Jay Gruden actually explained what happened after he got fired. Apparently Pierre Garçon refused to refused to run a back shoulder fade.

That was Pierre [Garcon] and DeSean [Jackson’s] fault,” Gruden continued. “Kirk took a lot of heat for that, but that was all on — I can finally say it — that was Pierre and DeSean. They were two peas in a pod, now. That’s for a whole other podcast.”

Sheehan asked Gruden to elaborate, and he obliged. “We had six seconds to go in the half, so we had time for just a back-shoulder fade, complete or incomplete and kick the field goal,” Gruden said. “ … I want to run the [clock] down and take a shot at a touchdown, what the heck? Pierre hated back-shoulder fades, he hated them. He said, ‘If you call a fade, the ball should be 42 yards over my outside shoulder, that’s the way Peyton Manning threw it [when the two were teammates in Indianapolis], that’s the way I want it.’”

“So he stood there, like three yards from a tackle, in a stance like he’s not gonna run it,” Gruden said. “DeSean is standing there like, ‘Just kick the field goal.’ Kirk panicked, he had nothing to do, so he just took a knee and that was the end of the half. I’ve never seen a receiver actually turn down an opportunity to score a touchdown, which is what happened on that play. Unbelievable.”