Loading ...Make no mistake about it, there are few people (if any) in the NFL who want to win football games more than New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin. He treats each game as if it's the Super Bowl, and prepares his staff and players accordingly. To him, the most important game is the one being played.
That was just one of the many factors that led to General Manager Jerry Reese's decision to extend Coughlin's contract through the 2014 season.
“I admire his passion to win. That’s pretty easy," Reese said on Saturday. "Nobody wants to win more than Tom Coughlin. The preparation that he puts into it, that’s pretty special.”
At the start of his Giants tenure, it was Coughlin's passion to win that drove running back Tiki Barber into retirement and had defensive end Michael Strahan considering the same. However, a subtle personality change and introduction of the Leadership Council turned things around, and Big Blue promptly won their first Super Bowl championship under Coughlin in 2007.
Following his second Lombardi Trophy in five seasons (Super Bowl XLVI), Coughlin entered the 2012 regular season with the same goals in mind. And despite an opening week loss to the Dallas Cowboys, both he and Jerry Reese have confidence that their recent success will continue.
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Re: the discussion on the previous thread
I don’t disagree with those who say that the Giants would likely have lost the game if it had been officiated by the regular refs. This game was much more important to Dallas and it showed in their play.
But the outcome of a single game is not what’s at issue here. What is that the NFL is now putting a much different product on the field than the one that it has been selling to the networks, ticket buyers, and fans for the past decade or so.
That simply would have been the inevitable result of ANY wholesale change in officiating. Refereeing is as much art as science and is highly dependent on the subjective interpretation of whoever is calling the game. So even among the regulars, there was always a degree of variance from game to game. But that game to game variance was nowhere near as pronounced as the variance I’ve witnessed between the regular refs and the scab refs so far.
The “interpretations” of the regular refs – some of whom (Triplette, Leavy, Winter) are really pretty incompetent – at least hewed roughly to the evolutionary arc of a game that the NFL rules committee has been constantly tweaking. As the game became more pass oriented, interpretations of the holding rule did become much more flexible (as Jim noted earlier) At the same time, enforcement of the pass interference and illegal downfield contact rules grew much more stringent. For better or worse, the regulars understood what kind of game the NFL was looking for and tailored their officiating to fit within that context.
So even if the NFL had scoured the earth and left no stone unturned in its search for the very best referees, the end result would still have been a very different game. That would have been the inevitable outcome of replacing all the old eyes with a new set of eyes who are just not as well attuned to working within the context of today’s NFL. That is just inarguable fact.
But the NFL did NOT scour the earth to find the best. They contented themselves with a bunch of guys from Division II and one guy who was reportedly fired from the Lingerie Football League. So in addition to unfamiliarity with the context of today’s league, these scabs have had nothing in their experience to prepare them for the speed and violence of the typical NFL game. This, too, is inarguable.
So while it’s true that much of the offensive holding we saw Wednesday night would have also gone uncalled by the regulars, there were many instances that would not have – Kiwi being tackled from behind on Murray’s long run being one of the more memorable examples. That play gets flagged 9 times out of 10 by the regulars.
But the biggest change I witnessed was in the amount of downfield contact that the scab officials were allowing the Dallas defenders. I thought I was back in the 1970s watching the Raider DBs. Truth be told, I actually prefer that style of defense and wish it were still legal. But it has not been for several decades now. More to the point, the rules against downfield contact are the ones that have been the most strictly – and consistently – enforced. The complete absence of such calls on Wednesday was jarring, to say the least.
So if the regulars do not return soon, we are going to continue to see a very different NFL than the one we have grown used to seeing and – dare I say it? – than the one that the teams have spent the past several seasons drafting, training, and preparing for. Those teams who recognize these differences and are able adjust their play accordingly will flourish. Those who do not will fall hopelessly behind. If Coughlin and Co. insist on hewing to the straight and narrow – playing the game the way it “should” be played – under the Scab regime, 2012 could well wind up a lost season for the Giants.
I don’t care about the refs. If our OL didn’t suck big balls, and if our rookie RB doesn’t fumble, if our defense doesn’t inexplicably allow a scrub like Ogletree to walk all up and down the field, if our DC doesn’t do something make sure Tryon knows that Romo is going to throw a slant on that 3rd down, we probably win that game. All of that is on US, not the refs. I could go on, but you get the point. Yes the refs could have helped cover those failings up with calls that benefitted us. But that’s not in our control. The stuff I listed is. So let’s stop b-tching and get better.
I don’t recall seeing a single person here blame that loss on the refs. The Giants deserved to lose and they did.
My main point that new refs = substantially different game. One in which the rules against holding and downfield contact on pass plays will be interpreted much more loosely than we’re used to seeing.
For as long as the scabs continue to call games, some teams will learn to take advantage of this new world order and other will not. I may be wrong, but I think that is going to have a significant impact on how this season plays out. A far greater impact than the NFL would have us believe.
Soooo RGIII doesnt look half bad…
I know right? Yeah I know he’s only played 20 minutes of football but I’m kinda jealous…
The NFC East is a meat grinder again. Dallas is better … Redskins are better … Eagles are always dangerous … and we’re the defending champs.
What division can compare?
The first game of the new season. Another Superbowl trophy tucked safely in the case. And now all that remains is for the defending champs to come out and play with the fire and precision that won it all a few short months ago. A chance to silence all the doubters. A chance to show that it wasn’t a fluke. A chance to show that we might possibly do the impossible and repeat.
Any long time Giants fan had to know that there was no way they’d let us have that. They tanked … naturally … and we should be ashamed of ourselves for thinking it would be different.
RG3 and the skins looked good. The Eagles played like super-crap but were able to be the Browns by a point
How ’bout ‘dem Jets–48 points. Kings of NY.
How about those 49ers? They look like the complete package! Scary good so far.