Your boss wants an excuse to fire you-so he/she gives you an impossible assignment, then carefully plans your fall!
I ask because I think my ex-boss was trying to do this to me. Only, I kept frustrating him-by sending weekly reports , copying his superiors, giving my progress, goals, etc.
I also made a point of meeting with him on a weekly basis. This really pissed him off…but I think it saved me (till I resigned to take another job).
Anyway, if your boss is out for blood, is there anything you can do? 
Pretty much what you did. You handled it very well. You didn’t complain, and you didn’t try to worm your way out of responsibility. You took an impossible–or at least an improbable–situation and beat your boss at his own game.