Tom Coughlin has fallen asleep at the wheel too often this season and he will likely pay for it with his job.
At age 55, you can order off of the senior citizen menu at Denny's and Bob Evans. Head coach Tom Coughlin became eligible for those menus 14 years ago, yet the 69-year-old is still on the sidelines. In recent disappointing seasons, Coughlin had been given the benefit of the doubt by the New York Giants' higher ups, and until this year he had earned that right.
Coming into the 2015-16 season, Coughlin had posted winning seasons in half his time in New York and added two Super Bowl runs to his credit. Coughlin has a 102-90 record with the Giants. The Giants, being the well run organization that it is, stuck with Coughlin even when it was unpopular because stability is an important (and rare) characteristic in professional sports these days. It was the right move each time they held on to him.
All that being said, every good run must come to an end, and the time is now for Coughlin to walk away from football. It's not just that the Giants finished 6-10, it's the circumstances surrounding their third place finish in the NFC East.
For starters, the Giants finished with six wins in a year where 9-7 would almost surely have won them their division. The Washington Redskins won the division at 9-7. The NFC East division is terrible, and the most accomplished quarterback in the division, Eli Manning, finished third place under Coughlin — by a considerable margin.
If you have the best quarterback in a bad division, you're expected to win it.
Second, the Giants have blown numerous fourth quarter leads this season and have made multiple dubious late-game clock management mistakes. The final straw occurred in week 15 when Coughlin sat on his three timeouts while Cam Newton drove the Carolina Panthers down the field for a 43-yard game-winning field goal. Don't worry, Coughlin finally called a timeout with five seconds left after Newton spiked the ball to ice the kicker and it totally worked.
Speaking of week 15, star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.'s trip to the nuthouse captured the lack of discipline the Giants have played with this season. Why was there no sideline camera shot of Coughlin disciplining Beckham to get his act together after the first few scuffles with Panthers' defensive back Josh Norman? It never should have come to the launching of Beckham's helmet into Norman's, because Coughlin should have corralled his wideout long before that, or at least instructed an assistant to do so.
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="ed68c87a-b8b7-11e5-a868-9b9cbb094f09"}}
The defense is similarly undisciplined. It isn't wildly talented but does itself no favors by missing numerous tackles and blowing coverages consistently. So many of the team's flaws can be easily traced back to coaching, as the Giants ranked 32nd (out of 32 NFL teams) in total defense this season. New York surrendered an abysmal 420 yards per game this season.
Coughlin had a great run with the Giants, but his time is up. Other teams may consider hiring him in the aftermath of their similarly failed seasons, but Coughlin is not getting any younger, and his track record is unlikely to gain another improbable 9-7 Super Bowl-run.
@JAjimbojr
jw331813@ohio.edu
