Giants coach Tom Coughlin thought his team got the shaft on a pair of plays during Sunday's 27-20 loss in San Francisco: Dave Tollefson’s offside penalty and the non-call on Patrick Willis for impeding Jake Ballard’s progress on the 4th-and-2 incompletion that ended the Giants’ comeback bid late in the fourth quarter.

“You have to understand that the intent to deceive is something that has to be determined,” Coughlin said of the Tollefson infraction. “The officials didn’t think that was an intent to deceive. We can disagree all we want, but it’s obviously that it’s part of their plan, and they executed it well. On that particular play, the backside tight end [Delanie Walker] did have a false start, and that wasn’t called.”

As for the non-call on Willis, Coughlin said, “I think it’s safe to say that that was defensive holding, yes.”

Eli Manning broke down the Willis play on ESPN New York 1050’s “The Michael Kay Show.” He said he was trying to fit a pass over Ballard to Victor Cruz, but Justin Smith batted it out of the air.

“It was gonna be tough,” Manning said when asked hypothetically if he and Cruz connect, assuming Smith doesn’t bat the ball. “Patrick Willis pretty much formed tackled our tight end. Ballard was running a 10-yard in route and Victor was coming underneath. They were playing man to man coverage, and Victor killed his guy, had him beat by 2-3 yards. Willis lowered his head like Ballard had the ball already and tackled him. I saw that. I didn’t really have anywhere else to go. Hakeem [Nicks] was being doubled. It wasn’t executed exactly how he had it drawn up, but I think there was a shot.”

Manning said he texted Willis -- both of them went to Ole Miss -- after the game.

“I said, ‘That was a nice form tackle on Ballard on the last play. Was that the gameplan to tackle him?’” Manning said. “He said he heard the crowd go crazy, and thought he got called for pass interference.”

Manning said the Giants plan to send the play into the NFL so it can be reviewed. Not that it can help them now.

“You never wanna leave the game in the ref’s hands,” Manning said. “It’s our job to execute and not let that happen.”