Former Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride looked back on the recently completed season that ended with a 7-9 record and the team’s co-owner, John Mara, saying the offense was “broken’’ and decided he knew the reason for the massive problems.
It was the offensive line.
“It just made it impossible for our quarterback to function,” Gilbride said Tuesday night on SiriusXM NFL radio. “”[Eli Manning is] a guy where if you give him enough time, he’s always going to be throwing the ball to the right person. He’s going to know what you’re doing defensively. He’s going to see through your disguises. He’s going to be an accurate passer. But he’s not a scrambler, and you’ve got to give him some help. And if you give him some help he’s proven that he can win a championship for you.”
The remarks were Gilbride’s first public comments since he announced his retirement last Thursday. Gilbride, under fire for the demise of the offense, might have been forced out had he not decided, at age 62, to step away. He had been living apart from his wife — who is living in Rhode Island with the couple’s daughter and grandchild — during the season.
“Sometimes it reaches a point where you have to say ‘Enough is enough,’ ’’ Gilbride said.
Gilbride during the interview hit on several issues, saying he feels starter Brandon Myers was more suited to be a No. 2 tight end and left tackle Will Beatty has got to get tougher.
He said the line problems forced changes to the offensive scheme.
“I think philosophically we modified substantially what we normally do,” he said. “We’ve been kind of a dynamic, explosive throw the ball down the field, let your guys go do a lot of vertical read stretch principles and we had abandoned those. You can’t do it because your quarterback would be on his back while waiting for those things to happen. You became much more conservative, much more three-step oriented, which was good for a while but then people, they’re smart on that side of the ball and they identified fairly quickly what your weakness are and realize what your adjustments have been and they take those things away. When we had to expand what we wanted to do, that’s when our shortcomings manifested themselves.’’
The outside play of the receivers also was a problem, Gilbride said.
”Victor Cruz still played very well on the inside for us, but it became readily apparent to defenses we weren’t playing as well on the outside with the outside receiver positions,” he said. “You tried to throw some three-step fades and fade-stops, of course they’re sitting on those things. If the Giants can get the wide out position straightened out, the outside receiver, not the inside because between Victor Cruz and the emergence of Jerrel Jernigan at the end that will help.’’
In addition to the offensive line, Gilbride said the Giants need a go-to running back.
”There’s no question they’re going to have to get a running back that can be the bell cow,” he said. “We had hoped Andre Brown would be that person, but he didn’t come back until the ninth or 10th game.”