By Jimmy Cunningham, howiGit New York Writer, Manhattan, NY
Tom Coughlin is one of the best coaches in the NFL. He is one of three active coaches to have multiple Super Bowl victories – one of them being Mike Shanahan who won his in the 90’s and has not had a winning record since 2006 – the other being Bill Belichick, who Coughlin has beaten in both of his Super Bowl wins. However, Sunday night’s loss to the Eagles was a result of two poor coaching decisions in the last 2:30 of the game.
The first decision was how Coughlin handled his last two timeouts around the 2 minute warning. The Eagles had the ball trailing by 1, with a 1st and goal from the Giants 8 yard line and 2:30 to play. LeSean McCoy ran for four yards and the Giants let the clock run to the two minute warning. The Giants then stopped the Eagles next two plays (calling their timeouts after both plays), forced a field goal, and had the ball kicked off to them with 1:49 left to play. What Coughlin should have done is use his timeouts on the other side of the two minute warning. Assuming the Giants stop the Eagles in the same way they get the ball kicked back to them with 2 minutes left. That is 11 seconds that Coughlin let tick away – an error that was magnified by what took place on the subsequent drive.
The Giants got the ball on the 35 after a good return from rookie David Wilson, who returned the ball well all game. Thanks to two pass interference calls on the Eagles’ corners the Giants had the ball on the Eagles’ 27 with 47 seconds to play. A 42-yard field goal is well within Lawrence Tynes range and the Giants looked like they had pulled off another last minute comeback. The Giants play calling was questionable from there on out, but Giants Offensive Coordinator Kevin Gilbride can’t shave his face without screwing up so I can’t say I was surprised. After a dive play up the middle for a yard the Giants took a shot at the end zone and after some back and forth by both players offensive pass interference was called on Ramses Barden. The Giants get pushed back to the 36, putting them outside of Tynes’ range (Tynes’ career long is 53 yards). With 21 seconds left Eli threw an incomplete pass to Domenik Hixon leaving them with 3rd and 20 from the 36 with 15 seconds left. Time for one more play along the sideline, or even a dump over the middle and a spike, right?
Wrong.
Instead Coughlin sends out Tynes to try a career long to win or lose the game. Giants snap the ball, the kick is up, and it’s nowhere close – game over. But wait! Andy Reid, who somehow saved a timeout until the end of the game, iced the kicker. The play doesn’t count. One would think that after watching the kicker come nowhere close that Coughlin would take advantage of the other coach’s mistake – do the right thing and attempt to get closer for the game winner. Nope. Out came Tynes again, who this time was on target but was a yard or two short. There is a reason Tynes’ career long is 53 and not 56.
But what would have happened if Coughlin used his timeouts properly before the two minute warning? Instead of 3nd and 20 with 15 seconds left there are 26 seconds left. I do not believe Coughlin would have made the same decision with 26 seconds left. They would have had time for a play almost anywhere on the field and time to spike the ball. If they got 5 yards they are in Tynes’ range. But Coughlin let precious seconds waste away and was left with a decision that he got wrong.
The Giants are now 2-2, and worse, 0-2 in the division. The Giants never make things easy for themselves, and I am not panicking nor calling for Coughlin’s head, yet. But I would feel a lot better today at 3-1 with a win in Philly. The frustrating part is the Giants players put themselves in position to win on the field, but the guy pulling the strings from the sidelines did not.
I just assumed Eli was going to drive them 140 yards down the field for a touchdown pass to salsa boy – I mean that’s what he always does, right? None of this dump it off Tom Brady BS resulting in the kicker winning the game. That’d be so amateur. I blame Eli, hands down.
In all seriousness though, the coach (especially in football) has a dramatic impact of the game. In hindsight maybe he got this one wrong, but when you look at all the calls he’s made that have ended up being right, you cut the man some slack. Without his play calling and a ton of luck, Eli could very easily be Super Bowl-less altogether.
I know, thats why I am not screaming fire Coughlin, but he screwed up twice in the last 230, in a division game.
The Giants schedule only gets tougher and they gave one away. I can live with players screwing up when they have guys trying to kill them, but not using time outs properly is either lack of focus or knowledge, something super bowl winning coaches usually dont show. And I understand the logic of you want to give Tynes atleast a chance and therr are risks in going in running one more play, but he watched the guy come nowhere close and still did the same thing.
The 11 seconds lost were big, but the big clock story in the game was that the Eagles out-possessed the Giants 19 minutes to 11 in the second half, including eating up 10:30 in the 4th quarter. The Eagles racked up a crushing 140+ rush yards in the second half, keeping their defense off the field and, more importantly, keeping the ball out of Eli’s hands.
Eli is lauded as being the league’s best game-winning drive QB, and the Philadelphia offense limited his ability to steal the game. Coupled with a clutch 3rd quarter red-zone interception by the defense, Coach Reid’s 2nd half game plan and clock management put this one away for the Birds.
The Eagles didnt limit anything, Tom Coughlin did. And you played so well that you should have lost, yay!
I wouldnt be getting too excited about winning yet another game by less then three at home, against a team without their best offensive weapon, a starting left tackle, and half their secondary and line backers out. But you Eagles fans celebrate September super bowls better then anyone so I am not surprised.
My god, you’d think a city as large as New York would stock enough tampons and no-tears shampoo to keep the streets dry on a Monday morning. I’m happy to win a division game, I’m happy to be 3-1. But I could not possibly be as excited about this “September super bowl” as you and every other Giants fan. I’m just taking the piss out of you because I’ve been hearing it all morning: “Giants are the better team, you just got lucky.” “The Eagles didn’t win, the Giants lost.” And now, my new favorite: “You played so well you should have lost, yay!”
No, J-bone, we shouldn’t have lost; we should have won. Know why? Because we had more points on the board when the clock hit zero. Run through the rest of your cranky-pants responses, in rapid order: Reid is fat, Vick fought dogs, Giants have more rings. There. As soon as the complain-fest is over, we have three more quarters of a season to go.
Last week your coach had to address questions of your qb being benched. The eagles had a winning record. But oh lord cranky New York. Turn on your radio, I’m sure mike missenelli is yelling at Joey from west Philly pissed at Andy Reid for icing tynes. You cheer for Philly sport teams. Look in a mirror before talking about tears and tampons.
And your are a smart guy, I assume you know what should have means. I never said the giants won, I said they should have. When you have the ball on the 27 with 30 seconds left you should win. I’m sure there are some stats somewhere but it’s well above 50 percent. Maybe should and did in Latin are the same word or something.
And yes there is still a lot to play. And your been in first I September before.
You have been first in September before if you don’t speak smart phone
A couple quick stats: the Eagles rushed for 140 rush yards in the second half and held the ball for 19 minutes. On the other side, they held the Giants to 57 rush yards and only gave up 2 out of 10 3rd downs. I’m sure I could mention some additional stats, but I won’t because they didn’t affect the game. All that mattered was those 11 seconds.
Not, “that was the most important part of the game,” or “they had it and they lost it.” The final play of the game was the only play of the game that mattered in any way towards the final outcome. And if I suggest otherwise, I’m just some awful Eagles fan who’s being too mean to the Giants fans. I know this, because when I wrote about a couple of those stats above (without any bragging, and even talking up how good Eli is in the fourth quarter) not only was I completely wrong (“the Eagles didn’t limit anything”), but I was also way out of line for “celebrating a September super bowl.”
I mean, really. You guys have won two Super Bowls in the last 5 years. How can you be this bitter and insecure about a loss in week 4? Being butthurt about Eagles fans rooting for their team does not excuse putting on blinders and having a blubber-fest. A girl you haven’t talked to since St Joe’s wrote “F%$# Eli” on her Facebook wall? GASP! As soon as I’m done choking back my sense of outrage, I’ll call her mother and tell her not to ruin your whine-and-cheese party. Also, Santa Claus!
Wimp.
Are you reading the same posts as I am? Because the only sensitivity and butthurt I see is coming from your whiney little fingers.
And to respond to your stats that you didnt feel got enough attention, yes when the other team has a chance to win the game with under 30 seconds left no other stats matter at that point. If the Giants have more time and run the correct play on third down and win, those stats are irrelevant. There feel better that I gave you your attention now.
My article was about Coughlins mistakes, I said nothing bad about the Eagles or their win. I dont give a shit if you had 500 rushing yards and had 29 minutes of clock in the second half. The Giants put themselves in position to win and their coach messed up.
You didnt address my rebuttal of new york being sensitive! Or the difference between should and did! you big meanie!
whine cry whine, name call.
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ummm, no one is arguing the call?
giants fans are calling for Coughlin to be fired.. It happens in every city.
I have not seen one thing calling for his head. That is an absolutely absurd notion.