Younghoe Koo says Monday’s flubbed field-goal try wasn’t a matter of him taking a misstep.
Moderately, it was the results of the ball shifting as Koo ready to kick it, prompting him to cease out of the blue, he mentioned after the Giants’ 33-15 loss to the New England Patriots.
“[With] the ball and the cold weather, and the ball kind of slipped out at the bottom, so it was moving and I just didn’t, you know, I wasn’t able to kick through the ball,” Koo mentioned. “The ball was moving when I was driving to it, so I just pulled up on it.”
The Giants (2-11) have been trailing, 17-7, when Koo lined up for a 47-yard try with 6:28 remaining within the second quarter of “Monday Night Football” in Foxborough, Mass.
After holder Jamie Gillan acquired the snap, Koo gathered and planted his left foot however pulled up earlier than he may kick the ball along with his proper foot. Koo by no means made contact with the ball, and the play formally went down as a Gillan dashing try for -13 yards, leading to a turnover on downs.
“Jamie did a good job of, like, catching it and putting it back, but at that point, it was just too late for me to drive through it,” Koo mentioned.
New York Giants place kicker Younghoe Koo arrives at Gillette Stadium, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, earlier than an NFL soccer sport towards the New England Patriots, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photograph/Steven Senne)
The viral second accounted for one among a number of special-teams miscues by the Giants, who additionally surrendered a 39-yard return to Terrell Jennings on the sport’s opening kickoff, adopted by a 94-yard kick return for a landing by Marcus Jones later within the first quarter.
“It just wasn’t a great team effort,” interim head coach Mike Kafka mentioned. “All three phases, everyone’s got to step up. Everyone’s got to clean up their part of the game. It’s never just one phase. It’s never just one player.”
Kicking, particularly, has been a difficulty for the Giants all season.
Major kicker Graham Gano tweaked his groin whereas warming up earlier than the Giants’ 22-9 loss to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs in Week 3 and didn’t seem in that sport till the fourth quarter. It was the third 12 months in a row {that a} Gano damage contributed to a Giants loss.
The Giants then elevated Jude McAtamney from the apply squad — as a substitute of the veteran Koo — for Weeks 4 by means of 7, and he missed three further factors, together with two pricey ones in the course of the Giants’ 33-32 loss to the Denver Broncos on Oct. 19.
Gano, 38, performed two video games after that earlier than going again on injured reserve for the neck damage.
Koo, who performed at Ridgewood Excessive Faculty in Bergen County, has been the Giants’ kicker in every of the final 4 video games. He’s 4-for-4 on subject objectives (Monday’s non-attempt didn’t go down as a miss) and 8-for-9 on further factors.
“We just gotta fight, man,” Koo mentioned, referring to the Giants’ general special-teams issues. “I mean, it’s [the] NFL. People are going to make plays. But we just got to go back to work and just try to improve each day and each week and just put our best foot forward.”
