Weird But True

Officials flub end of Giants-Redskins game

LANDOVER, Md. — The Giants’ 24-17 victory over the Redskins ended in confusion after referee Jeff Triplette’s crew botched the spot of the ball in the midst of Washington’s last-ditch drive in the final seconds.

The confusion centered on a 4-yard pass from Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III to wide receiver Pierre Garcon to the Washington 45 on second-and-5 on the first play after the two-minute warning.

Acting on the direction of an official, the chain gang mistakenly marked the gain as a first down while another ref told Redskins coach Mike Shanahan the same thing.

Washington ran another play thinking it was first down — a deep incompletion to tight end Fred Davis — when, in reality, it was third-and-1. Triplette didn’t correct the situation until after the incompletion to Davis, putting the Redskins in fourth-and-1.

The mistake appeared to be moot when Garcon caught a 6-yard pass on fourth down and was promptly stripped by Giants safety Will Hill to end the game, but Shanahan didn’t sound as if he was going to let Garcon’s mistake take Triplette’s crew off the hook.

“That was disappointing,” Shanahan said. “That was quite disappointing. Anytime you have a sequence of plays, you’re not going to call a quick hitch on fourth-and-inches. So obviously, [the officiating mistake] affected our play call.”

In an interview with a local pool reporter, Triplette — who has been part of several infamous gaffes in his lengthy, controversial career — appeared to blame the mistake on the chain gang, even though the chain gang operates at the direction of a sideline official.

Referee Jeff Triplette (here with Tom Coughlin) has been at the center of controversy before.AP Photo/Stephan Savoia

“The stakes were moved incorrectly,” Triplette said. “We had signaled third down prior to the play starting. The stakes just got moved incorrectly.”

Triplette said he was prevented from stopping play to measure after Garcon’s catch and figure it all out because the Redskins were out of timeouts.

“We didn’t shut it down in that situation because that would have given an unfair advantage [to Washington],” Triplette said.

Triplette added he was unaware of Shanahan’s insistence another referee had told him Garcon’s catch resulted in a first down.

“I can’t respond to that,” Triplette said of Shanahan’s claim. “I don’t know what happened. I just know that we had signaled third down [after Garcon’s catch].”