It might happen again.
The Giants might collapse in the 2nd half of the season.
And yes, Tom Coughlin is on the sideline...again...
The Giants have squandered a two game lead in the (used to be) fantastic NFC East. Squandered a two game lead that nobody thought they would have. Eli has truly been elite, Victor is "Cruz"ing for yards after the catch, and the defensive line is as good as any in football. Why then, are the Giants looking down the barrel of another collapse at the end of a season? Is it Tom Coughlin? I think not...
I want to say that the Giants season began with a lot of optimism, but it most certainly did not. Much was made of a lockout-shortened offseason with big names entering free agency. The Eagles made moves, the Redskins made moves, even the Cowboys sured up some soft spots. The Giants, however, did nothing. Nothing to improve a linebacking core that had seen much better days, and nothing to improve an offensive line that used to be the pride of the Big Blue franchise. Optimism was not in the cards. Giant fans were envious of the Philadelphia front office. Not for the moves they made, but for the aggression with which they made the moves, showing a passion for having a winning team around their beloved coach Andy Reid.
The season began just as many thought it might, with a loss in Washington on an emotional September 11th. It made sense. The Giants did nothing to get better, weren't any good to begin with, and showed no will or toughness in Washington. It just made sense.
What didn't make sense, is what came next. 3 straight wins, two of which were on the road. Yes, the Rams are god awful, so we should have won that. Yes, the Eagles (then the "dream team") are now in the arm pits of the league. And yes, the Cardinals have seen better days. Now, it is easy to look at those wins and think the Giants should have won those games, but I don't know if they should have.
The Giants were over achieving, yes, OVER achieving, a word not often associated with the G-Men (with the exception of the Super Bowl run). They were playing better than anyone thought they could, and they were doing it consistently...and they were doing it while they were healthy. The Giants were headed in the right direction, even with a fluke loss in Seattle (a notoriously tough place to play, eh Vince Young?). There was reason to believe that the Giants could not only win the division, but run away with it. That is, before the injury bug came to town.
Now, I get it, the Giants were playing well, but can anyone honestly say they expected the Giants to keep winning when the names on the injury list include Nicks, Manningham, Bradshaw, Amukamara, and Boley? If you did, you're an idiot.
Eli is truly playing top notch football, but are Victor Cruz and Ramses Barden good enough to carry a team to a division title? Has Brandon Jacobs shown the "fall forward for 4 yards and keep the feet moving" mentality we saw for so many years? Is Mark Herzlich supposed anchor a defense after sitting in the green-room and going undrafted? Is Tom Coughlin supposed to take the blame for having no talent past the first string guys? And finally, with all this said, do you think adding the toughest schedule in the NFL to all of this makes it easier to win games? NO, NO, NO, NO and...NO.
Let's face it, the Giants were never supposed to be as good as they were in the first half of the season. They were supposed to get swept by the Eagles in the season series, they were supposed to get exposed by Tom Brady in New England, and they were supposed to have a quarterback who turned the ball over 30 times...again. Now, with all the injuries, all the rookies, and no offensive line, the Giants are supposed to win at Green Bay, win 3 more divisonal games, and win the battle for Met Life stadium against the Jets? I don't think so.
The Giants did what they could, Coughlin did what he could, and Eli is still trying to live the dream with his brother (somewhat) out of the headlines. The Giants got our hopes up, but lets not crucify Coughlin or the team for doing so. They tried, they tried really hard. It's tough living up to the the "Giants" ora, and it is even tougher to do so when you over achieve and play better than you are.
The Giants may now feel compelled to make the moves so many hoped they would last year. Jerry Reese almost got away with this one. He almost looked like a genius, almost. In the end, he looks like everyone thought he would; like a General Manager that forgot to do his job; like a man who didn't do enough; and perhaps like a man who doesn't want Tom Coughlin to succeed. He surely hasn't convinced us otherwise.
Will the Giants go to Green Bay and win? Maybe. Will the Giants make the playoffs? Maybe. Will the Giants win the Super Bowl? Maybe. It is a beautiful thing that we cannot answer these questions, but if the answers turn out to be no, the Giants will have some questions to ask themselves.
For a while, Giants fans didn't need excuses. For a while, Giants fans didn't need to defend themselves. For a while, the Giants were winning. Now though, we need the excuses, we need to defend ourselves, and we desperately need to win. Above all, when defending our team, defend our coach, Tom Coughlin. He has done a lot with this roster, a lot more than anyone (including management) expected him to do. Let's chalk this one up to injuries and a horrific schedule, and please, let's keep Tom Coughlin...besides, he does have Eli playing like Joe Montana.
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