When you play in a Super Bowl and win it, and a year later you are asked by your head coach to make the season finale a Pride Bowl, you better wake up and recognize that there isn’t only a season on the line, but jobs as well.
Tom Coughlin’s last-gasp appeal for Pride, Honor and Dignity Sunday against the Eagles sounds more like a whistle in the dark now that there is so little playoff light at the end of the Big Blue tunnel.
These 2012 Giants have authored another unacceptable collapse that has them praying for reign from the Lions, Packers and Redskins, and more than a few of them better look in the mirror while they still can, because Big Brother will be watching, and watching closely, and if they cannot summon the Pride, Dignity and Honor the organization expects from them every season, then they do not deserve to be Giants.
Coughlin’s message comes two weeks late. It is, of course, a message no head coach of a defending champion should ever have to make in December.
Why has this happened?
FIGHT: From his helpless perch on the sidelines in Baltimore, Justin Tuck (shoulder), who vows to play Sunday, saw a bully who has lost all confidence.
“When we get punched in the mouth early in a football game, we haven’t responded as we have in the past,” Tuck said. “That was something that we prided ourselves on all year last year, finishing to the end. And we came back from games where teams jump out fast on us and things like that. This year, that didn’t happen. I think a lot of that has to do with confidence.”
HUNGER: “It’s easy to fake,” Tuck said. “Only the person in their heart knows how hungry they are. For me, I always tell you guys, man, two rings are not enough, I got 10 fingers. I want to win a championship every year.”
Every defending Super Bowl champion has to fight human nature.
“They do,” Tuck said, “but some people are built differently. My human nature is I want people to be mad at me every offseason. I want to see guys in the offseason knowing that I’m a champion, and they weren’t. I don’t want to have to go to the Masters this year and see a quarterback that just won a Super Bowl MVP and he gets to rub it in my face.
“The life span of this game is too short to ever have a regret in saying, ‘Oh, I’ll get ’em next year.’ I don’t believe in that.”
Neither does Eli Manning.
“I thought we were ready and excited about our opportunity,” he said. “We’ve just been outplayed.”
PASS RUSH: Help wanted for JPP.
MANNING: If he’s not elite, the Giants aren’t elite.
INJURIES: Hakeem Nicks has been a hobbled shell of his former self, placing more stress on Victor Cruz. But every team has injuries. No excuse.
ARROGANCE: They thought they could simply flick on the switch. They thought wrong.
TALK IS CHEAP: “Last year, I think we had a great mix of talking and doing,” Tuck said. “This year, I think we talk a little bit in situations too much. It’s about doing. It’ll be so easy to see, our pride will be on showcase on Sunday. It’ll be easy for you to tell, it’ll be easy for anybody to tell whether it’s there or not.”
Ah yes, PRIDE: “My definition of Giants Pride,” Cruz said, “is just playing your heart out each and every snap, each and every time you have the football in your hand, fighting for every yard, fighting for every inch you could possibly make, and no matter what the score is, you continue to fight and continue to go back out there and play.”
The Giants will be Eagle-eyed while the Lions fight the Bears.
“Even if you see the Bears are up by 50 points, it doesn’t change what we’re trying to do,” Manning said. “We’re trying to go win a football game. We’re football players, we want to play at a high level. So we have great pride and respect for the game and our craft, and we want to go out there and do our job.”
And win a Pride Bowl instead of a Super Bowl.
“I don’t think you’ve seen guys quit,” Tuck said. “I just think we played against some teams that were getting back to playing great football, and we didn’t play great football.”
They made the bed. Better not sleep in it Sunday or they’ll wake up next season somewhere else.
steve.serby@nypost.com