LANDOVER, Md. — Dominic Zvada was perfect until he wasn’t.
Once. Twice. Three times.
The undrafted rookie missed three field goals, including the 46-yarder that would’ve given the Giants a lead in the back-and-forth portion of overtime, during a 27-27 tie Sunday against the Commanders.
“Got called on, had an opportunity to put us up and wasn’t able to do it,” Zvada told The Post. “I take accountability on that. It’s the NFL: When your number gets called, you have to go do your job.”
Zvada was 9-for-9 on field goals to start his career, delivering all the scoring in a 12-7 win against the Titans and a game-changing 50-yarder late in the 36-24 win against the Cardinals.
But Sunday was a different animal from the start because the soggy grass and steady rain at Northwest Stadium made footing difficult. Zvada was only 2-for-5 on field goals, missing wide from 50, 57 and 46 yards.
“I don’t have any excuses,” Zvada said. “We have a lot of games and a lot of opportunities. I’m going to get back to what I know and make sure that we’re ready for next week.”
The Giants were poised to call on Zvada one more time for a potential walk-off kick when Cam Skattebo lost a fumble at the two-minute warning after overtime switched to sudden death.
“Strategically, the idea was to run it twice, run [the clock down], get as close as we could, protect the football, which we talked about numerous times, and take the knee,” head coach John Harbaugh said. “That’s the strategy we decided on early in training camp and that’s the strategy we’ll probably do next time too.”
Zvada did not share any specifics of what technically went wrong when he hooked his 46-yarder wide left.
“I want to be able to do my part and make sure that this team gets a win,” Zvada said. “It’s tough.”
Harbaugh said he isn’t about to lose faith in Zvada, though he could still harbor battle scars from Tyler Loop’s missed field goal on the final play of the 2025 regular season. It kept the Ravens out of the playoffs and ended Harbaugh’s 18-year tenure in Baltimore.
What’s his confidence level in Zvada?
“It’s high,” Harbaugh said. “He’ll learn from that. He’s going to miss at some point. So, now he’s got his first miss. Now he has three.”
