New York Giants coach Joe Judge fumed after Philadelphia Eagles' loss to the Washington Football Team and vowed that his side would never "disrespect the game".
Washington clinched the NFC East with a 20-14 win over Philadelphia as the Giants were eliminated from the playoff race, when a win by the Eagles would have seen Judge's team advance to the post-season.
Trailing 17-14 in the third quarter, Philadelphia passed on the chance to tie the game with a short field goal and took a fourth-down shot from the four yard line, which quarterback Jalen Hurts did not complete.
Eagles coach Doug Pederson then replaced starting QB Hurts in the fourth quarter at Lincoln Financial Field and back-up Nate Sudfeld completed only five of 12 passes for 32 yards and an interception.
"There’s a number of sacrifices that have been made by all of the players and coaches in this league," Judge said.
"There’s a number of sacrifices that come along as well with the family members of the people connected to them.
"To disrespect the effort that everyone put forward to make this season a success for the National Football League, to disrespect the game by going out there and not competing for 60 minutes and doing everything you can to help those players to win...
"We will never do that as long as I am the head coach of the New York Giants."
Joe Judge talks about the sacrifice it took to make this season happen:
— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) January 4, 2021
"To disrespect the game by going out there & not competing for 60 minutes to doing everything you can to help those players win - we will never do that as long as I'm the head coach of the New York Giants." pic.twitter.com/TXMZOumjZh
The Giants wrapped up the 2020 season with a 23-19 win over the Dallas Cowboys in week 17 to finish with a 6-10 record.
That left them one game back from Ron Rivera’s 7-9 Washington Football Team in the NFC East but Judge admits the Giants had their chances over the season.
"I’ll let Philadelphia speak for themselves on that in terms of how they approached the game," Judge said.
"There's been a lot made from that game, be it internally or on the outside, so let me be very clear on this, we had 16 opportunities this year, that's it.
"It's our responsibility to take care of our opportunities and perform better and execute the situations when they are on plate.
"We don't want to leave our fate in the hands of anybody else so we are not going to make excuses as an organisation."
Final from the finale.@UnibetUS | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/RKyHO4zddg
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) January 4, 2021