Game recap

Titans @ Giants

2026 Wk 3 · NYG 12, TEN 7

Four Dominic Zvada field goals held off three Titans drives that all reached the Giants' 7-yard line.

FanIQ Research · September 28, 2026 · 6 facts, every one from the play-by-play

The Giants won without scoring a touchdown for the fourth time since 1999, and the first time in 13 years.

Rare

Every Giants win with no touchdown, 1999 to 2026 (score equals three times field goals made)

Season	Week	Opponent	Site	Result	FGs made
2000	14	WAS	Away	NYG 9, WAS 7	3
2002	3	SEA	Home	NYG 9, SEA 6	3
2013	8	PHI	Away	NYG 15, PHI 7	5
2026	3	TEN	Home	NYG 12, TEN 7	4

Dominic Zvada, this game

Quarter	Clock	Distance	Result
1	6:37	39	Good
2	4:53	27	Good
2	0:03	39	Good
3	7:00	30	Good

Jameis Winston finished 14 of 22 for 118 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions, and New York's 57 offensive snaps produced 239 yards. League wide, 83 games since 1999 have been won by a team whose every point came from a field goal, so the shape itself is not unheard of. For this franchise it is: four times in 28 seasons, and none since a 15-7 win in Philadelphia in 2013.

Why it matters. A no-touchdown win says the defense and the kicker did the work, and that is exactly the profile of this game: four Zvada kicks, a passing game held to 118 yards, and a shutout that lasted into the fourth quarter. For a Giants team that scored 6 points a week earlier, winning this way is a floor, not a plan. The 13 year gap shows how rarely it holds up.

Tennessee's three second-half drives all reached the Giants' 7-yard line or closer. They produced one touchdown.

Trend

Every Tennessee possession after halftime

Qtr	Start	Snaps	Yards	Deepest	Result
3	TEN 25	12	68	NYG 7	Turnover on downs, 4th and 5, 1:11
4	TEN 9	13	76	End zone	TD, Ward 4 yards to Robinson, 5:39
4	TEN 23	13	64	NYG 7	Interception in the end zone, 0:24

Cam Ward by half (sacks excluded)

Half	Att	Comp	Yards
1st	13	7	41
2nd	23	16	140

Those three drives were Tennessee's entire second half: 38 snaps, 208 yards, 14 first downs. Ward went 16 of 23 for 140 yards after halftime against 7 of 13 for 41 before it. The touchdown went to Wan'Dale Robinson, a Giant from 2022 through 2025, on his 11th target of the day. The final snap came from the NYG 7 with 24 seconds left and the play by play model giving Tennessee a 49 percent win probability; Jevon Holland's interception at the back of the end zone ended it.

Why it matters. Sustained drives that die inside the 10 are the most expensive kind of failure, because the field position and the clock are already spent. Tennessee moved the ball well enough after halftime to win comfortably on yardage, and the three outcomes at the goal line, a fourth down incompletion, a touchdown and an interception, are the entire margin. The comeback was real; the finishing was not.

Tennessee's first half: 19 snaps, 54 yards, a 15.8 percent success rate. Its second half: 38 snaps, 208 yards.

Split

Score at the end of each quarter

Quarter	NYG	TEN	Plays
1	3	0	37
2	6	0	50
3	12	0	32
4	12	7	46

Offense by half, pass and run plays

Team	Half	Snaps	EPA/play	Success%	Yards
NYG	1st	37	-0.193	37.8%	135
NYG	2nd	20	0.025	40.0%	104
TEN	1st	19	-0.574	15.8%	54
TEN	2nd	38	0.067	52.6%	208

Tennessee had six first-half possessions and punted on five of them; the sixth ended on a 59-yard Joe Slye attempt that missed wide left with 46 seconds left in the half. A 15.8 percent success rate on 19 snaps means three successful plays before halftime. After it, Tennessee doubled its snap count and nearly quadrupled its yardage, and still came away with one score.

Why it matters. A first half this empty is why a 12-point game was never really close on the scoreboard: Tennessee spent 30 minutes producing nothing while New York built a lead one kick at a time. The second-half numbers show the offense was capable of moving the ball against this defense, which makes the first-half version the anomaly rather than the baseline. The Giants' own drop from 37 snaps to 20 after halftime is the other side of the same shift in possession.

Five trips inside the 20 between the two offenses. One touchdown.

Anomaly

Every possession that reached the red zone

Qtr	Team	Snaps	Deepest	Result
2	NYG	10	TEN 5	Field goal, 27 yards
3	NYG	11	TEN 2	Field goal, 30 yards
3	TEN	12	NYG 7	Turnover on downs
4	TEN	13	NYG 4	Touchdown
4	TEN	13	NYG 7	Interception

Snaps inside the 20, pass and run plays

Team	Snaps	TD	EPA/play
NYG	7	0	-0.309
TEN	10	1	-0.739

New York's third-quarter drive is the clearest case. Cam Skattebo ran to the Tennessee 2 for a second and 2, an illegal shift made it second and 7, and a holding penalty made it second and 17 from the 17. Two snaps later Zvada kicked from 30. Tennessee's 10 snaps inside the 20 averaged minus 0.739 EPA, with a fourth-down incompletion from the 7 and an end-zone interception from the 7 bracketing its only touchdown.

Why it matters. Red-zone conversion is where a 12-7 game gets decided, and both offenses failed there in different ways: New York with penalties that turned a goal-to-go into a kick, Tennessee with two empty trips to the 7. Seven combined points from five trips is the reason the final score looks like a defensive struggle when both teams gained more than 230 yards. It also explains why a 118-yard passing day was enough to win.

The Giants' defense had allowed 0.257 EPA per play through two weeks, second worst in the league. It held Tennessee to minus 0.147.

Comparison

Defensive EPA per play allowed, 2026 Weeks 1 and 2, worst five of 32

Rank (worst)	Team	Plays	EPA/play allowed
1	IND	138	0.269
2	NYG	108	0.257
3	DAL	132	0.217
4	MIA	111	0.172
5	DET	152	0.171

Giants defense by game, 2026

Week	Opponent	Snaps	EPA/play allowed	Success% allowed
1	DAL	52	0.221	46.2%
2	LA	56	0.290	55.4%
3	TEN	57	-0.147	40.4%

Weeks 1 and 2 are complete for all 32 teams, so that ranking is a full league table. Tennessee is not a demanding test: its offense ranked 30th in the 2025 regular season at minus 0.160 EPA per play and sat at minus 0.020 through two weeks. The swing from 0.290 allowed against the Rams to minus 0.147 a week later is still the largest game to game change this unit has shown in either direction this season.

Why it matters. The defense that gave up 28 points in Los Angeles is the same one that pitched three scoreless quarters here, so the question is how much of the change is the unit and how much is the opponent. Tennessee's baseline says a good share is the opponent. The half-by-half numbers cut the other way: the Giants held a bad offense to 54 first-half yards, then allowed 208 after halftime, which is not the profile of a fixed defense.

The Giants' first home win over Tennessee since 1999, in the lowest-scoring meeting of the series but one.

Milestone

Every Titans versus Giants game in the database, 1999 to 2026

Season	Week	Home	Result	Combined pts
2000	5	TEN	TEN 28, NYG 14	42
2002	13	NYG	TEN 32, NYG 29	61
2006	12	TEN	TEN 24, NYG 21	45
2010	3	NYG	TEN 29, NYG 10	39
2014	14	TEN	NYG 36, TEN 7	43
2018	15	NYG	TEN 17, NYG 0	17
2022	1	TEN	NYG 21, TEN 20	41
2026	3	NYG	NYG 12, TEN 7	19

Tennessee had won all three previous visits to the Giants in this span, by 3, 19 and 17 points, the last of them a 17-0 shutout in 2018. New York's two earlier wins in the series both came in Nashville. Only that 2018 shutout produced fewer combined points than the 19 scored here. The series since 1999 now stands 5-3 Tennessee.

Why it matters. Eight meetings in 28 seasons is too few for a rivalry, but the home and away pattern is striking: before this game the road team had won five of seven, and the Giants had never beaten Tennessee in their own stadium in the database's span. A 12-7 result also keeps the series' recent character, with three of the last four meetings decided by 5 points or fewer. The Giants avoided a fourth straight home loss to this opponent, and did it with 12 points.

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