Washington Redskins Lose Sloppy Game to New York Giants, 32-21

Well, the fairy tale was fun while it lasted.

Kirk Cousins was much better than he was in his last showing against the Giants, but he missed way too many opportunities throughout the game, he forced a lot of passes, he missed receivers in stride, he padded his stats in garbage time and he avoided throwing the ball out of bounds or taking a sack at all costs. It was a very Brett Favre-esque performance, and I don't really mean that in the Hall of Fame way.

His numbers weren't terrible — 30-for-49, 316 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions — but they don't tell nearly the whole story. There were a handful of plays that should've gone for big gains, but the pass was underthrown, forcing the receiver to adjust and therefore lose all yards-after-catch opportunities. There were also poorly thrown balls that had no business being caught, but the receiver made a terrific grab (such as Ryan Grant's snag early in the fourth quarter) to salvage the play. To Cousins' credit, Andre Roberts dropped what should've been a red-zone catch a few plays after Grant's grab.

Despite a poor start, the Redskins weren't out of the game until the very end. Still, they abandoned the run in the second half as though they were down by 20 and they had HOF Favre under center, and they never made much of an attempt to go deep.

The special teams units endured their worst collective outing of the season, Rashad Ross' touchdown and Dustin Hopkins' kicking aside, and it seemed like it would have gotten worse if the offense had scored more frequently. Matt Jones was the primary running back for the second week in a row — this time with a much bigger gap between him and Alfred Morris — but he fumbled out of the endzone and took Washington from underdogs to almost out of contention. It was Jones' second lost fumble in as many weeks. Pierre Garcon had a nice game again, but he, too, lost possession of a ball in the fourth quarter (his fumble was overturned). Then Chris Thompson fumbled it out of bounds immediately before his touchdown catch in the fourth, and the Redskins bungled two good chances for onside kick recoveries, so it wasn't a great day for the Redskins' hands.

The defense that had been so impressive through two games was porous throughout, and there was virtually no pressure on Eli Manning at any point in the game. Manning was not sacked once and was rarely under duress, and the passing game had its way with the Redskins secondary for much of the contest.

Each team fell to 1-2, and the Redskins fall to third in the division behind the Giants and the Dallas Cowboys.