Confusion Between Officials, Chain Gang Leads to Mistake That Ultimately Doesn’t Matter

If you are a Redskin fan in denial over the fact that your favorite team is a huge disappointment, then you may have pointed to the botched handling of the yard markers as time was running out.

In case you missed it or realized that you had better things to do than stay up late on a Sunday evening before your long weekend came to an end, here is what happened.

After Pierre Garcon's reception on second-and-5 to the Redskins' 45-yard line with less than two minutes left, the referees marked him short of the first down. The chain gang, however, moved those chains as if Garcon's catch earned a first down. (Video is available here.)

"We signaled third down on the field," referee Jeff Triplette told pool reporter Zac Boyer of the Washington Times. "The stakes were moved incorrectly. After that play, we said it was still third down. We had signaled third down prior to the play starting. The chains just got moved incorrectly."

You can read more about the "he said, he also said" here, but the gaffe ultimately did not matter. For one, Fred Davis dropped a pass on the ensuing play, and then Garcon literally had the ball ripped away from him on "fourth down" by Will Hill, effectively ending the game.

Also, the Redskins are terrible. A win would have been meaningless in this situation, so you can chastise the officials all you want, but the Redskins had a chance to overcome it and did not.

Mercifully, there are only four more games to go.