Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

The New York Giants' strange handling of their final possession against the Dallas Cowboys during the regular-season opener took an interesting turn when running back Rashad Jennings revealed after the game he was told not to score down by the goal line.

"As a running back, it's always hard when they tell you not to score," Jennings told Dan Graziano of ESPN following the 27-26 loss.

Jennings reiterated those comments Monday, per Graziano, noting the coaches told him, "Rashad, don't score."

In a column for the New York Post on Wednesday, Jennings apologized for outing quarterback Eli Manning:

First of all, let me say that I want to apologize from my heart for the negative light that I unintentionally cast my quarterback and friend Eli Manning in. I continue to have the utmost respect for him, and I have complete trust in his leadership. It is a strange and unwelcome feeling I have that after all these years as a professional football player, I finally get to experience the other side of how words can be misconstrued. I see now how what I said could easily be misunderstood as an expression of resentment. I make no claims to be a perfect communicator. But I also assure that I had no ill will at all in stating what I did. Yet, I admit in retrospect that I should not have shared that information with the world. I chose to do so, and for that choice, I am truly sorry. As soon as I got word of the headlines, I called Eli, and before I could even begin to apologize, he basically expressed his understanding. Being the humble guy that he is, he wanted us to put this fiasco behind us with no hard feelings so that we could focus on the Falcons. That is why I am taking this opportunity to more formalize my apology to Eli, the team and the fans. I also have apologized to Coach [Tom] Coughlin.

Following Jennings' initial comments, head coach Tom Coughlin weighed in, per Graziano, saying that call didn't come from the sidelines but rather from Manning, who he thinks was confused by the number of timeouts.

Manning verified Coughlin's comments, per Graziano:



I thought they only had one timeout after the play to Odell [Beckham Jr.], so they might let us score to get the ball back. So I told Rashad, go down at the one-inch line and don't score. This did not come from the sideline. I cannot be the one to inform a back. That's not my decision, to do that in that scenario. I made that mistake.

A touchdown would have given the Giants a 10-point lead, had they made the extra point, with less than two minutes left in the game. The Cowboys would have quickly needed to score and then convert an onside kick to get the ball back.

Instead, Jennings failed to score on either down, and Manning threw the ball away on third down rather than taking a sack on a play-action pass, thereby stopping the clock. The Giants proceeded to kick a field goal before Tony Romo led the Cowboys on a game-winning touchdown drive.

Bill Barnwell of Grantland gave his take on the situation:

It was a disaster on every level for the Giants.

They should have run the ball on third down to waste more clock, and they potentially could have gone for it on fourth down as well—which either would have given them a 10-point lead or would have buried the Cowboys inside their 5-yard line.