Giants' Younghoe Koo explains what happened on his non-kick in loss to Patriots

Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News on Dec 2, 2025

Published in Football

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NEW YORK — Younghoe Koo says Monday’s flubbed field-goal attempt wasn’t a matter of him taking a misstep.

Rather, it was the result of the ball moving as Koo prepared to kick it, prompting him to stop suddenly, he said after the Giants’ 33-15 loss to the New England Patriots.

“[With] the ball and the cold weather, and the ball kind of slipped out at the bottom, so it was moving and I just didn’t, you know, I wasn’t able to kick through the ball,” Koo said. “The ball was moving when I was driving to it, so I just pulled up on it.”

The Giants (2-11) were trailing 17-7 when Koo lined up for a 47-yard attempt with 6:28 remaining in the second quarter of “Monday Night Football” in Foxborough, Mass.

After holder Jamie Gillan received the snap, Koo gathered and planted his left foot but pulled up before he could kick the ball with his right foot. Koo never made contact with the ball, and the play officially went down as a Gillan rushing attempt for -13 yards, resulting in a turnover on downs.

“Jamie did a good job of, like, catching it and putting it back, but at that point, it was just too late for me to drive through it,” Koo said.

The viral moment accounted for one of several special-teams miscues by the Giants, who also surrendered a 39-yard return to Terrell Jennings on the game’s opening kickoff, followed by a 94-yard kick return for a touchdown by Marcus Jones later in the first quarter.

“It just wasn’t a great team effort,” interim head coach Mike Kafka said. “All three phases, everyone’s got to step up. Everyone’s got to clean up their part of the game. It’s never just one phase. It’s never just one player.”

Kicking, specifically, has been an issue for the Giants all season.

Primary kicker Graham Gano tweaked his groin while warming up before the Giants’ 22-9 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 3 and did not appear in that game until the fourth quarter. It was the third year in a row that a Gano injury contributed to a Giants loss.

The Giants then elevated Jude McAtamney from the practice squad — instead of the veteran Koo — for Weeks 4 through 7, and he missed three extra points, including two costly ones during the Giants’ 33-32 loss to the Denver Broncos on Oct. 19.

Gano, 38, played two games after that before going back on injured reserve for the neck injury.

Koo, who played at Ridgewood High School in Bergen County (N.J.), has been the Giants’ kicker in each of the last four games. He is 4 for 4 on field goals (Monday’s non-attempt didn’t go down as a miss) and 8 for 9 on extra points.

“We just gotta fight, man,” Koo said, referring to the Giants’ overall special-teams problems. “I mean, it’s [the] NFL. People are going to make plays. But we just got to go back to work and just try to improve each day and each week and just put our best foot forward.”