The NFL released a statement today admitting that the Sunday Night Football game should have been stopped when the officials disagreed about which down was being played with less than two minutes remaining (via USAToday.com):
"In this situation where there is obvious confusion as to the status of the down, play should have been stopped prior to third down and the correct down communicated to both clubs. This should have occurred regardless of the fact that Washington had no timeouts and it was inside two minutes."
After the game, referee Jeff Triplette told the media he did not want to stop the game because he did not want to give Washington "an unfair advantage."
Here is what happened:
On second-and-five, Washington needs to get to the 46-yard line for a first down. Note that the first down marker (the official marker is on the near-side of the field) is exactly on the 46-yard line. It is common practice among officials to place the chains directly on a specific yard line (as opposed to between yard lines) unless close to the end zone. This makes determining first downs easier and quicker and speeds up the game...
Robert Griffin III completes a pass to Pierre Garcon right at the 46-yard line and the side official closest to the play appears to give Washington forward progress good enough for a first down...
At this point, the umpire in the middle of the field is responsible for retrieving the ball and marking it based on the spot given to him by one of the side officials. However, in this case, the umpire appears to ignore the spot of the official on the far side of the field and moved a half yard back, possibly based on the spot being given by the side official on the other side...
The near-side official then signaled for the chains to move forward indicating that he believed Washington got a first down. If he did originally have a spot short of the first down, he may have assumed the umpire correctly used the spot of the far-side official (who had given Washington forward progress to the first down line)...
The down marker still reads first down even though Triplette is trying to signal everybody that it is third down. Believing it is first down, Washington throws an incomplete pass 25 yards downfield...
Ultimately, Washington did gain a first down on fourth-and-one, only to have Garcon fumble the ball away to the Giants. Still, it is easy to imagine that Washington would have called a different sequence of plays if they had known it was actually third-and-one when they were told it was first-and-ten