The Giants had been so thoroughly beaten and embarrassed last week that the day after what was — considering the ramifications and the opponent — a hard-to-fathom 23-10 loss to the Redskins, and they braced for impact from Hurricane Coughlin.
Instead, the storm passed and they got a reassuring breeze from the head coach.
“I stood before them, and I don’t know what they were expecting — probably some backlash from the previous game,’’ Coughlin said of his Tuesday morning team briefing, according to giants.com. “I said nothing about that. I said, ‘Gentlemen, get your heads up, get your eyes on me, get the frowns off your face. You’ve created the greatest opportunity in the world for yourselves if we win two games. Win the division and we’re in the playoffs. And that’s exactly what the goal was at the beginning of the year.’ ’’
It is difficult to portray a losing skid that forces the desperate need to win their final two games as “the greatest opportunity in the world,’’ because the Giants have pushed themselves to the brink of playoff elimination. Of course, it could be a whole lot worse. The Giants, this afternoon, will control their fate when they take the field as the road team at MetLife Stadium to confront the Jets, another team gazing at the postseason picture, not quite able to view it clearly just yet.
Through the optimism of a 6-2 first half of the season to the ominous signs that another second-half slide was alive and kicking, amid all the yardage amassed by Eli Manning and the chunks of real estate given up by the shoddy defense, the Giants sit at 7-7 and know they are out of options. Sure they actually can lose today to the Jets, and if the Cowboys lose later in the afternoon to the Eagles, the Giants still can find their way to the NFC East title and the playoffs if they defeat the Cowboys on New Year’s Day and the Eagles lose to the Reskins in Week 17. But that’s a scenario fraught with peril, something the Giants want no part of pursuing.
“You keep from saying this most of the time as a coach, but this is a playoff atmosphere,’’ Coughlin said. “It has to be. It’s win and in and it isn’t a pretty thing if you don’t.’’
Through it all, they have crystallized their season to a single necessity.
“Win,’’ Justin Tuck said. “That’s all that matters. Win. We don’t need to play good, we just need to win. I don’t care what happens, make sure we have more points than they do. I think we make things more complicated than they need to be. All those adjectives are great, as my granddaddy used to say they don’t mean a hill of beans. We need to win.’’
If they cannot achieve that singular goal, all bets are off as far as what happens next for Coughlin and his coaching staff and for several players on a roster that will not have made it into the playoffs since the 2008 season.
“Me being here, my third year, I haven’t seen the playoffs yet, so that’s definitely a goal I’d like to achieve as a team,’’ receiver Hakeem Nicks said. “We got to put it all on the line. We know what we’re capable of doing.’’
The Giants think they have a handle on what Nicks, Manning and their offense are capable of doing. Their defense? That’s another story.
The Giants didn’t appreciate this past week hearing their secondary trashed by Jets receiver Santonio Holmes, but sometimes the truth hurts. Holmes said the Giants can be beaten over the top, that their defensive backs aren’t strong tacklers. Is there anything to argue? It remains to be seen if the Giants, on one afternoon, can cobble together one forceful defensive stand.
If they cannot, well, as Coughlin said, it won’t be a pretty thing.