Giants left tackle Ereck Flowers lined up wide as a receiver on his team’s first possession on Sunday, and that wasn't close to the game's weirdest moment. The matchup between the Giants and the Kansas City Chiefs featured four interceptions, but only two of them were thrown by quarterbacks. Head coach Ben McAdoo, liberated from any notion that he’ll coach the Giants next season, finally let loose and called a fake punt on the Giants’ first drive. The team converted, and six plays later he got even cuter, calling a passing play for running back Shane Vereen. It was the most flavorful play the Giants have run in the vanilla McAdoo era.
The only issue is that the pass went to the wrong team. Vereen was intercepted by Chiefs defender Daniel Sorensen. On the very next possession, Alex Smith, who had thrown one interception on the entire season, was picked off by the Giants defensive tackle Damon “Snacks” Harrison. It was the first interception of Harrison’s career.
In the fourth quarter, with the Chiefs looking to push the ball downfield, they turned to a different arm. No, not first-round pick Patrick Mahomes II—tight end Travis Kelce, who took a lateral and threw a deep pass intended for Demarcus Robinson.
He, too, was picked off. On the Chiefs’ next possession, Smith threw an interception, this time to Giants cornerback Janoris Jenkins.
Naturally, the ugliest game of the week went to overtime—and in a delicious twist, the score was tied 9-9 because Giants kicker Aldrick Rosas missed the extra point on the game’s lone touchdown. During the coin toss, referee Brad Allen congratulated the players on a game well played, confirming that the officials weren’t watching the game.
After almost eight minutes of scoreless overtime play, the Giants had a fourth-and-6 at the Kansas City 36-yard line. Rather than trying for a game-winning field goal on fourth down, Manning tossed up a prayer to receiver Roger Lewis. Chiefs corner Phillip Gaines, seemingly worried that he was going to give up the game-winning touchdown, yanked Lewis down by the arm. But the ball was so badly underthrown that Gaines pulled Lewis into the ball’s flight path, and he caught it while sliding on the ground.
Lewis was ruled down before he ran into the end zone, but the Giants kicked a chip shot to win the game, 12-9. The Chiefs have fallen to 6-4 after starting 5-0, and the Giants are now probably out of the race for the first overall pick. Each team is in a worse position now than they were at the beginning of the day—not just because of the outcome of the game, but for having participated in such a slog of a game.
