EAST RUTHERFORD — Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.'s three touchdowns practically single-handedly carried the offense in their victory over the Washington Redskins on Sunday. But Beckham's perfectionist attitude led to a surprising bit of self-critique during his postgame interview, despite his career-high three touchdowns.

Beckham was asked about Washington cornerback Bashaud Breeland, who covered the rookie for most of the game, and jawed with the rookie for the entire four quarters. Beckham, of course, got the best of Breeland to tune of 12 catches for 143 yards, but gave his fellow rookie credit for a play in the end zone that will apparently keep Beckham up at night. Right before Beckham scored his third touchdown of the game, Breeland broke up a pass that Beckham felt he should have caught.

"You take it at somebody and you do the best you can to win every single time, sometimes you come up short," Beckham said. "I know [Breeland] broke up a pass in the end zone that is gonna give me trouble sleeping at night. It's little things like that, there's a lot of plays, there's a lot of good that was in the game, and there's still so much to learn from."

It is exactly that perfectionist attitude is part of what makes Beckham so impressive, and evidently, has helped motivate him to put up better numbers than most of the rookie receiving class, despite missing four games with a hamstring injury.

"For me, I set the expectations as high as possible," Beckham said. "I hate settling for anything less. I wouldn't expect anything less for myself. There are a lot of guys on the team that even though I missed those four games — Antrel [Rolle] came up to me from the minute I got back out on the field and said you still owe me 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns. That stuff is always in the back of your mind when you're playing, but you really have to focus on each and every play because you never know when it could be your last."

Even Tom Coughlin is having trouble keeping a straight face in finding ways to critique his game. In a rare moment of not heaping praise on the rookie, the Giants coach made note of Beckham's quiet first half with only three catches for 32 yards at halftime. One of those catches accounted for the Giants' only touchdown of the half.

"Today was kind of sticky [for Beckham] I thought," Coughlin said. "Early on for example really in the first half there wasn't a lot to speak for except for the one score, but they did a good job, they played us well."

But let's keep this faux-criticism in perspective. Beckham has amassed the kind of numbers in only ten games that some receivers don't put up for an entire season. He already broke the Giants' rookie receiving yards record held by Jeremy Shockey, and is firmly in the top two or three as far as the rookie of the year race is concerned.

And even Coughlin couldn't hide his excitement when presented with the scenario of having two elite playmakers on offense in Beckham and injured wide receiver Victor Cruz.

"That'd be a good idea," Coughlin said.

Nick Powell may be reached at npowell@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickpowellbkny. Find NJ.com Giants on Facebook.