Loading ...Postseason football, or lack thereof, is the ultimate barometer of a franchise’s success. While Wellington Mara characterized a good season as one in which your team has something to play for in week 17, fans would argue otherwise.
The Giants have qualified for postseason in 4 of the last 5 seasons, but have only won a playoff game in one of those 4 appearances.
Ultimately, Tom Coughlin’s teams have been characterized as teams which melt down in December and January. In the past, the scapegoats had been identified: Tiki Barber, Bill Sheridan, and of course Plaxico Burress.
In 2010, there is tons of blame to go around, but ultimately it may be difficult to place the ultimate blame anywhere else but on head coach Tom Coughlin. When 2010 draws to a close, the Giants will be left looking back on a season that they themselves gave away. Even the highest of the highs in 2010 were muddled by the presence of unnecessary and untimely turnovers.
Week in and week out Coughlin preached it, he implored his team to take care of the football and even benched his starting running back to send a message, which unfortunately, the team failed to heed to.
If Coughlin is eventually fired, his inability to connect with the players on a level which induces change on the field (such as the aforementioned running back change) will be cited at the main reason. Maybe even Coughlin will realize this and step down.
But I am here to tell you that none of this will happen. Tom Coughlin will remain The Giants coach in 2011.
Many will be quick to point to the fact that the Giants don’t often (if ever) keep “lame duck” coaches. Historically the Giants will either fire or extend their head coach with one year left on his current deal.
But times have changed. Do not underestimate the presence of the looming lockout. The Mara’s don’t have to be concerned with how many more personal seat licenses they can sell if they make a coaching change if there is indeed no season in 2011. If the Mara's among the rest of ownership across the NFL want to avoid a disastrous scenario in which there is no 2011 season, their energies will be devoted to labor negotiations.
This is no to imply that it is impossible to see a coaching change. It is to remind everyone of the reality concerning the current state of The NFL as well as the Giants. There are not too many people that the Mara's trust with control of their football team during this dark time as much as Tom Coughlin.
A switch at the top will mean that the new coach could not meet with the players until the labor situation is resolved.
Though these words will cause the more cynical fan to go ballistic, The Giants were merely seven minutes away from being a top seed in the conference and probable NFC East Champions. Coupled that painful truth with the fact that a new coach would not be allowed to meet with his team until the lockout ended, and ownership will deem sticking with Coughlin as the wiser choice for now.
Any decision otherwise would be indicative of a serious paradigm shift within the fabric of Giants management. They are typically very conservative and would follow the line of thinking which I have outlined in this very article. But perhaps there was more to John Mara’s comments about last year feeling like 2-14 than anyone knows. Perhaps he and Jerry Reese will move swiftly in an attempt to send a collective message to the players that mediocrity is indeed not acceptable ad that if they won’t answer to Coughlin, then it is time to bring in someone they will answer to.
That being said, my money is on Tom Coughlin remaining head coach in 2011.
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Would this be a bad time to ask… You guys miss me? Didnt think so
Are you “Kyle” as well?
the labor situation is irrelevant to wheter theirs a coaching change or not for two reasons.
1) if there is a lockout, its going to cancel the entire season bringing in a new coach for 2012
2) The threat of a short lockout doesnt necessarily mean theyd only have a month to prepare. Say the lockout lasts through july, in all reality the season would start in october. And plus the new coach can still watch film and prepare for what he wants to do
FF55 said at 2:15pm:
Third, the two biggest reasons for Eli’s poor season are Gilbride’s offensive scheme combined with receivers who because of youthful inexperience or lack of time on the team never could get fully on the page with him (and the HC and OC’s stubborn refusal to cut back on the route trees and Eli’s assumption that his receivers would “get” it sooner than he should have believed), and Mr. Manning’s continued willingness to try to make plays even when discretion may have been the better part of valor. I believe Eli was throwing tthe ball so well that he started believing he could do what even most of the most elite quarterbacks cannot: complete passes into extra coverage.
Im Jcharles and not only do i approve this message….. IT IS MY MESSAGE!!!!!!
Folks really need to listem to FF55 and myself alot more. We are right more than we are wrong.
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jcharles says:
December 27, 2010 at 5:47 PM
If TC cans Kuilldrive, im back on his band wagon. Hell, why go to the playoffs to embarass ourselves. I’m embarrased enough.
FF55, remember when i broke down the difference in greenbays offense as opposed to ours?
As Krow would put it:
” How’s that lookin now?” lol.
Reply
Kyle! the playa hatea extrordinaire! jk
Wat up bro
I just can’t see there being a lockout. The NFL is a multi-billion dollar corporation and it is at it’s highest popularity ever the last couple of years. It has surpassed baseball as America’s game and the only thing a lockout would accomplish is to tick off the fans and hurt the industry. Because let’s be honest, at the end of the day, we live in a capitalistic society and it’s always about the money. You can claim the NFL powers that be care about parity in the league, the fans, the players safety, blah blah blah, but in the end, it’s the money that matters to them. They’ll make changes as long as it helps them make money. A lockout would seriously hurt their financial status and the NFL is not controlled by a bunch of jackwads like the NHL. If history has shown us anything, it’s that they clearly know how to run a business so despite all the issues, I just cannot envision there being a lockout. If the NFL has to give the players just about everything they want, I see them doing it because whatever amount of money that costs them, it will be nowhere near the amount they will lose by canceling an entire season.
With that said, Coughlin better be gone and I like what Starks was saying about Harbaugh being the front runner to replace him. In only a few years, he turned Stanford from an average football team to a top 5 quality program. Now he did have some help in the next Peyton Manning as his QB, but he still had to recruit him. He’s an offensive genius and a player’s coach to whom I think the team would respond well. So here’s to hoping he spurns his alma mater in favor of a job just about anyone would love to have.
Look. alot of media and players look at this site. ( i know from way back) we need to ramp up the FIRE KILLDRIVE campaign immediately. Yeah we can blame alot of people and players, but who is more to blame than KILDRIVE!!!!!!! think 06, 07, 08.
AND (ff55, sPARKY, aND demo ESPECIALLY)
who is the Jabroni of a coach who went into the season thinking that they can put a WRs coach that never played wr into a role as Qb coach when he has never played QB….. i know Tom Freakin Coughlin…..
so now i am rethinking my whole view on him. He not only kept Killdrive but he hired another Killdrive to Control the quality ( or lack there of). Then he puts some bum in as a qb coach with NO experience. i love ELi but he aint Peyton and even HE has a real QB coach!
That same former wr coach turned QB coached has coached a group of receivers who have been Dead Last in Drops or in the top 3 for most drops.
SO i think Coughlin has to go because it really does not matter who the head coach is if you have an incompetent staff in charge of, for example, special teams, defensive backs, OC, Qb coach Offensive quality coach and the abomination that wat Bill Sheridan!
THEN the dude didn’t want to hire spags but was talked ( threatened) into it.
There is no way next season is cancelled because there is too much money at stake for both sides. The lockout is set for March 4th and could go until July without affecting regular season games but cancelling the pre season. That said a lockout could definitely save Coughlin and while the Giants normally do not let coaches go into their final year without an extension they could make an exception due to the labor issues.
Kyle I hate you. How dare you suggest coughlin will be back. Why suggest today of all days that we must endure another year of futility? Why suggest that one of the worst coaches to ever step onto a football field will get an 8th season to practice his ineptitude? Why suggest the possibility of watching this core group of players grow another year older when we all know the ultimate outcome(6-2 then 3-5 or worse). Why Kyle why?
I’m just SICK right now! After watching two of the WORST Giants games ever, now the thought of not seing this miserable group for a full season… no wait, that might cure how I’m feeling right now! Calling some coach that isn’t afraid to “earhole” one of the players in a huddle!!! We need some SERIOUS help because this has just GOT to stop happening! Just miserable!!!
In all seriousness, I am waiting for a formal and very public apology from DEMO and FF. Once again my alleged ankle-grabbing pantywaist early season predictions, for which I have been repeatedly insulted and vilified, have proven oh so prescient I am amazed at how football knowledgeable people such as FF and DEMO can lie to themselves and spew and believe the tripe that Coughlin is a competent, nay, a top 5 coach. He stinks and has stunk since he’s been here. He couldn’t win with Strahan, Tiki, Eli, Tuck, etc. The only time he won was with a DC forced upon him by management Every coordinator he has personally hired has been a disaster. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible.
JIM the only problem in your argument is that Tom Coughlin WON A SUPERBOWL!!!!The fact is that TC is a competent head coach…he had a very good resume before he even arrived in new york and he added a SUPER BOWL ring to that resume. Outside of Belicheck, who would you say is a better HC? Who has a better resume and I won’t even dignify your response is Rex Ryan or Jeff Fisher is on your list.
I agree, its time for him to go, barring a lucky playoff bid and a victory in the playoffs. this team needs a new voice. But to say TC is an awful coach is ignorant, guy has accomplished a lot in his career.
Swanton. TC didnt win that super bowl, Spags did. If people would get that through their heads they would stop holding onto the chimera that is TC is a good coach.
lol, no thats not true… A tom coughlin led Giants won the superbowl not a spags led team… sorry.