When the NY Giants started the season 0-6, everyone understood that the season was for all intent and purposes over. After the team was fortunate enough to face 4 consecutive garbage QBs
Freeman, barely days old a Viking
Barkley
Pryor, with an MCL sprain
Tolzien
.. there was some remote hope that Beason, Hill and Brown could make the team somewhat competitive while we waited for the miracle of a pass rush from JPP. We asked aloud, Mirage or Makeover?
The Dallas game answered the question, that the team's ability to be competitive (even against a Tier 2 team) was a mirage. After a one week respite vs the equally hapless Redskins, we once again got another dose of the Tier 2 blues from two weeks ago- a resounding loss at the hands of 5-7 SD that sealed shut the season. The win by SF and PHL has mathematically ended any chances for getting to the playoffs.
IT WAS INDEED A MIRAGE.
The Giants are 5-8. They have beaten 4 substandard QBs and the Redskins. Every other team beat the Giants. If the Giants had played a healthy Pryor, they would have lost. If the Giants played against Ponder, or even Cassel, they likely lose. If the Giants would have played vs Foles, they definitely would have lost. If the Giants played vs Rodgers, they probably lose that one too. Of course those are four "if's" but the point is that Reese and Mara cannot afford to fool themselves or anybody else. This team needs major changes.
1) Get a new Offensive Coordinator
2) Get a new Specials Teams Coach
3) Get a new Strength and Conditioning Coach
4) Draft Auburn LT Greg Robinson (in Round 1) if he declares in 2014. Move Beatty over to Guard and get a paycut. Move Boothe to Center.
5) Draft another Guard (like they did in 2004 with Snee) in Round 2. 10 YEAR ROAD GRADER PLEASE.
6) Start getting Damontre Moore snaps NOW in 2013.
7) Part ways with Nicks, Diehl, Snee, Webster, Kiwanuka, and Baas.
8) If you want to re-sign Tuck, do NOT give him a contract longer than 3 years, or if so, just make sure it is economical after he invariably gets hurt in 2014.
9) Re-sign Joseph.
10) Medically evaluate if JPP can regain his form from 2011 and the first half of 2012.
I am really getting disgusted with the complacency with which this organization is handling Eli Manning's health. It started with Reese's outright negligence in not filling the pipeline adequately over the past 3-4 years with meaningful (Rounds 1-3) talent to supplant the aging OL. If you keep Eli upright he can be an extremely effective quarterback. If you give him a competent OC who can make inter and intragame adjustments, he will be subjected to less punishment and be more effective. Instead, we have all the toys (Randle and Wilson in 2012 draft) and NO BEEF to protect the franchise.
We all know Tom Coughlin is coming back as Head Coach next year. But everyone in America would be going absolutely F#$%^&@ Nuts asking why Eli Manning was in the game with 2 mins remaining and his team down by 23 points. (THIS HAPPENS ROUTINELY.) Perhaps it was to see him get crunched on the first play from scrimmage (which he did)? Perhaps it was to get hit on one of those sucker cheap shots that Defenses like to take against opposing QBs, which they are legally allowed to do when you throw an INT (which Manning did at the end of the game)? Without Eli Manning, this franchise has nothing. Like him or dislike him this year, this franchise is getting back to the promised land with him under Center. So take care of the asset that he is.
In this wrapup, I did not talk about the delays of game, Murphy still running the wrong route, the endless turnovers, lining up offsides for another FG try, the SD gameplan which exposed our LBers in coverage, etc… The season is over and blogging at this point is like dead-man-walking.
I want to see meaningful changes and I know that most/all of the visitors to this NY Giants blog community want to see them too. It is not too far off to see the Giants a great deal more competitive next year. But it all starts with the reality that this team is not a 5-8 team going north. It is a 5-8 team that could easily have been much worse. It is a 5-8 team that was in it this long only because the rest of the NFC East was so god awful too. It is a 5-8 team with structural issues that need to be addressed. NOW. At the end of the season, if we hear from Reese the same phony DENIAL we heard from him at the bye, then it just means that we are no closer to the meaningful changes that we need. Retooling begins right now. Confront the brutal facts. This is not a very competitive football team and it needs changes.
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