It was unsightly and unconventional and bizarre and flawed and weird and born out of desperation.
And somehow, some way, the strange and unusual formula the Giants had concocted was going to lead them to a most improbable and beautifully ugly victory over the Jets.
It was all there for the Giants, leading 10-7 with 28 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter Sunday as Graham Gano trotted onto the field to attempt a 35-yard field goal to give his team a six-point lead, with the Jets out of timeouts and in a game-long scoring funk.
The fact that the Giants, down to a practice squad, third-string quarterback, basically refused to attempt a pass after halftime and turned offensive football back several decades with a hand-it-to-Saquon Barkley attack and still were on the precipice of a season-saving triumph was astounding.
“In that moment when everything’s going your way, you feel like we can finish the game,’’ Barkley said.
You would think so.
Gano, 34 of 36 on field-goal attempts of 30-39 yards in his previous three seasons with the Giants, missed wide left.
The Giants unraveled, allowing the tying points in the final second of regulation and then watching another Greg Zuerlein field goal split the uprights with 6:09 remaining in overtime.
There went the Giants, from the high of a wild-ride victory to the lowest of the lows of a Dumpster-fire 13-10 loss.
‘It sucks that I let everybody down,’’ Gano said. “You can put it straight on me; there is nobody else, honestly. This one is on me for sure.’’
It is certainly on the 36-year-old kicker, but also on an ill-timed defensive meltdown at the worst possible time, turning sure success into abject failure.
“This one hurts,’’ coach Brian Daboll said.
This goes down as an all-time blown opportunity for the Giants, who dropped to 2-6, with their season sliding down the drain.
The game appeared to be signed, sealed and delivered for the Giants when Kayvon Thibodeaux sacked Zach Wilson for a 15-yard loss on fourth down with 1:26 left in regulation.
The Giants, clinging to a 10-7 lead, milked the clock and faced fourth-and-1 on the Jets’ 17-yard line.
A first down ended the game.
Instead, Daboll sent Gano out for a chip-shot field goal for a six-point lead.
He missed, incredibly, and the Jets were out of timeouts and back on their 25-yard line.
“So, counted on making the field goal, and then they’d have 24 seconds with no timeouts, still have to drive it the length, and our defense was playing well all game,’’ Daboll said. “That’s why I made the decision.’’
Barkley, who had 36 rushing attempts for 128 yards and often was the entire offense after quarterback Tyrod Taylor, starting in place of injured Daniel Jones, was forced out in the second quarter with an injury to his rib cage.
Taylor’s injury forced Tommy DeVito to make his NFL debut.
“We could sit here and talk about that decision all day,’’ Barkley said. “We have Graham Gano, one of the greatest kickers of all time, to be honest. That’s life, sometimes it doesn’t go your way.’’
The Jets (4-3) were granted a reprieve but they still were in dire straits against a Giants defense that was playing like a finely tuned orchestra.
But the music died.
Wilson hit Garrett Wilson for 29 yards and then hit Allen Lazard for 29 more, with the Jets able to spike the ball with one second remaining.
Zuerlein then nailed a 35-yard field goal to force overtime.
In the extra session, the Giants appeared shot.
DeVito and the offense went three-and-out, the Jets took over on their 39-yard line.
Zach Wilson on third-and-10 hit Garrett Wilson for 11 yards.
After Adoree’ Jackson’s 30-yard pass interference penalty, Zuerlein ended it.
The Giants trailed 7-3 at halftime, allowing Breece Hall’s 50-yard catch-and-run touchdown in the first quarter and not much else.
Taylor was out, though, and DeVito, a practice-squad elevation, was not going to be asked to carry any load.
Daboll figured the only way to keep close and steal it at the end was to lean on his defense and his star running back.
“I told the guys at halftime we’re going through 26,’’ Daboll said.
Barkley ran it 25 times after halftime and DeVito threw it only four times, for minus-1 yard.
The Giants finished with minus-9 net passing yards, including yards lost on sacks.
The Giants, playing without tight end Darren Waller after he strained a hamstring early in the first quarter, got the ball to start the third quarter after going 0-for-10 on third-down conversions in the first half.
Barkley finally burst free on a 34-yard run to gain some breathing room. An unnecessary roughing penalty on Jermaine Johnson for landing on DeVito proved to be costly when DeVito, on third-and-goal from the 6-yard line, faked a handoff to Barkley and took off on an option run, clearly confounding the Jets.
DeVito raced untouched into the end zone and with 8:59 remaining in the third quarter the Giants were actually ahead, 10-7.
“I kind of blacked out at the time, not really sure what happened,’’ DeVito said.
None of the Giants is really sure what ultimately happened.
