead changes that occurred in the final two minutes.
New York benefitted from a friendly pass-interference (and earlier in the drive, a questionable roughing the passer penalty) call that set up Dart’s one-yard rush that put the Giants back in front. Then McAtamney missed again. Nix, who became the first player in NFL history to have two passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns in one quarter, led the game-winning drive with a pair of perfectly placed passes.
The Giants’ defense collapsed, and Sean Payton and Co. pulled off the most improbable victory of the 2025 season.