Rashad Jennings Said Eli Manning Told Him Not to Score in the Huddle

The New York Giants’ end game last night is something that you will not want to duplicate. It’s also probably going to be taught in those “strategy” classes for coaches at the NFL coaching academy (there is such a thing, right?).

Not only did the Giants go to a passing play on 3rd and goal from the 1, with Eli throwing out of bounds to stop the clock with the Cowboys having no timeouts, but then they kicked the field goal rather than go for it to outright win the game or leave the Cowboys pinned on the goal line.

But even before that, according to the New York Post, the strategery went very wrong. Rashad Jennings, who ran the ball on the first two downs, said that Eli Manning told him not to score while they were in the huddle. Manning reportedly said that he thought the Cowboys were out of timeouts after a first down conversion on a pass to Odell Beckham, Jr.

Look, I’ve often said teams should sometimes let the other score (and the team who could score should forego that opportunity) in certain limited circumstances. But that’s always when the offensive team could run out the clock and not even risk a comeback. In this case, Dallas was going to get the ball either way, and the only question was how much time remained, and what the score was.

Of course, the Giants should have tried to score. Even on fourth down.