Giants Mail It in Again To End Season

The 2009 Giants started the season with Super Bowl expectations and ended it with their head coach saying, “I do think we tried. They all came to the stadium wanting to play.”

Tom Coughlin seems to have lost his read on his players if he thinks his team tried. They may have come to the stadium wanting to play, but once they stepped on the field, it was a different story.

The Giants followed up their humiliating embarrassment of last Sunday with 60 minutes of even more humiliating embarrassment this week, if that’s possible.

Maybe they wanted to do it twice in a row and in different states to get their point across. I’m just not sure what that point is.

Are there any possible reasons for mailing it in like they did the last two games? Were they just making sure Bill Sheridan gets fired? Maybe Kevin Gilbride, too?

Did they catch the rerun of There’s Something About Mary the other night, and, because Brett Favre was so nice to Mary’s brother Warren, they thought they’d roll over for the legendary QB as a gesture of kindness?

Did they want to ensure that their fans were embarrassed when they went back to work on Monday to start the new year?

Did Gilbert Arenas have a bet on the Vikings and the Giants players were scared for their lives? Maybe they have self-esteem issues and just don’t like themselves.

The offensive and defensive lines were the strength of the Giants, and they both regressed badly this season. The defensive backfield is in a shambles, and some new linebackers will be needed.

The running game suffered a huge setback, so changes will need to be made there. Of course, a new defensive coordinator will take over. Sheridan is probably being fired as I write this.

Eli Manning and Steve Smith had a good year, and Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham gained valuable experience and showed they’re ready for extensive NFL playing time. But that’s about it for the positives.

How does a team go from 5-0 to this? The shoddy-tackling, pressure-less defense gave up the second most points in franchise history, with 427 (the 1966 team allowed 501), so that’s a clue.

Sure, they had injuries—three defensive backs, the starting middle linebacker, a defensive tackle, two offensive linemen, the running backs—but what team doesn’t?

They’re still professionals. But they just don’t seem to care. They had no leadership, fire, or passion.

These aren’t your father’s New York Giants. Or even your second cousin’s. Coughlin isn’t going anywhere, so he’ll need to make some big changes around this team, and look in the mirror himself and see where he went wrong.

The 2009 Giants season ends with these sad words from center Shaun O’Hara: “To play like that two weeks in a row is disrespectful to the logo that’s on our helmets. The Maras, the Tishes, the Giants franchise, the organization, and our fans deserve better than what they’ve received from the players.”