Tom Coughlin cannot run the football for the Giants, nor can he open holes for the running backs or protect the quarterback. He cannot prevent turnovers on offense or produce them on defense, either.
So, in assessing the Giants 36-21 loss to the Eagles Sunday at MetLife Stadium, you cannot blame the Giants head coach for the pathetic 53 rushing yards his running backs produced or the lost fumble by Brandon Jacobs or for the three interceptions and three intentional grounding penalties Eli Manning contributed to the cause.
But you sure can blame Coughlin for a couple of coaching gaffes that had a hand in the sloppy loss.
Coughlin, usually a pretty steady sideline presence who has a knack to make the right decisions in the heat of games, had two curiously bad moments on Sunday.
The first came on the Eagles’ second possession of the game. The Giants defense had just stopped them on a third-and-9 from the Philadelphia 48-yard line, leaving them with a fourth-and-4 from the Giants’ 47. But Coughlin accepted an Eagles holding penalty to push them back to their own 38 to replay third down, this time third-and-19.
On the next play, Michael Vick ran for 34 yards to the Giants’ 29-yard line. Three plays later, the Eagles got a 40-yard field goal to cut the Giants lead to 7-3 at the time.
Coughlin, explaining his reasoning for not forcing the Eagles to deal with a fourth-and-4, said he “knew they would go for it’’ on fourth down, which is why he accepted the penalty and pushed them back.
“There was no question in our minds that they would go for that,’’ Coughlin said. “So the consensus on the sideline is that we would take them back. We were doing a pretty good job with [Vick] at that time, and of course the next play he runs [34] yards for the first down.’’
The second Coughlin hiccup came on the Eagles’ first offensive possession of the second half when he panicked and wasted a timeout while mulling a challenge of an 11-yard catch by Philadelphia running back LeSean McCoy along the sideline on third-and-10.
Moments before the Eagles were going to snap the ball, Coughlin burned his first timeout of the half because his coaches upstairs in the booth were still unsure about whether McCoy got both feet inbounds.
After calling a timeout, Coughlin then challenged the ruling on the field, lost the ruling and was charged another timeout, leaving him with only one for the final 27 minutes of the game.
Though Coughlin rambled a bit while trying to explain his thinking after the game, he took blame for burning two timeouts on the one play, saying, “I just put that on myself.’’
First he said, “We were very sure [in the coaches’ booth] that the play would be reversed.’’
Then he said he “didn’t get the affirmation [from the coaches] right away.’’
Then he said he called the timeout, “to settle everybody down.’’
“Then the challenge came and I was shocked that we didn’t get it,’’ Coughlin said.
This has been a difficult season for Coughlin, who while mourning the loss of his brother who died suddenly three weeks ago, has tried everything to lift his players’ spirits up every Monday after each mounting loss.
“It’s no fun,’’ he said. “But I’m not concerned about me. I’m concerned about those players in the locker room. We didn’t expect to be in this situation. The disappointment is very obvious and it’s frustrating. I lose the games and they win them.’’
For a couple of rare instances on Sunday, Coughlin had a significant hand in this loss.