The Redskins confusion over the late-game officiating was reasonable.
But the Giants said they could sense their opponents losing their cool long before that.
The Redskins looked disjointed through the second half while blowing a 14-point lead in their eventual 24-17 loss, bubbling over after Will Hill stripped their final pass away from Pierre Garcon and made the rules discussion moot.
“Once we settled in and started to play our ball, they started to sense that we were going to fight. We were not going to lay down,” Giants cornerback Jayron Hosley said, via Jordan Raanan of the Newark Star-Ledger. “It did get to them.”
From wide receiver Santana Moss getting an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, to Garcon kicking the football in anger after a near-interception in the end zone, there were several examples of the Redskins coming unraveled in the second half.
“It was frustration. You can’t lose your poise. That was disappointing,” Redskins coach Mike Shanahan said. “We have some competitors out there in Pierre. We had the opportunity to get that ball in the end zone for a touchdown and Pierre got a little upset, so you have to keep your poise in those situations, and we lost it a couple of times.”
So as frustrated as they might have been with the officials, they also have to know they lost that one on their own, gradually over the course of the night as well.