Same Old Giants Fall Apart in Green Bay

Walking onto the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field (TM) yesterday afternoon, the Giants had the late-season luxury of controlling their own playoff fate.  Win and they'd be in.  The Packers, meanwhile, really had to sweat.  They had to beat the Giants, beat the Bears next weekend, and still their playoff ticket wouldn't be officially stamped.  So to say this was a must-win game for both teams would be an understatement.  And I couldn't have been more excited.  This is how late December football is supposed to be: two playoff-caliber teams playing a do-or-die game in the freezing cold with the season on the line.

Photo Credit: NY Daily News

Except only one team played like the entire season was at stake.  The Giants apparently never recovered from the hangover they sustained after collapsing at home against the Eagles last week.  Ever since they had that fateful 31-10 lead against Philly with 8:10 to go in the 4th quarter, the Giants have been outscored 73-17.  As painful as that statistic is to read, the actual gameplay has been even harder to watch.  Put simply, the Giants have played some awful football.


Note to Tom Coughlin and the Giants: no more lollygagging!!!


So, where to start?  Let's begin with the Giants' pass defense.  Due to a recent concussion, Aaron Rodgers was something of a question mark heading into the game, but he surgically dissected the Giants' secondary like it was a practice squad.  One thing I could not figure out through the entire game -- and apparently the New York Times also picked up on it -- was why Perry Fewell had the Giants in a Cover 2 scheme against a Packers team that's packed (heh heh) with talented deep-threat wide receivers in Greg Jennings, Jordan Nelson, and Donald Driver.  Play after play, there was Rodgers throwing to a receiver at least 5 yards in front of the closest DB.  You could see that Green Bay made an early (and obvious) adjustment to the Giants' defensive scheme.  In fact, on the first play of the Packers' second possession, Jordy Nelson took a slant 80 yards right up the seam for a TD.  This defensive approach may work next week against Rex Grossman, Chris Cooley & Co., but it was a weakness that the Packers exposed in a big way.  The result was Rodgers passing for 404 yards and 4 TDs.  Ouch.

Next, let's discuss the Giants' turnover problems.  Going into Week 16, they were leading the NFL in turnovers, and they only increased their lead by giving it away another 6 times (!) to the Packers.  This includes Eli's four picks, who's also leading the league in INTs.  I know this is a big issue that Tom Coughlin has been harping on, but apparently he's not driving home the point hard enough.  Please, Giants players, hold on to the damn ball.  Hold.  On.  To.  The.  Damn.  Ball.  Brandon Jacobs, perhaps you should follow Petey's lead from Remember the Titans.  Take that football with you everywhere you go.  Eat with it, sleep with it, shower with it, and never put it down.  Maybe that will stop you from fumbling at key moments, like when you coughed it up in the 3rd quarter after your biggest gain of the game.  You too, Ahmad Bradshaw.  And Eli, how many times are you going to throw into a Cover 3 when your receivers are already running the wrong routes?  I understand that Hakeem Nicks isn't the same without Steve Smith alongside him, and that Derek Hagan is more like Hot Hands Hanan from the Little Giants, but the fact that your receivers run poor routes is not an excuse.  Please just don't throw the ball to the other team.

There's no way to avoid the Matt Dodge Situation.  First, it's a little odd that we're still talking about Matt Dodge.  A lot of teams would've cut ties with the rookie after last week's debacle.  But for whatever reason, he was retained into this week, and he once again underperformed.  He continues to struggle with his directional kicks, and despite placing 3 of 4 punts inside the 20, it's hardly impressive to land a punt from midfield onto the 20-yard line exactly.  Statistically, it goes down as a job-well-done, but Jeff Feagles would've landed it inside the 5.  You know what?  Coughlin can't even look at the guy on the sidelines anymore, and Jeff Feagles wouldn't even care to sneeze in Dodge's general direction.  Time to move on and get a new punter.

Some smaller points...

• Late in the third quarter, with the Giants driving despite trailing 31-17, Brandon Jacobs ripped off a 21-yard run, his longest rush of the day.  But he coughed it up after being chased down by Clay Mathews.  The ball bounced off a Packers player and suddenly Giants' TE Kevin Boss had a clear path to the loose ball.  But did he fall on it?  No, of course he didn't.  Rather, he tried to pick it up -- a stupid but all-too-common mistake that football players make but really shouldn't at the NFL level -- and the football bounced right out of his hands and into those of the Packers' Nick Collins.  The fumble was Jacobs' fault, but the turnover was Boss's.
• Coughlin actually challenged the Jacobs/Boss/Collins fumble.  I'm still not exactly sure what his basis was -- I was too busy cursing at Jacobs and Boss -- but I believe it had something to do with an out-of-bounds GB player coming in bounds and then touching the ball.  Anyway, it wasn't a very close call, and the referee quickly confirmed the play.  Not a big deal at the moment, but...
• ...it became very huge later.  Trailing 31-17 with 11:04 left in the 4th quarter, the Giants were driving from their own 30.  Derek Hagan ran a go route down the left sideline and Eli underthrew him.  Sam Shields cut in front of the pass and picked it off.  Replays showed that Shields didn't get both feet in bounds as he came down, but the Giants were out of challenges thanks to Coughlin's questionable decision to throw the red flag on Jacobs' fumble.  So the play stood and the Packers marched down the field for another touchdown in just 5 plays.
• Stupid Penalties of The Day (Week 16 Edition).  Congratulations go out to Terrell Thomas (15 yards for slapping Donald Driver), Hakeem Nicks (10 yards, and the negation of a huge 33-yard completion, for offensive pass interference), and Hakeem Nicks again (10 yards, and the negation of a 7-yard run on first down by Bradshaw, for holding).  All this under a coach who is a stickler for discipline.  Hmmm.
• Not only did the secondary give up 404 yards of passing offense, but the Giants' vaulted defensive line did a poor job of putting pressure on Aaron Rodgers.  After knocking out nearly a half dozen quarterbacks this season, the G-Men managed only one sack against Rodgers, who'd just returned from a concussion of his own.  Not only did he go down just once, but he was barely touched the entire game, and it showed -- he had plenty of time to sit in the pocket and pick apart the Giant's lousy Cover 2 defense.
• Eli just doesn't look right to me.  His passes are wobbly and off-target more often than usual.  Even his completions are thrown high or at the receiver's knees.  And the picks speak for themselves.  While he reportedly did a great job giving an inspirational speech at a players-only meeting that he called, he has yet to show any signs of leadership on the field.

This is my final point: leadership, or lack thereof.  The Giants look lost and confused as they watch the 2010 season slip away.  After their collapse against the Eagles in Week 15, the Giants needed to recover by producing a statement win in Green Bay.  But instead the team folded.  This is becoming a habit for these Giants, and you have to hold Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin responsible.

Perhaps DT Barry Cofield said it best:

"Guys get cut all the time and coaches get fired.  It's a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business.  There will be changes made.  There will be changes made in the personnel.  The coaches are going to get their blame.  But we're going to have to look in the mirror, review the tape, and the guys that aren't playing well will suffer.

Although Coughlin's Giants gave us a miraculous 2007 season, one that featured a memorable win in the NFC Championship Game at Lambeau Field, I really hope that wasn't the product of a one-hit wonder.  Because more frequently, we've seen this kind of performance from Big Blue: early and mid-season heroics giving way to late-season disappointment.  More and more, it seems that when the Giants go down, they stay down.  That was certainly the case against the Eagles and then the Packers.

I said it earlier this season (after a pathetic loss at home to Tennessee), then I retracted it five weeks later after the Giants reeled off five straight wins, and now I'm saying it again: fire Tom Coughlin.  It's time.  It would be one thing if these losses were simply the product of bad personnel.  But the talent is there.  It's the passion that's missing.  The Giants were humiliated by the Miracle at the New Meadowlands, so they should have been fired up about having a chance to lock up the playoffs with a big win at Green Bay.  But they didn't show any hunger.  Players took stupid penalties and continued to fumble the ball.  But you can't change the players as easily as the coaching staff.  So you have to think first about head coach Tom Coughlin and then defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, he of the 73-17 deficit over the last 4.5 quarters.

Frustration is at an all-time high and the Giants have shown (with the exception of 2007) that they crumble in the face of their toughest competition.  They still may sneak into the playoffs (they need major help though) but you just don't get the feeling that the Giants are going anywhere this season.  So it's hard to avoid looking ahead at the coaching and personnel decisions that will be made.  And although Bill Cowher insists that he's not lining up for Tom Coughlin's job, we all know that he probably is.  So I ask you this: if you knew Cowher would accept the Giants' head coaching job, would you fire Coughlin at the end of this season??  I would.

Let me know what you think in the comments.  Fire away!