Coulda. Woulda. Shoulda.
If the Giants could hold onto 2 double digit leads, they would be 2-0 right now. And if the Queen had balls she’d be King.
If the Giants could have made even one less of many errors in either game, they’d be 2-0 right now. But they could not. And the reality is they are 0-2 for the third consecutive year.
As painful as these losses are, they are not so painful this year, and I will tell you why. The Giants organization is loyal… so loyal… loyal to a fault. So the last three years of UNDERACHIEVEMENT were strapped into inchworm change. 2012 none. 2013 Gilbride. 2014 Fewell. Here in 2015, I get a playoff team or I get a new coach. I’m just tired of hearing people get in line to #%^* Tom Coughlin’s #%**. I’m tired of hearing people compare Tom Coughlin to Bill Parcells in the same sentence. Does anyone here (who really knows both coaches) believe that Parcells loses either of these games? That Parcells could be steward to sustained implosions in 2013 and 2014? Parcells wasn’t perfect. (Flipper Anderson loss.) It’s just that players make mistakes… but coaches are the ones who are responsible for not blowing double digit leads.
Thankfully, we are at a crossroads. Either we get the underachievement to stop and get a playoff appearance or Coughlin’s Teflon finally ends and we get change.
Yes yes, the players delivered plenty of the insanity today. But when I see so many players making so many errors play after play, quarter after quarter, I know there is a lack of concentration and execution. The players change but the mistakes continue. We can try to be optimistic about the promise of being competitive on the road in Week 1 as underdogs, but it starts to wear thin when you are home favorites and blow it again.
IF YOU HAVE ONE OF THESE GAMES A YEAR, IT’S TERRIBLE BUT IT HAPPENS. TWO LOSSES LIKE THESE (CONSECUTIVE OR NOT) ARE AN INDICTMENT.
I do not care that there are injuries (for which I blame Coughlin anyway in not changing the S&C Staff years ago). The coaches were responsible for selecting Preston Parker over James Jones. That decision alone likely cost the Giants two games right there.
Anyone old enough to know Bill Parcells knows that Harris (who was stupendous in Special Teams) will not make the mistake of loafing over and not setting before the snap after going in motion. The sloppiness is an epidemic.
Hereafter is a fruitless attempt to chronicle some of the lowlights:
1) Harris not setting (FG instead of red zone 1st down)
2) Eli sack turnover in red zone
3) Eli missing wide open Cunningham on final drive
4) Parker drop on final drive
5) Glossed over Eli sloppiness w ball w a holy roller fumble recovered for 1st down by his own player
6) Eli Delay of Game on 3rd & 7 in Q4
7) Eli Delay of Game on 3rd & 7 in Q4 AFTER A FALCON TIMEOUT game stoppage
8) Eli somehow almost having another delay of game on 3rd & 12 after a Delay of Game penalty clock stoppage
9)…. (I’m sure I missed a few more boners… Pls comment)
Where is Reese in all this? I do not know if he has input into the coaches choosing Parker over Jones. We have talked Reese’s failures to death, the neglect at LB (which figured prominently in the first 2 losses here in 2015). The Giants organization loves Reese. His one pick of OBJ saved his job. But too many other failures are still there. The neglect of the OL was and still is haunting him. His additions of Harris and Vereen were reminders that it is never all good or all bad. But he’s had his hand in this because he’s the architect of the product.. the GM above the coaches and players.
No, the season isn’t over. If the mistakes go away the team is right there. The problem is, this is what we said last week. And all that has happened is that the team has dug a deeper hole in a game they NEEDED to win.
The Giants started 0-2 in 2007 before turning it around in Washington Week 3 w Spags. So there is always that. But we heard the 0-2 hope thing before in ’13 and ’14. We keep hearing about the promise of better things and we keep getting sloppiness & losses. Coughlin deserved exactly one year of Teflon. He got three years. About the only reason why I don’t throw in the towel is because I’ve seen him pull off a miracle in 2011. That was a smoke and mirrors special. He was on the hot seat, took a 7-7 team and got hot. It’s 4 years later and his seat is hot again. The Giants have been extremely generous and patient with Tom Coughlin. Either he rewards them w the playoffs or he is asked to step down.
“We should be 2-0,” said Justin Pugh. But they aren’t.
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