Dominic Zvada’s rough afternoon in Washington was ugly, but it shouldn’t send the Giants into a kicking spiral.
Yes, the rookie missed three field goals in the 27-27 tie, including a 46-yarder in overtime that had a chance to win it. That one will sting. It was the kind of miss that lingers because it came in the moment the Giants needed a finish.
But one bad game doesn’t erase everything that came before it. Zvada entered Sunday having made nine straight field goals, and that run didn’t vanish just because the latest outing went sideways. He finished 2-for-5 on field goals and 3-for-3 on extra points, giving him an 11-for-14 mark on field goals and a perfect 8-for-8 on extra points through five games.
The bigger point is that the Giants have seen enough to stay patient. John Harbaugh said his confidence in Zvada remained “high” after the game, according to the team’s postgame report. That kind of backing makes sense after a night when the rookie showed both sides of the coin: he hit from 51 and 56 yards, then missed from 50 and 57 before the overtime try.
That matters because this wasn’t a case of a kicker spraying routine attempts all over the place. Four of his five tries came from 50 yards or more.
The overtime miss still carries its own weight, though. It was a kick the Giants needed, from a distance they should expect to be makeable.
What needs to happen now is a close review of the operation and Zvada’s technique, then a return to the trust he had already earned. There isn’t enough here to pin the blame on the snap, the hold or a specific mechanical issue. Guessing would only muddy the picture and hand the wrong part of the operation the blame.
The Giants also have to think about the situations that keep putting a rookie leg in the spotlight. A 50-plus-yard field goal is a valid choice, but it shouldn’t turn into an automatic answer just because Zvada opened his career by making his first nine tries.
Field position, fourth-down distance, the score and the time left all need to factor into those decisions. The smarter approach is to judge each spot on its own, not overreact because Sunday went poorly or assume September’s results will keep showing up forever.
If the misses keep piling up, or if the staff finds a flaw it can’t fix, then competition starts to make sense. But one five-attempt game doesn’t get you there by itself. The nine makes before it are a small sample too, but they still count in the full evaluation.
For now, Zvada gets the Saints. That’s his chance to show Washington was just a bad day, not the beginning of a problem. The Giants ought to let him take that next kick without turning it into a job audition.
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