Saints make Giants pay for mistakes as late rally led by J.J. McCarthy falls short

The Giants spent the previous three weeks like a team living on the edge. On Sunday, it crumbled.

Their furious fourth-quarter rally fell short in a 34-27 loss to the New Orleans Saints at MetLife Stadium. The final margin made an ugly game look a little better but couldn’t overshadow the Giants’ mistakes, errors and poor execution.

Hurt by Charlie Jones’ fumble on a kickoff late in the second quarter and a defense that continued to give up too many big plays, the Giants (3-2-1) allowed 34 unanswered points before scoring 17 straight themselves in the final seven minutes.

The Saints (2-4) were held scoreless for the game’s first 28-plus minutes, then scored 17 points in 3:57 . . . 27 in 15:06 . . . and 34 in 19:47.

Only a quarterback change from Jameis Winston to J.J. McCarthy with 11:31 left in the fourth quarter saved the Giants from total embarrassment. He led three scoring drives and had the Giants in position to tie or win it. But on fourth-and-1 from the Saints’ 14, McCarthy’s pass intended for Isaiah Likely at the back of the end zone fell incomplete with six seconds left, snapping the Giants’ unbeaten streak at three games.

John Harbaugh said he would’ve gone for two and the win if the Giants had scored a touchdown.

“For me it was, we got a shot if the clock is not at zero,” McCarthy said. “You felt the juice coming on the sideline, the defense making plays, the offense making plays. Things just got together a little too late.”

McCarthy, who finished 11-for-21 for 243 yards (all in the fourth quarter), did his best with his first extended action since the Giants traded for him on Sept. 28.

After an interception on his second pass, he settled in and moved the ball downfield well. His 49-yard pass to Jones and 46-yard pass to Malik Nabers were the team’s two longest completions of the season. He also threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Likely that brought the Giants within 34-24, and Dominic Zvada’s 41-yard field goal made it a seven-point game just before the two-minute warning.

McCarthy started the Giants’ final drive with a 28-yard run, the team’s longest rush this season.

What made it more impressive was that he said those were his first live reps with Nabers, Likely and the first-team offense.

“He came in and gave us a fighting chance to be able to win the game,” said Likely, who finished with 99 yards on six catches. “Played good. Definitely showed what he’s capable of.”

Nabers had 12 catches for 165 yards, his third consecutive game with more than 100 yards.

But the bigger issue was the Giants beating themselves with four turnovers, a poor running game and a porous run defense.

It started unraveling in the second quarter. With the Giants ahead 10-0, a 41-yard kickoff return set up Daniel Carlson’s 58-yard field goal with 1:18 left in the half, and Jones fumbled on the kickoff return after being hit by Isaiah Stalbird.

The Saints recovered at the Giants’ 28, and Tyler Shough (three touchdown passes, one rushing TD) ran 25 yards to the 3 before connecting with Bryce Lance for a 2-yard touchdown with one second left in the half as New Orleans tied it at 10.

The Saints opened the third quarter with Alvin Kamara’s 31-yard catch-and-run touchdown, and Shough’s 1-yard touchdown run made it 24-10.

“These guys are going to fight and they’re going to compete and there’s a lot of good things we can do,” Harbaugh said. “But we’ve got so many stretches where we’re not playing good football. There’s so many stretches that are not winning football.”

Winston, who finished 14-for-26 for 152 yards, threw two interceptions, his second multi-interception game this season. Two plays after the second one, Shough threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Chris Olave as the Saints went ahead 34-10.

The Giants’ running game again couldn’t get going even with a change at starter. Najee Harris started at running back in place of Cam Skattebo (zero carries) and had only two yards on four attempts. Skattebo was demoted after his fourth fumble last week and played only six snaps, none in the second half.

Harris, Tyrone Tracy Jr. and Devin Singletary had a combined 34 yards on 14 carries.

A week after allowing 202 rushing yards, the Giants gave up 175 rushing yards to a team ranked 29th in rushing. Through three quarters, the Saints averaged 5.7 yards per carry.

The Giants held the Saints to 49 yards in the fourth quarter, but the defense took a hit when cornerback Greg Newsome II exited with a concussion in the second half.

“We want to get to a point where we’re making those adjustments a little bit earlier,” linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said. “But it’s still early. It’s still something that we’re going through. Still something that we’re battling through as a defense, as a team. But we’ll get it together.”

By Evan Barnes

evan.barnes@newsday.comevan_b

Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.