New Orleans Times- Picayune’s James Varney interviewed Giants head coach Tom Coughlin. The second half collapses and Eli’s erratic play are a conundrum to Coughlin. Teeming with excuses, Coughlin remains in denial.
When asked about the trend of Giant nose dives under his watch, Coughlin responded: “That’s what we’re trying like heck to investigate and figure out,” he said. “You know, there’s been factors involved. Everybody has injuries, we have them, too.” Hey Tom, What other factors are involved? Yes, each team in the league has to deal with injuries. Even with all the injuries on the Green Bay Packers, they managed to pummel the Giants on their way to capturing a Super Bowl Championship. So please stop using this lame injuries excuse. More excuses flew out his mouth regarding the excessive interceptions and fumbling. On the interceptions, Coughlin added: At “the beginning of the year last year we probably had, conservatively, four, five six tipped ball interceptions. I mean, guys who got their hands on balls and guys who are exceptional receivers. We all know you throw the ball over the middle and it gets tipped it’s going the other way. On the epidemic of coughing up a football, Coughlin’s take: And we had 17 fumbles, too! The first guy in this league he doesn’t even go for the tackle anymore, he goes for the fumble and guys are doing a great job at that. We’ve got to take care of the ball better.” What Coughlin is telling us is not true. Not all balls which get tipped goes the other way. From an article on nbcnewyork.com, writer Josh Alper points out: Much was made of how many interceptions were tipped by Manning’s receivers this season, but not all tips are created equal. There were straight drops, but there were also high passes that bounced off fingertips. Those would be great catches, but the fact that they weren’t doesn’t absolve Manning of his role in creating them. Speaking of Eli Manning, Coughlin uttered the following: “He’s a great student of the game, he wants the ball,” the coach began. “He wants to be that type of hero. The guy works so hard. We don’t have many sacks, he’s a big part of that. He doesn’t let it happen, but sometimes in doing that you put the ball in a precarious circumstance. Sometimes take the ball and go down. And I think that’s something we’ve got to do a better job of coaching and understanding that. Clearly, while in the pocket, Manning has to be more prudent. Recall, the horse shoe toss against the Titans.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtVzKza0yfo&fs=1&hl=en_US]
If under pressure, he must throw the ball away. Incidentally, Coughlin’s thinking about Eli needing to take a sack is somewhat misleading. According to this article on aol.com, the premise was about NFL quarterbacks creating their owns sacks. In other words, when a defensive player records a sack is it on the offensive line or a quarterback. Manning was sacked a total of 16 times. 15 of the sacks were the result of the line not doing their job. While only one sack was a result of Eli holding on to the ball too long. From this article, we can conclude Eli has plenty of time to throw. His shortcomings are making inaccurate throws, making idiotic throws, throwing the ball into tight coverage, and not throwing to his check down receiver.
For Coughlin, what are you investigating like heck? To date, only one coach on your staff left and it was VOLUNTARILY! In summary, this Times-Picayune article spells out the underachievement. And the underachievement directly implies that the talent is there but the results are not, which means deficiency in coaching. Look in the mirror, Tom. Good teams that are poorly coached get exposed by good teams. Those 68 minutes vs the Eagles and Packers exposed the Giants coaches for what they are.
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