During the 2009 season we spent more than enough time guessing about Brandon Jacobs.
As was hypothesized, speculated, guessed by more than a few here on these boards, Brandon Jacobs was playing with a knee injury.
SINCE WEEK 1!!!!
The poorness of this decision to try to play through the injury is stark. If it happens in Week 10, you can understand that it probably ends the season to undergo surgery. But Week 1? I will have to second guess it because
(1) there is too much football still to be played.. Jacobs implies the surgery would have cost him ~ 5 weeks recovery time.
(2) as a coach/physician, you have to see almost immediately (as WE ALL saw) that his productivity dropped off like a rock in subsequent weeks
I give Jacobs high marks for wanting to play through. And considering what he still accomplished despite being injured, on a personal level it is impressive. BUT WHERE WERE THE COACHES?
Andre Brown- gone in preseason
Danny Ware- injured Week 1
Brandon Jacobs- injured Week 1
Ahmad Bradshaw- playing hurt all season
Part of me wants to give Coughlin and the coaching staff a pass because of the hand they had to play with in 2009. I get it that the Giants were short RBs. By listing the injuries above I certainly understand their reason for trying to push through. But when you think about the decision to keep Jacobs out there despite his tremendous drop in productivity… that this was going on since the VERY beginning of the season, you have to see that they had their hand in this RB demise as well. Once you get Gatrell Johnson (Week 2) at least you have another body. And then when you see Jacobs’ productivity remain low you get it done. If the Giants’ argument is that they had no one left, well, who did you really have in Jacobs?
>The player who we ALL saw from our TV sets that had no legs?!
>The player who seemingly hit the hole hours after the handoff?!
>The player who had no burst and could not break a long run all season?!
>The player who lost his mojo and was having defensive players adminster their punishment on him instead of him dishing it out on them?!
Call me a second guesser on this- when his performance has dropped off noticeably AND he was injured from such an early point in the season, it is on the coaching staff for failing to have gotten this corrected. You sentence yourself to mediocrity. Which is exactly what the Giants got from him.
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