Eli Manning won’t exchange gift from DeAngelo Hall, Redskins

Washington Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall says the New York Giants didn’t really earn their 27-23 victory Sunday.

Instead, Hall told reporters on Wednesday, the Redskins gave it to their NFC East rivals by blowing the coverage on what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown pass by quarterback Eli Manning with just more than a minute remaining in the game.

“He made the play to beat us, but I don’t feel like he made that play. I feel we gave him that play,” Hall said of Manning’s 77-yard strike to Victor Cruz. “We just had one guy set his feet and one guy not do this. I could have thrown that ball and he would have scored.

“It wasn’t something where he was a rocket scientist and he figured something out. We just played that as bad as possible.”

Manning is a two-time Super Bowl champion and MVP. He leads the league in passing yards and his 5-2 team has a 1 1/2-game lead in the division.

He took Hall’s comments in stride.

“I appreciate him giving it to me. Thank you,” Manning said. “I didn’t think it took a rocket scientist to figure it out either. I had a guy running open and I hit him.”

He added:”If that’s the way they want to put it in their heads, then that’s fine. But the fact is that was the coverage they messed up. That’s what you’ve got to do as an offense: You’ve got to take advantage of it. If a team wants to give up some plays or they don’t want to play well on a certain day, it’s our job to play better and make the plays and take advantage of that opportunity.”

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