Cam Skattebo Set Up the Knockout. Devin Singletary Finished Houston in Overtime.

The Giants almost wasted the game they spent three quarters controlling. New York beat Houston 27–21 in overtime on October 25, and the part everybody will clip is Devin Singletary breaking loose for a 30-yard walk-off touchdown. It's a hell of a finish. But if we're going to tell the whole story, then we have to talk about why the Giants needed overtime in the first place, what Cam Skattebo did before that final run, and why a Houston offense with C.J. Stroud under center couldn't make the Giants pay for their mistakes until the very end.

The Texans had the ball first in overtime and went three-and-out. They punted. On the next possession, Skattebo broke a 42-yard run that put New York in position to finish. Singletary took the next big chance and ran 30 yards into the end zone with 7:25 left on the overtime clock. Those are the two plays that ended it, and they came from different running backs. That's a much better story than acting like a coach drew one magic play on a whiteboard and stole the win. New York kept running at a defense that had already spent the afternoon struggling to get the ball back.

Skattebo Didn't Need the Final Touchdown to Own the Ending

Skattebo ran 17 times for 124 yards and a touchdown. He averaged 7.3 yards per carry. That's not ordinary production, and the forty-two-yard burst in overtime wasn't some random miracle after a quiet day. He scored from sixteen yards in the fourth quarter to put New York ahead 21–14. He had been building toward that finish all afternoon. The play before Singletary's walk-off gets overlooked if you only watch the final touchdown, but without Skattebo creating the field position, the Giants aren't one clean run away from ending the game.

There was also a real personal bounce-back angle. Two weeks earlier, Skattebo's overtime fumble helped cost New York a chance to beat Washington, a game that ended in a 27–27 tie. The next week, he didn't get a carry. He came back against Houston and put up a career-high 124 rushing yards. That's growth you can actually point to on the field. Not some fake inspirational slogan. He got back into the action, produced consistently, and delivered the explosive run that made overtime manageable.

Singletary finished with five carries for 41 yards and a touchdown. Most of that yardage arrived on the last run. Does that make him the most productive Giants back? No. Does that make his contribution any less decisive? Also no. The point is that the offense had multiple backs capable of helping in different moments. One did the heavy lifting. One cashed in the opportunity. Both deserve credit, but not the exact same type of credit. Football gets easier to understand when we stop treating the last person to touch the ball like the only person who mattered.

Houston Never Found a Sustainable Passing Game

C.J. Stroud went 17-for-28 for 153 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. A box-score reader might see the two touchdowns and think he was fine. Then you look at the actual possessions. Houston finished with just 237 total yards to New York's 420. The Texans converted three of twelve third downs. Stroud didn't spend the day attacking every level of the field. He was trying to survive drives that kept ending before they had a chance to become dangerous.

The Texans did get scoring production from unlikely places. Ka'imi Fairbairn made field goals from 58 and 57 yards in the first half. Marvin Harrison Jr. caught a six-yard touchdown and Houston converted a two-point attempt to tie the score at 14 before halftime. Xavier Hutchinson's three-yard touchdown catch with 52 seconds left in regulation tied it again at 21. That's resilience, but those moments also show you how far Houston had to stretch to stay in the game. Two very long field goals and a last-minute touchdown shouldn't hide an offense that never got consistent rhythm.

Stroud got only six receiving yards from Nico Collins on two catches. Marvin Harrison Jr. had six receiving yards as well, even with the touchdown. Tank Dell had one 43-yard catch. Dalton Schultz led Houston with five catches for 45. Those numbers tell me the Giants did a decent job of taking away the usual passing weapons. It's not about pretending Houston doesn't have talent. It's about acknowledging that the matchup the Texans wanted was not the matchup they were getting for most of the afternoon.

New York's Quarterback Did Enough, and That's Fine

J.J. McCarthy completed twenty of twenty-eight passes for 252 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions. Malik Nabers had seven catches for 111 yards, and Malachi Fields added four for 83. That passing game was working well enough to keep defenders honest while the backs did the scoring. And I don't need to invent some superstar quarterback narrative to appreciate it. Sometimes keeping the ball out of danger, finding the open receiver, and allowing the rushing offense to close a game is exactly what the team needs.

Tyrone Tracy Jr. scored from two yards in the first quarter, and Jameis Winston added a one-yard rushing touchdown before halftime. New York had a 14–6 lead before Houston's two-point conversion tied it. You can question whether a drive should be finishing with a run by a backup quarterback, but it worked. The Giants were willing to use the full roster around the goal line rather than forcing the quarterback to do the same thing every snap. That flexibility became relevant again when two running backs decided the final possession.

6ixTake: The Game Was Won on the Ground, Not With a Cute Narrative

I'm glad Skattebo got to change the conversation after that fumble against Washington. But I'm not going to turn the entire game into some redemption movie where one guy overcomes adversity and everybody hugs at the end. Nigga, New York rushed for 188 yards. Houston rushed for 84. The Giants made the Texans tackle their backs all afternoon and then ended the game with two consecutive runs that covered seventy-two yards. That's actual football. That's a matchup advantage getting exercised when the game is on the line. And Houston has to answer why it could only generate 237 total yards with Stroud, Collins, Dell and the rest of that offense. I don't want to hear that the two late touchdown drives show they were close to figuring things out. Close doesn't mean solved. If you can move the ball only when you absolutely have to, there's something wrong with the plan you brought for the other fifty-eight minutes. The Giants deserve their credit, and the Texans deserve a much harder film session than the final six-point margin suggests.

The Giants went into their bye week 4–2–1, and Houston fell to 2–5. The biggest lesson isn't that Singletary is suddenly the only player New York should hand the ball to. It's that the rushing attack was good enough to win this game even after the Texans forced overtime. New York made the decisive plays with the personnel it had. Houston waited until the last minute to look urgent, and overtime showed why that wasn't enough.