Washington lays an egg with a playoff spot on the line, season ends with loss to Giants

The New York Giants played to win on Sunday. It didn’t seem like the Washington Redskins did, and that’s why they’re not going to the playoffs.

The Giants, who had their playoff seed clinched before the game started, beat Washington 19-10 to end the Redskins’ season. Washington needed to win to get into the playoffs, and its loss meant the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers both made the NFC field. The Redskins were awful for most of Sunday’s game, yet still could have sent it to overtime before a crushing mistake by quarterback Kirk Cousins.

Washington was trailing 13-10 and on the verge of getting into field-goal range late in the fourth quarter when Cousins threw a terrible interception over the middle to Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie with 1:12 remaining. The Redskins got the ball back deep in their territory with a few seconds left and the Giants scored a meaningless defensive touchdown on the final play.

The Giants played their starters most of the game, even though many other teams in their position choose to sit key players to avoid injury before the playoffs. The Giants started to pull some starters in the second half, although Eli Manning played the whole game. Odell Beckham, who continued his feud with Washington cornerback Josh Norman on Sunday, was out in the fourth quarter when Tavarres King caught a 44-yard pass from Manning down the sideline. That set up a go-ahead field goal with less than three minutes left.

Cousins, who will be a free agent after this season, had a chance to drive Washington to at least a game-tying field goal in the last minute. On his interception, he was under pressure and didn’t get much on a pass over the middle, and Rodgers-Cromartie undercut the intended receiver. It was Rodgers-Cromartie’s second interception – he also had an interception deep in Giants territory when Cousins’ intended receiver fell down near the sideline.

Washington’s season ended in a most disappointing way, at home against a division rival which had nothing to play for. Now they go into an interesting offseason, in which players like Cousins and DeSean Jackson will be free agents.

The Redskins will spend a lot of that offseason wondering why they barely showed up with everything on the line in Week 17.

Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie had two big interceptions in a win.