The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Redskins let playoff berth slip away vs. Giants
Loss puts Packers, Lions in playoffs; INTs by Cousins are costly.
LANDOVER, MD. — Facing an opponent with nothing to play for, the Washington Redskins blew their chance to make the playoffs with an uninspired 19-10 loss to the New York Giants.
The Redskins would have made the playoffs with a win as long as the Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions night game didn’t end in a tie. Instead, Kirk Cousins was intercepted twice in the second half by Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Washington (8-71) goes into an offseason filled with questions.
The Packers and Lions each qualified as a result of the Redskins’ loss to New York (115), one of which will be the NFC North winner and the other a wild card and the NFC’s sixth seed.
Eli Manning played the entire game, going 17 of 27 for 180 yards despite the Giants opting for a conservative approach for much of the second half.
Rookie Paul Perkins rushed for 102 yards on 21 carries as the Giants held the ball for nearly 36 minutes in preventing last season’s NFC East champions from again making it to postseason play. The Giants rushed for 161 yards.
Cousins finished 22 of 35 for 285 yards and a touchdown, but more important were the interceptions in the third and fourth quarters.
Fittingly the game ended with another Washington turnover when tight end Jordan Reed’s attempted lateral turned into a Giants touchdown.
Josh Norman and Odell Beckham Jr. added another dramatic chapter to their always contentious and ever-eventful rivalry. The Redskins cornerback, who entered tied for the most penalties in the NFL, was flagged for two more Sunday.
Norman shoved Beckham out of bounds in the second quarter and slammed his facemask into the Giants receiver’s facemask for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the third. Last season, when Norman was with Carolina, he and Beckham engaged in all sorts of nastiness during a Panthers-Giants game, leading to a one-game suspension for the player known as OBJ.
Replacing Beckham in the third quarter, Giants receiver Tavarres King caught a 44-yard pass from Manning late in the fourth to set up Robbie Gould’s 48-yard field goal. King came in with three catches for 19 yards in his career, and one for 6 yards this season.
Despite being down 10-0 and not getting the ball out of halftime, the Redskins wasted a lot of time late in the second quarter.
They didn’t get the snap off before the two-minute warning and wasted 16 seconds by not calling a timeout when Chris Thompson slipped in bounds later in the drive.
The series ended with a 57-yard field goal attempt by Dustin Hopkins that sailed wide left.