The 10 Days with No. 10 series continues on Redskins Nation and Redskins.com, with Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III discussing how the comeback-turned-heartbreaking loss to the Giants in Week 7 drew the team together for a playoff push down the road.
Nothing summed up the early frustrations of last season better than the team's Week 7 trip to battle the Giants in the Meadowlands.
Coming off of an electrifying victory over the Minnesota Vikings at home, the Redskins were looking for their first consecutive victories of the season to build momentum.
The Redskins played the Giants to a 13-all tie at halftime, scoring a first-half touchdown on the gritty red zone play of veteran Santana Moss.
After a scoreless third quarter, the Redskins fell behind 16-20 as time ticked down in the fourth.
Marching the offense downfield, Griffin III scampered to Giants' 34-yard line with 1:37 left on the clock. Taking the ensuing snap out of the pistol, Robert Griffin III dropped back and delivered a perfect touchdown pass to Santana Moss.
"You know when you throw a good one as a quarterback, [and] when I throw a good one I pull the string back," Griffin III joked about his celebration after the play. "The coaches laugh all the time because they say I'm out there in my own world, but you play with a passion.
"You prepare so that whenever you feel like you did something good, you celebrate that. My way is pulling the string, but I'm not going to go get pom-poms or eat popcorn or anything like that stuff."
The celebration on the sideline was short-lived, however, as was the three-point lead.
The Redskins' defense took the field and lasted only one play, as Eli Manning found found Victor Cruz for an over-the-shoulder 77-yard touchdown catch to seal the game.
"It was really bad," Griffin III told Larry Michael in an exclusive interview with Redskins Nation. "You have a big play, you come to the sideline and the defense gives up a big play, and everyone thinks, 'well no one was telling them make sure you go close the game out.'
"As soon as we came to the sideline, everyone was talking about making sure we finish. It was just an unfortunate thing that happened for us. It's not that guys weren't prepared and they weren't ready for it, we just got sucker punched right there."
To make matters worse, Redskins tight end Fred Davis, Griffin III's top target through the first six weeks, had a season-ending Achilles rupture earlier in the game.
Coupled with the emotional rollercoaster of the loss, the Redskins went into a tailspin, losing each of the next two contests as well.
"It was devastating for the team, but those kinds of losses make you stronger," Robert Griffin III said. "It was the touchdown before that lets everyone know to never-say-never and we've always got a chance to win.
"I think that helped us later down the road."
Griffin III has said in the past that he believes in momentum to a certain degree, but disagreed with the notion of being hung over from a loss.
"Maybe the two losses afterward were a hangover from that loss, the devastation, the heartbreak. I don't look at it that way, I just feel like we didn't go out and execute," he explained. "Some will say that it probably was, and guys feel like it was right there, we had it, we lost it, and it carries over.
"But what you're trying to do as a football player is forget about it and move on to the next game."
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