Giants' Odell Beckham Jr. says touchdown catch should have counted

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Odell Beckham Jr. took the New York Giants' 27-26 loss to the New England Patriots very hard, saying the heartbreaking, last-second defeat was on him.

Beckham said he caught what could have been a game-winning 5-yard touchdown in the corner of the end zone with 2:01 left. Officials initially ruled it a touchdown, but after review, the play was reversed because Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler knocked the ball out of Beckham's hands.

"I lost us the game," Beckham said. "The play down in the end zone, the play should've been made. You can't leave it up to the officials to get anything right. You just got to make the play itself."

Beckham had no doubt he caught the ball and landed with both feet in the end zone before the ball was jarred out of his hands on a first-and-goal.

"I mean, I caught it," Beckham said. "I trust in my hands. I go up and catch it. You come down with two feet. You can't try to do anything too early. You got to keep [with] the whole process. It didn't go the way we wanted [it] to."

"[I] didn't think you had to do anything else but catch the ball and get two feet in the end zone," Beckham later said when asked if he was given an explanation for the reversal.

Head coach Tom Coughlin said Beckham will "learn" from this.

"Hang onto the ball," Coughlin said when asked what Beckham could have done on the play. "Get the ball, and put it away. The one thing I noticed with Butler all night long are very quick hands, and his hands were in there on the ball a lot. He'll learn."

Beckham was asked if he started to pull the ball out before it got knocked out of his hands, perhaps to begin celebrating a touchdown.

"I don't know," he said. "I went up to catch it, put two hands on it, put two feet on the ground in the end zone. They called it a touchdown, and then I guess there was disputable evidence to overturn it. This one is on me.

"I felt like it was a touchdown. ... It was like the whole thing was in slow motion. I go up to make the catch, I catch it, I put two feet down, and I'm just thinking, 'That's it. We got this one.' And he comes in and knocks it out late, and they overturn it."

Instead of coming away with a potential touchdown and perhaps even a two-point conversion, which would have forced the Patriots to go for a touchdown on their final drive, the Giants came up empty on three straight plays from the New England 5-yard line. They settled for a Josh Brown field goal to take a 26-24 lead with 1:47 left.

Beckham then watched Tom Brady convert a fourth-and-10 before getting Stephen Gostkowski in range to drill a 54-yard game-winning field goal.

It was a particularly bitter pill for Beckham to swallow.

"I, for sure, take this from the heart," Beckham said. "This is a team that I have watched since I was a child, have wanted to play against since I was a child. [I] had an opportunity to put this team ahead and make them have to drive down and score a touchdown instead of kick a field goal with one of the best kickers in the league.

"Like I said, this one is on me."