What Giants Bobby Okereke learned about losing country fumble to Patrick Mahomes
Get texts from Paul Schwartz with all the latest Giants news and insights, exclusive to Sports+ subscribers.Big plays made and not made can make all the difference.Bobby Okereke learned another lesson about this the hard way.The Giants and Chiefs were tied at 6-6 late in the second quarter last Sunday night when Brian Burns sacked Patrick Mahomes for a 7-yard loss.
The ball came loose and Okereke, a starting inside linebacker, was in the right spot for a scoop-and-score fumble recovery for a touchdown.It could have been a game-turning moment.It was not.
Okereke got his hands on the ball, but Mahomes, hustling to the max, pursued the play, punched the ball out of the unsuspecting Okereke’s grasp and fell on it at the Kansas City 7-yard line.The Giants went on to lose, 22-9.“He made a great play,” Okereke told The Post.
“And you see the urgency he plays with.Just tracking it all the way and making a great play on me.
I thought my reaction was good.You’re coached in practice, city fumble, country fumble, so to me it feels like a country fumble, a lot of open space around me so scoop it up.
Just have to have a faster reaction to tuck it because you got great players like him coming out to punch it kind of right as you grab it.”Okereke said he believes Mahomes is the only quarterback in the NFL who would have made that play on him.Defensive coordinator Shane Bowen bemoaned the lack of “four or five” potential opportunities for turnovers in the past two games that the Giants did not come up with and he hopes the tide can turn Sunday against the Chargers.As for Okereke’s missed chance, Bowen saw it the same way his player did.“I don’t fault Bobby for trying to scoop and score it,” Bowen said, “There’s space.
He’s there.He actually does get it scooped.
I actually thought it was a really, really good play by Mahomes.Just the effort and to be able to take it away from him.
But we’ve got to find ways to take advantage of those situat...