The New York Giants running back Rashad Jennings says he was told not to score with his team on the five-yard line and time running out against the Dallas Cowboys.
The Giants held a three-point lead at the time and when Eli Manning threw the ball away rather than taking a sack on third and one, the clock was stopped allowing Dallas to score a touchdown with seven seconds left and win the game 27-26.
“On the first-down play, I was told, ‘Rashad, don’t score,’” Jennings said on Monday. “On second down, ‘Rashad, don’t score.’ I was tempted to say, ‘Forget it,’ and go score because I could. But I didn’t want to be that guy. But definitely, I was asked not to score.”
If Jennings had scored, and assuming the extra point was successful, the Giants would have led by 10 with less than two minutes to play. Jennings had already scored once in the game. The Giants’ decision was partly based on the fact that they incorrectly believed the Cowboys had used their final timeout.
Manning admitted it had been his call, and orders had not come from the sideline. “I thought they had one timeout left and they might let us score to get the ball back,” Manning said on Monday. “So I told Rashad, ‘Go down at the one-inch line [to run the clock down] and don’t score.’
“This did not come from the sideline. It was me, and I was wrong. I cannot be the one in that situation to inform a back. That’s not my decision, in that scenario. I made a mistake.”
Manning added that his decision not to take a sack was to blame for the defeat. “It was bad clock management,” said Manning. “It was definitely an option to take a sack and run 40 seconds off the clock and give them less time. That’s 100% on me.”
Giants head coach Tom Coughlin also took some of the responsibility himself. “The decision to throw the ball on third down was not a good decision,” he said. “It should have been a run, whether we scored or not.”
Jennings however, said he was not angry about the decision-making process. “I’m not mad,” he said. “We’re doing this as a team, and we thought it was best for us not to score at that point. Of course I wanted to, but that’s just the football player in you.”
• This article was amended on 15 September 2015 to remove some repeated paragraphs.
