Did Giants tell Rashad Jennings not to score at end of Cowboys loss?
The New York Giants absolutely choked away their loss to the Dallas Cowboys Sunday night, and head coach Tom Coughlin rightfully fell on the sword with a proper mea culpa. It was his fault, the coach said, and not that of Eli Manning, who threw the ball away (stopping the clock) and not taking a sack, which had Twitter all up in arms.
“It’s my fault at the end of the game,” Coughlin said, via the Daily News. “There is nobody else to blame but me. The decision to throw the ball there on third down was not a good decision. It should have been a run, whether we scored or not.”
Coughlin is correct — the Giants should have run on third down. They also should have run it thereafter on fourth down. The Cowboys had just burned their final timeout, and with 1:40 remaining the Giants could have run another 40-ish seconds off the clock and opted to kick the field goal or they could have run off another 10-something seconds if they went for it again.
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Even if they don’t score on fourth down, the Cowboys would have to drive 65-70 yards in less than a minute to attempt a game-tying field goal, or drive 95-plus in that time for the win.
That’s Exhibit A. But if it pleases the court, may we go back to first and second down for a moment? The Cowboys used their second timeout after the 1st and goal run to the Dallas 2-yard line and their third timeout after Rashad Jennings took it to the Dallas 1.
But was Jennings told not to score and make it a 10-point game under the 2-minute warning?
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If so, Coughlin should have taken the blame for second down, too, not just third down. That’s two brutal coaching errors in one brief spell that cost the Giants a loss that should have been prevented.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
