Warning that “the status quo is not acceptable on any level,” Giants co-owner John Mara yesterday promised changes are coming as he ripped into his team and characterized the late-season collapse in historically dire terms.
A few hours later, the first head rolled, with coach Tom Coughlin making the inevitable move of firing defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan after only one miserable year on the job. Sheridan’s injury-filled defense allowed a bloated 427 points — the third-highest total in the NFL — including an average of 32.3 points a game as the Giants went 3-8 in the last 11 games.
It is likely most or all of the defensive staff will depart when a new coordinator is hired. The death knell for Sheridan came as the Giants caved in with back-to-back losses of 41-9 to the Panthers and 44-7 to the Vikings, much to the disgust of their fans and ownership.
“This is probably as disappointed as I’ve ever been in my life at this team, given the expectations that we had this year, given the roster I thought we had and given the way we started out, given the embarrassment of the last two weeks,” Mara said tersely.
Asked at whom he directed his wrath most of all, Mara added: “I’m disappointed in everything, I’m unhappy at everybody. It is just not acceptable to perform like that. There are 8-8 seasons and there are 8-8 seasons. This one felt a lot more like 2-14 to me.”
Stressing that general manager Jerry Reese and Coughlin are not in danger of losing their jobs, Mara was eager to disagree with several of their contentions about what went so very wrong.
“I’m less than 24 hours after the end of the season. So I’m sure I’ll cool down at some point and will try to make intelligent decisions going forward,” Mara said. “Even before the last two games, there were at least four other losses where we were just not competitive. And obviously the last two games were the worst. But when you have that many games where you get blown out, there is something wrong. That means that something has to be done.”
Mara felt Reese restocked the roster with defensive depth and after the 5-0 start believed this was unquestionably a playoff team. What followed were eight losses in the last 11 games, finished off with the Giants Stadium-closing drubbing by the Panthers and a non-competitive rout by the Vikings in Minneapolis.
Reese said he did not see the Giants quitting in the regular season finale.
“The perception is we laid down and did not compete; I did not see that,” Reese said.
Mara saw it differently.
“The lack of mental and physical toughness and, quite frankly, a lack of effort over the last two weeks. That is just something I never expected to see from this group of players,” he said.
Reese said he wasn’t using the many injuries on defense as an excuse but he did classify them as a factor in the terrible showing.
“I think we had a significant amount of injuries,” Reese said.
Again, Mara wasn’t seeing it quite that way.
“I know we had some injuries but I don’t think we had catastrophic injuries,” Mara said. “There’s no excuse for performing the way we performed over basically the last 11 weeks.”
Coughlin said, “The real issue right now for our football team is the lack of identity. We lost our identity as far as who we are. We definitely have to regain some of the hard-nosed toughness, physical aspect of the game.”
Reese lamented that the team played physical football “half the time” but that the situation is not too far gone.
“There’s work to do,” Reese said, “but I don’t think you got to blow the whole thing up.”
After the 2003 season and the firing of Jim Fassel, Mara called the Giants “a franchise in trouble.” He did not go that far this time.
“I don’t know I would put it the same way here,” Mara said. “I don’t think I’d be quite that dramatic.”
Not quite, but close.
“I don’t know,” Mara said, “if I’ll ever get over the last two weeks, to be honest with you.”