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Odell Beckham Jr. hauled in a pass from Eli Manning in front of Phillip Adams for a first down in the first half.Credit Noah K. Murray/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — For a second straight week, the Giants were storming toward an opponent’s goal line, yards from taking a commanding second-half lead. After a sluggish start, the Giants had turned dominant, and all the momentum was theirs.

But for a second consecutive week, the Giants, with the door to certain victory thrown open before them, could not run through it. A flawed team finds ways to lose even in the most promising situations.

A week ago, a mental breakdown at the goal line doomed the Giants in Dallas. On Sunday, against the Atlanta Falcons, Giants quarterback Eli Manning was once again steps from the end zone, holding the football behind the line of scrimmage as he waited to throw the pass that could give the Giants a 17-point third-quarter lead.

The Giants’ home crowd was on its feet cheering. But one moment of excitement became two seconds of anxiety followed by another second of dread. Manning held the ball too long. He was sacked from behind, he fumbled and the Giants lost possession.

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Giants Close-Up

The game changed in a flash, the energy transferring to the Falcons even before Manning picked himself off the turf. With striking efficiency, Atlanta scored two touchdowns and charged back for a stunning 24-20 victory.

The Giants stumbled off the field, glassy-eyed at the prospect of having to explain another collapse.

“We talked all week about finishing,” an exasperated Giants Coach Tom Coughlin said. “That wasn’t a finish for me.”

Tackle Justin Pugh added: “I feel sick. We just let two games get away. We should be 2-0.”

Instead, the Giants are 0-2, the same record they have had to start each of the last two seasons. The surprising Falcons are 2-0.

Even the Giants’ best player, wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who for most of the game seemed to be willing the Giants to victory, seemed thunderstruck.

“These are tough bullets to swallow,” Beckham said.

The Giants will not have long to wonder what else can go wrong.

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Their next game is Thursday night at home against the Washington Redskins, who defeated the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.

Before his fumble at the Atlanta 11-yard line with the Giants leading by 20-10, Manning was having the kind of game he needed to help Giants fans forget about his blunders in the season-opening loss to the Cowboys. For starters, Manning was determined to throw the football in Beckham’s direction, which is almost always a good strategy.

Behind the speed and athletic timing of Beckham, what had been an insipid Giants offensive effort in the first half sprang to life.

With the Giants trailing by 10-3 in the second quarter, Manning looked to his left and saw Beckham slanting between the linebackers and the secondary. Manning threaded the football into a narrow opening, and Beckham caught it on the run, slicing past three Falcons defenders for a 67-yard touchdown reception.

It was a typical Beckham highlight. It started innocently enough — a routine crossing pattern — and in a burst of speed and agility became a lightning strike that tied the game and invigorated the Giants.

The touchdown spurred the Giants to a 3-point halftime lead, and then the Giants opened the third quarter with a nine-play touchdown drive that increased their lead to 20-10.

On Atlanta’s next possession, the Falcons seemed to be unraveling. Quarterback Matt Ryan was sacked, and Atlanta punted after three plays.

The Giants took over and marched down the field again, advancing to the Atlanta 8-yard line. Manning, who completed 27 of 40 passes for 292 yards, dropped back and then stepped forward, pausing to let wide receiver Rueben Randle get free in the left side of the end zone.

But the internal clock that must tick in each quarterback’s head — the one that signals that time is running out and the pass rush is coming — failed Manning. He was brought down from behind by defensive end Kroy Biermann, who knocked the football out of Manning’s grasp.

“I was kind of buying some time there,” Manning said of the play. “But you can’t afford turnovers down there in the red zone.”

The Giants, so close to going up by three scores, did not seriously threaten again.

“That hurt, no question,” Coughlin said. “What was really disappointing is that from that point on, I didn’t see any offense.”

Beckham caught just one pass in the second half, for 7 yards, and the Giants had just three first downs after Manning’s fumble. Atlanta, with the momentum shifting, cut the Giants’ lead to 3 points with a 12-play, 91-yard touchdown drive.

Still, when the Giants took possession with 4 minutes 24 seconds left in the fourth quarter, they were at their own 36-yard line — the Giants’ special teams played superbly all day — and they held a 3-point lead. An efficient, semilengthy drive, even one that did not produce points, could have prevented a Falcons comeback.

Facing a third-and-7, and after Atlanta had called a timeout so there was ample opportunity to get lined up and be ready for the next play, the Giants somehow took a delay-of-game penalty as the play clock expired. It was the kind of small miscue that dooms winless teams.

The Giants did not convert on the third-and-12 and punted the ball back to the Falcons with a little more than three minutes left to play.

Jones’s Juggling Catch

Soon, Atlanta was in Giants territory. When the Giants gambled with a cornerback blitz on a first-down play, the Falcons’ Ryan, who completed 30 of 46 passes for 363 yards, lofted a pass deep down the left sideline, connecting with Julio Jones for 37 yards to the Giants’ 1.

Jones, who beat the Giants’ best cornerback, Prince Amukamara, in one-on-one coverage, tied a team record with 13 receptions.

Two plays later, Atlanta running back Devonta Freeman scored the game-winning points on a 2-yard touchdown run.

Afterward, Beckham summarized what many in the Giants locker room were surely thinking.

“Losses like this can either make or break your team,” he said.

A second-year player, Beckham searched for a positive sign.

“We’re doing some things right,” he said. “We just have to finish them off.”

And the Giants must do those things right before it is too late. A trend is definitely developing. Going back to last season, the Giants have lost 10 of their last 13 games.

EXTRA POINTS

Giants cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie left with a concussion after he appeared to be kicked in the head making a shoestring tackle. ...Left tackle Ereck Flowers reinjured his left ankle, which he had hurt in the season opener against Dallas.

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