It is a testament to how much he cares about his brothers and his team, to how much he bleeds Giants blue, when Antrel Rolle asks Tom Coughlin if he can speak to the team, and it is a noble attempt to rouse a fire intended to unleash hell even as he stood at the gates of hell when he tells the room: “I believe we can go 12-0 from this point on.”
When you have one foot in the grave, when you find yourself knocking on death’s door, when you need something or someone to keep you believing, to keep hope alive, you probably want to hear one of the only men among you who has not been stripped of his swagger, who you know will fight until his last breath, you probably need to hear it.
Rolle knew he wasn’t standing among Broncos, that Peyton Manning was not his quarterback, and it didn’t matter to him one bit.
It is a noble and gallant attempt, launching this rallying cry — Hey, Ho, 12-0 — in the 0-4 Giants’ most desperate hour.
It is, unfortunately, also laughable, if only because you notice the Packers and Seahawks on the schedule, and because these Giants have revealed themselves to be a good team playing bad at best, or a bad team playing bad at worst.
Here’s the best idea: Believe you can go 1-0 from this point on.
We have seen this season how words spoken on a Monday inside the Quest Diagnostics Crisis Center can be long forgotten by Sunday, and suddenly here comes a Sunday that becomes a Super Sunday at MetLifeandDeath Stadium against Chip Kelly’s Manic Eagles.
“A win would be big for this locker room, and the morale, and just get that feeling again,” Eli Manning said.
Bill Parcells called it the psychology of results: “Confidence is only born of demonstrated ability. A team’s collective mental state is ruled by the psychology of results. A team teaches itself what it is on the field, in action.”
When asked if he senses his team needs a win for its confidence and self-esteem, Coughlin said: “Yeah. Why not?”
“We all could use one, but this is a pretty resilient, tough bunch of guys and we’ve got to find a way to win,” Coughlin said. “We win one and it will help get us started. Let’s put it that way. We don’t have to do this on Monday, which I can’t stand.”
Then enough of the no-offense huddle, let’s see more of the no-huddle offense. Manning likes it. Manning was 7-for-9 for 54 yards in the no-huddle at the end of the half. You want him to lift the team the way a franchise quarterback is supposed to? Try that.
“If we can do something that can get us an advantage, I’m up for whatever,” Manning said.
Why do you enjoy the no-huddle?
“You enjoy it ’cause we’ve been pretty good at it,” Manning said. “The plays that you’re running, a lot of ‘em are your base plays, and you run ’em all the time, and you get great decisions, I think it slows down the pass rush and confuses the defense a little bit. It’s going to be different if you do it a whole game, it will be a little slower, you have to be able to get into all your plays … if you ran the same ones over and over again, eventually the defense will catch on.”
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It’s broke.
“We always utilize it at some point in the game, whether it’s a true two-minute or whether it’s just what we call ‘rally,’ when we’re up on the ball and whatever the personnel is in, trying to decide what is the best play with run or pass,” Coughlin said. “We have that capability. It is something that we talk about using a little bit more, a little bit less accordingly. It is a point that you make, which is before the half over the ball no-huddle offense was very productive.”
The Giants don’t need to become the Eagles. They do need an offensive change of pace. “It’s not the plays, it’s not the tempo, it’s more our execution has to be better,” Manning said.
Coughlin showed the Giants the NFC East standings Monday. “Dallas is going to Denver this week, so we feel we got to get a win here, and hopefully we can be one game back,” Manning said.
Manning volunteered that the Super Bowl XLVIII Giants lost four in a row. “It’s still early,” he said.
Believe you can go 1-0.
“Over the years, we’ve kind of been a streaky team — we can get hot, we can get cold,” Manning said. “We’ve been pretty good at starting out hot, so maybe we just kind of switched the rotation this year, and start cold, and get hot and stay hot.”
When Manning was asked about the Countdown to Super Bowl XVLIII sign on the wall, he said: “I’m not even looking at it.”
He smiled and added: “We got six days ‘til Philly.”
Believe you can go 1-0 from this point on.