UPDATE: It turns out Eli Manning is taking the blame and said he -- not the Giants sideline -- told Jennings not to score. That was a really bad decision by Manning. The Giants' coaches are off the hook for now, but they still made a lot of other dumb decisions against Dallas.

* * *

Last night we thoroughly examined the stupid decisions the Giants made as they turned a near-certain win into a loss to the Cowboys. On third-and-1, quarterback Eli Manning opted to throw a ball away when he could've cut the amount of time the Cowboys had to score in half. Then the Giants kicked a field goal at the 1-yard line, a move that essentially gave the Cowboys the ball 30 yards further downfield without changing the fact that a TD would lose the game for the Giants. Of course, the Cowboys scored a TD and won.

But no, alas, something stupider emerges. After the game, Rashad Jennings -- the RB who carried the ball on first and second downs -- revealed perhaps the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

A frustrated Rashad Jennings told me, "As a running back, it’s always hard when they tell you not to score." — Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) September 14, 2015

Just spoke with Giants RB Rashad Jennings, who confirms that he was told in the huddle before first and second down, "Rashad, don't score." — Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) September 14, 2015

According to Jennings, he was told him to let himself get tackled in the field of play rather than score a touchdown. If we're to believe him, the Giants told him not to score a touchdown. They actually told him not to score a touchdown.

Judging from the two plays -- both runs into large piles of Cowboys -- I actually believe that this may have been something he was told.

There is only one situation in football where scoring a touchdown is not the best possible outcome: When a team is leading with enough time to end the game without picking up a first down, it's smarter to just let time run out. Hypothetically, scoring opens up the slim, slim, slim possibility that scoring a touchdown will allow the opposition to score a touchdown and recover an onside kick and score another touchdown. In every other situation, it's best to get the maximum amount of points you can get on a given play.

But this was not that situation: no matter what the Giants did, the Cowboys were guaranteed to get the ball back with about 50 seconds left on the clock. Scoring would have made it a two-possession ballgame, which the Giants failed to do. And the Cowboys scored on their only possession and won. The Giants probably should have gone for the touchdown.

But this potential rumor makes what happened after it even more baffling. If the Giants were so conscious of the time left in the game that they opted to pass up a touchdown to run time off the clock, how could they possibly let Manning throw the ball away on third down? After passing up the largest amount of points possible on a given play in hopes of running as much clock as possible, how could they pass up an opportunity to take more clock off in exchange for a slightly shorter field goal?

The Giants should have tried to score a touchdown, but opted to take time off the clock. After failing to do that, they should've either tried to score a touchdown or take more time off the clock, but instead they opted to throw a pass away, doing neither. After failing to do either of those things, they should've kept trying to score a touchdown, but instead opted to kick a field goal, giving the Cowboys an opportunity to win the game in better field position than they would've had if they failed on the fourth-down scoring attempt. These are three baffling, stupid decisions that fly in the face of each other. Each decision required the Giants to completely ignore the logic that led to their other stupid decisions and make a decision that was stupid for an entirely new bad reason.

If they'd stuck to the reasoning that led to any of the three decisions individually, they might have won, but the maelstrom of stupidity combined to give the Cowboys the most time possible, the fewest yards and the opportunity to win. Take a bow, Tom Coughlin and crew, this was a freakin' pièce de resistance of poor coaching strategy. You're supposed to put your team in the best position to win, and you completely failed on a variety of fronts.

Do us a favor, Rashad -- next time, just score the touchdown anyway.