2. The defense made a few stops in the second half – until they didn’t.

The Colts’ defense forced a pair of punts sandwiched around a turnover on downs on the Giants’ first three possessions of the second half, allowing the offense to cut the score from 28-13 to 28-26 and have a shot at a game-tying two-point conversion early in the fourth quarter. After that attempt failed, the Colts were down by two – and their way their offense was moving the ball, a defensive stop very well could’ve resulted in the Colts taking the lead.

Instead, New York converted a third-and-three with a quick four-yard throw from Lock to wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson. On the next play, Lock flipped a pass to Nabers about five yards beyond the line of scrimmage; neither cornerbacks Kenny Moore II nor Sam Womack III could bring down Nabers, who accelerated past the Colts’ defense for a 59-yard touchdown.

“We just misjudged the play,” Moore said.

From there, the Colts’ offense again scored – Joe Flacco heaved a 49-yard bomb to Alec Pierce and finished off the drive with a seven-yard touchdown to Michael Pittman Jr. – which brought the Colts back within two points with 6:43 left on the clock.

On the Giants’ ensuing possession, Lock found Robinson for an 18-yard gain to push the ball into Colts’ territory. The haymaker came, though, on a third-and-eight from the Colts’ 44-yard line with 4:48 left.

Lock, from a clean pocket, picked out Robinson over the middle; Robinson slipped through tackles and gained 35 yards, all the way to the Colts’ nine-yard line. With a field goal still keeping the Colts in the game, Lock on third-and-goal from the five-yard line, scrambled to his left for a touchdown effectively sealed the game for New York.

“We just needed one stop to give the the offense another opportunity to go down and score,” Moore said. “But I think one thing just led to another and we kept letting them off the hook. They executed.”

3. Little things snowballed on offense.

The Colts had several early opportunities to score but left points on the board.

Their first drive ended on the Giants’ 29-yard line with Flacco, under pressure, floating a pass toward tight end Mo Alie-Cox that was intercepted by safety Dane Belton. The Colts reached the red zone on their next possession, but Flacco was sacked on a third-and-two from the 10-yard line, leading to a 32-yard Matt Gay field goal.

Gay missed a 54-yarder wide right after Steichen opted to hand the ball off to Taylor on third down – a decision that paid off multiple times in Week 15 against the Denver Broncos – on a third-and-eight from the Giants’ 40-yard line.

Gay then again kicked a short field goal – this one 29 yards – when the Colts could only gain one yard from a first-and-10 set of downs on the Giants’ 12-yard line. It wasn’t until Taylor punched in a three-yard touchdown with 23 seconds left in the first half that the Colts reached the end zone; by that point, they were losing, 21-13.

In the second half, Taylor was stopped on consecutive third-and-1 and fourth-and-1 rushing attempts on the Giants’ 23-yard line. That was in the third quarter; in the fourth quarter, Rigoberto Sanchez’s only punt of the day came after a three-and-out from the Giants’ 41-yard line.

And when the Colts needed a two-point conversion to tie the game, Taylor dropped a designed lateral from Pittman.

“Ultimately, we moved the ball up and down the field, and I felt like early on, we didn’t get enough touchdowns,” Flacco said. “We kicked two field goals and attempted another one. So, if you get in the end zone there, anytime you go back and you look at the red zone conversion rate, it usually has an impact on the game.”