EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – In addition to its disappointing result, the Giants' 21-18 loss Sunday in Washington was one of the most unusual games they have played in a long time.

The contest was full of statistical abnormalities, none stranger than this: the Giants became the first team in NFL history to lose a regulation game despite scoring three touchdowns and allowing none. The Commanders made six trips inside the Giants' 20-yard line but scored only seven field goals by Austin Seibert.

The only other game in which a team with no touchdowns defeated a team that scored three was played on Nov. 5, 1989, when the Vikings defeated the Rams in the Metrodome, 23-21. Los Angeles took the traditional route to scoring 21 points with three touchdowns and extra points. Minnesota countered with seven Rich Karlis field goals, including a 40-yarder with eight seconds left to tie the game. In overtime, the Vikings blocked a punt out of the end zone for the game-winning safety.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, teams that score at least three touchdowns and allow none are now 1,294-2.

*Sunday's game was the first in which the Giants did not allow a touchdown since a 20-12 victory against Chicago on Oct. 2, 2022.

But in keeping with the strangeness theme, it was the first game the Giants lost despite keeping their opponents out of the end zone since Oct. 18, 1987, a 6-3 loss in Buffalo in a strike replacement game. The last such defeat in a non-strike game was on Nov. 7, 1976, when the Giants lost in Dallas, 9-3. The Cowboys scored all their points on three Efren Herrera field goals.

*The Giants were the first team to score at least three touchdowns and not have an extra point or 2-point conversion since Dec. 24, 2022, when New England missed two PATs and a 2-point attempt in a 22-18 loss to Cincinnati. The Giants had last done it on Nov. 20, 2022, when two extra points tries (one blocked) and one conversion attempt failed in a 31-18 home loss to Detroit.

*Washington was the first team with neither a touchdown nor a punt in a game since the Buffalo Bills on Oct. 25, 2020. After falling behind the Jets, 10-0, Tyler Bass kicked six consecutive field goals for an 18-10 victory in MetLife Stadum. The Bills' offensive coordinator was Brian Daboll.

*In the 10-plus years since the start of the 2014 season, teams that do not force a punt are 13-39.

*The Giants did not force a turnover in Washington. Since 2019, teams with no takeaways are 193-558-2.

*No punts and no takeaways? Since 2014, those teams are 1-16. The only winners were the Kansas City Chiefs on Oct. 3, 2021, when they defeated the Eagles in Philadelphia, 42-30, in a game with no punts or turnovers.

*Since 2019, teams that did not score a red zone touchdown are 79-279-1.

*The Giants scored a touchdown on their first offensive series Sunday when Devin Singletary reached the end zone on a 7-yard run. It broke the Giants' streak of 26 consecutive games without a first possession touchdown, which was the NFL's longest. Carolina now has the league's longest streak at 20 games.

*Rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers, who had 10 catches for 127 yards and a touchdown against the Commanders, is in a three-way tie for second in the NFL with 15 receptions. The others are Tampa Bay's Chris Godwin and Las Vegas rookie tight end Brock Bowers. The injured Cooper Kupp of the Rams is first with 18.

Nabers is fourth in the league and first among all rookies with 193 receiving yards, one more than Minnesota's Justin Jefferson, who scored a touchdown on a 97-yard catch-and-run Sunday.

*Nabers is one of two receivers with 15-plus catches, 175-plus yards, and at least one receiving touchdown his first two career games, joining Arizona's Anquan Boldin in 2003 (18-279-2).

*Nabers is the first Giants rookie with 10-plus catches, 125-plus yards, and at least one touchdown in a game since Odell Beckham, Jr. did it four times in 2014, most recently vs. Philadelphia on Dec. 28 (12-185-1).

*The last NFL rookie to reach that triple was Cincinnati's Ja'Marr Chase on Jan. 2, 2022 vs. Kansas City (11-266-3).

*With Nabers cracking the century mark for the first time in his career, each of the Giants' last eight 100-yard receiving games has been by a different receiver:

• Sterling Shepard 9/12/21 vs. Denver 7 receptions/113 yards/1 touchdown - L, 27-13
• Kenny Golladay 10/3/21 at New Orleans 6/116/0 - W, 27-21 OT
• Kadarius Toney 10/10/21 at Dallas 10/189/0 - L, 44-20
• Wan'Dale Robinson 11/20/22 vs. Detroit 9/100/0 - L, 31-18
• Isaiah Hodgins 1/15/23 at Minnesota 8/105/1 - W, 31-24*
• Jalin Hyatt 11/26/23 vs. New England 5/109/0 - W, 10-7
• Darius Slayton 12/31/23 vs. L.A. Rams 4/106/1 - L, 26-25
• Malik Nabers 9/15/24 at Washington 10/127/1 - L, 21-18

*Postseason game

*Nabers was targeted 18 times Sunday, the highest total for a Giants receiver since Beckham was targeted 20 times on Dec. 22, 2016, in Philadelphia. He had 11 receptions for 150 yards.

*Four Giants – Nabers, Slayton, Robinson, and Singletary – caught passes Sunday. That was the fewest receivers the Giants have had in a game since Oct. 29, 2023, against the Jets, when the pass catchers were Saquon Barkley, Darren Waller, Matt Breida and Slayton.

*The game Sunday was the first the Giants lost after a) leading at halftime, and b) leading in the fourth quarter since Oct. 15, 2023, in Buffalo. They led at the half, 6-0, and in the fourth quarter, 9-7, but lost, 14-9.

*The Giants have lost their last five games in which they had no takeaways. Their most recent victory was a year ago today at Arizona, 31-28, a game in which the Giants scored all their points in the second half.