The Giants Got Flagged For An Illegal Punt After The Punter Dropped The Ball On The Ground

The New York Giants had a very bad start to their divisional showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, falling behind 14-0 early in the second quarter. New York’s offense had nothing for the Eagles defense, and when they trotted out the special teams unit for their third punt of the game, disaster struck for punter Jamie Gillian when he just dropped the football and then panicked and kicked it off the ground.

What was already a disaster got even worse when they were flagged for an illegal punt. It turns out drop kicks aren’t a legal way to punt the ball and it was ruled a fumble at the Giants 43 with a 10 yard penalty giving Jalen Hurts and the Eagles the ball on the plus-33. On the first play after that catastrophic punt attempt, Hurts found AJ Brown for his third touchdown pass of the first half, putting Philly up 21-0 for what felt like the nail in the coffin early in the Meadowlands.

However, the Eagles couldn’t help but have their own punting mishap, as they had a punt blocked in their own end zone, with punter Arryn Siposs scooping it up and trying to run it for a first down, only to get absolutely cracked short of the sticks.

The Giants turned that into a touchdown to make it 21-7 and keep slim hopes alive of a comeback and prevent the Eagles from completely running away with the game in the first half.