The Washington Redskins were in the position to send Sunday’s game against the St. Louis Rams into overtime when wide receiver Josh Morgan caught a seven-yard pass from Robert Griffin III to put the Redskins on the Rams 29-yard line. With this field position late in the game, Washington was hoping to connect on a field goal from Billy Cundiff to send things into overtime and earn one last chance at picking up their second straight win, but Morgan ruined any chance of that happening.
Following his seven-yard catch, Morgan was called for unsportsmanlike conduct for throwing the ball at Rams cornerback Cortland Finnegan after the play. It’s understandable for Morgan to be frustrated considering Finnegan gave him a little “shove” when the play waas over, but Morgan’s actions ended up impacting Washington’s final offensive play of the game as the penalty dropped them back 15 yards .
Instead of a field goal in the 40-50 yard range, Cundiff was forced to attempt one from 62 yards out–which is obviously never easy to accomplish. The kick fell wide right and instead of another opportunity to win in overtime, the Redskins suffered their first loss of the 2012 season–missing out on the chance to be the only 2-0 team in the NFC East with the Philadelphia Eagles.
It’s hard not to blame a loss on a single play, but this has to be frustrating on Washington’s end considering the last thing they want to see happen is fall one-game shy of the playoffs and look back to this game against the Rams. Emotions can run high at times during NFL games, but Morgan needs to do a better job at controlling his emotions over certain situations in games–especially if it comes down to key plays at the end of games like it did on Sunday.
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