EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Bengals rookie wide receiver Tyler Boyd thought he had done two things with what he thought was 20-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter of Monday night's 21-20 loss to the Giants.

He thought it was his first NFL touchdown catch and that he had given the Bengals what looked to be a cozy 24-14 lead.

But Boyd failed to secure the ball when he stretched it out to score and it was ruled a third-down incompletion, so they had to settle for Mike Nugent's 38-yard field goal with a little less than nine minutes left in the third quarter.

"I thought it was a touchdown," Boyd said. "Even if it was a fumble I was on it."

In the old days before the continuation rule it would have been a catch. So Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis didn't challenge it.

"Have to hand it to the official," Lewis is fond of saying and Boyd couldn't.

The mistake?

"I shouldn't have held it so far away from my body," Boyd said. "I should have secured it and muscled my way in.  I still would have scored."

GREEN CALL: Wide receiver A.J. Green, hounded by double coverage all day for 68 yards on seven catches on 11 targets, saw quarterback Andy Dalton get chased out of the pocket again and again Monday. And he got sacked three more times.

"We have to protect Andy. We can't let him get beat up like that," Green said. "You can't have your franchise guy  take those hits. You just can't have it. It didn't happen  last year. It's a problem this year. I don't know why."

UP AND ADAM: The Bengals played well enough against Giants mega star Odell Beckham Jr. Monday to win. Yes, he did catch 10 of 11 targets for 97 yards, but they kept the yards after catch at a minimum.

Still, in a game decided from 20 yards and in, the Bengals couldn't stop him at the end of the first half from the 10-yard line.  On second-and-five with 1:17 left, Beckham ran a double move on cornerback Adam Jones to get behind him. That's the only play he got on Jones all night and it gave New York a 14-10 half-time lead.

Jones recalled they ran the same play out of the same formation earlier and when he saw that dig post, he jumped it. But then Beckham sailed behind him wide open as Manning pumped.

"I've got to be more patient," Jones said. "I should have just let him catch it and tackle the ball. That's the smart thing to do instead of trying to be a hero. He sold it."