EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — When Terrell Thomas returned his fourth-quarter interception to the San Diego 4, it looked as if the game was won, the season was saved and the Giants would go into their bye week with smiles on their faces.

At game’s end, however, they had incurred the worst of the four straight losses that have turned a season of bright promise to one on the brink. The 21-20 loss to the Chargers on Sunday was a killer, one that will simmer in their minds for two weeks .
“It probably would be better if we played next week, to be honest with you,” said a disappointed coach Tom Coughlin. Like most of his players, he found it hard to accept the fact that San Diego could move the ball 80 yards in the final minutes to pull out the win on an 18-yard touchdown pass from Philip Rivers to Vincent Jackson with 21 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
“There were many, many times when the game should have been over. But it didn’t turn out that way.”
Rewind to the end of the Thomas play: His interception of Rivers with 3:14 left appeared to cement a come-from-behind win, one in which the Giants’ defense awoke in the final quarter to spearhead a victory. The Giants Stadium crowd was roaring, the players were celebrating, the Chargers were deflated.
But on first down, guard Chris Snee was called for holding on a Brandon Jacobs’ run to the 1-yard line. “I let my team down,” Snee said. “I didn’t get my block. I think it was a good call.”
Suddenly the momentum began shifting. Eli Manning threw a wide receiver screen pass to Hakeem Nicks for no gain on first down. Two Jacobs’ runs followed with no effort whatsoever to throw the ball into the end zone for a touchdown that would have sealed the victory. Instead they settled for a 22-yard Lawrence Tynes’ field goal.
“They were back and defended the goal line,” Coughlin said. “We didn’t want to turn the ball over, obviously; we didn’t want to be in a position like that. You can second-guess it all you want. A field goal at that point in time forced them to score a touchdown.
“There was plenty of time left, I’ll grant you that. We had just had a couple of good series defensively. We had a lot of momentum; we felt good about the situation we were in. We let them off the hook.”
Indeed the Giants’ defense had been impressive in the previous three Charger possessions. They limited San Diego to minus-15 yards on a series after a Tynes’ field goal had cut the Chargers’ lead to 14-10. That gave the offense good field position to launch a 39-yard touchdown drive, capped by an 8-yard scoring pass from Manning to Kevin Boss that put the Giants up for the first time.
Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka sniffed out a reverse and tossed Jackson for a 4-yard loss to end the next possession. Then Thomas had his pick that he almost returned all the way for what would have been the clinching score.
“I looked at it as an opportunity to come out and seal the deal,” Tuck said about taking the field after the final Tynes’ field goal. “We always feel like that. Even if they only needed a field goal, we still would have felt like that.”
After a touchback on the kickoff, the Chargers were 80 yards away from the win with 2:05 left. Rivers, the quarterback the Giants traded for Manning back on draft day 2004, efficiently took them down the field. A 21-yard pass to Darren Sproles put the ball on the Giants’ 18 with 29 seconds to play.
Meanwhile, the Giants, who had pressured the quarterback the previous two possessions, pulled back on the pass rush. “It was probably five plays of coverage and three plays of pressure,” Rivers said of what he faced on that final drive.
The final stake came when Jackson beat Corey Webster to the right corner of the end zone against a cover-two defense, with safety Michael Johnson trailing far behind. In essence, Webster had him in one-on-one coverage.
“I don’t know exactly what the coverage was,” said Coughlin. “⁄Webster‹ was behind and underneath the receiver.”
And there was no one over the top.
“As a cornerback you want to be in position at the end of the game to make that play,” Webster said. “On this play he was just better. The quarterback just made a pass where only the receiver could go make a play on the ball.”
Thus what appeared to be certain victory was stolen from a Giants’ team that continues to make the mistakes Coughlin abhors. This time it was the nine penalties for 104 yards that helped fueled their demise, with a 29-yard pass interference call on Webster that set up the second San Diego TD and Snee’s holding call the major culprits.
“We had a chance to put the game away and we didn’t,” said Boss. “We gave them life, they came back and that’s what happens.”