The Panic Room is big and blue, and yet it is much too small today to hold the legion of doom, otherwise known as Giants fans apoplectic over the state of Eli Manning’s staggering new offense.
Manning has this message for them:
Don’t panic.
“It’s preseason. … We’re still figuring out our style and everything that’s gone on. But we’ll get it. I know that,” Manning told The Post.
“This isn’t the final product.”
So this will be a different offense come Sept. 8 in Detroit?
“Same offense, just executed at a higher level,” Manning said, and smiled. “We’ll execute better for sure.”
Never mind there is nowhere for them to go but up.
Victor Cruz, whose next preseason catch will be his first preseason catch, has the same message for Giants fans:
“There’s a lot of ballgame left, there’s a lot of practices left for us to kind of fine-tune everything up,” he said. “I think they’ll see a change come Week 1, they’ll see an assertive offense, they’ll see one that makes sense, that makes everything go, and I think they’ll be excited about it.”
So ‘Don’t panic’ would be your message”
“Exactly,” Cruz said.
But there is no question that it is go time, time for Manning and offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo and everyone else to get on the same page already, time for the tempo and execution in practice to carry over to this next game, Friday night against the Jets.
Tom Coughlin had a pointed message for his Giants when he addressed them Monday morning.
“The faces change,” Coughlin said, “the expectations never do.”
In their own words, according to one Giant, Coughlin and McAdoo expressed the urgency of the situation to the offense.
“It needs to happen, and it needs to happen now,” was the gist of their message.
Rashad Jennings would point to the exit sign for all the Giants fans who have squeezed inside the Panic Room and made it a fire hazard.
“ ’Cause it’s all here,” Jennings said. “We got every element we need on this team, every person in the locker room, to be successful this year, and we are gonna be. When we put on the tape, everything we’ve seen is fixable.
“We’ll get this thing rolling.”
His teammates have noticed Manning isn’t exactly pulling his hair out.
“He’s a very unshakable type of person,” Jennings said. “Obviously, I’m sure there’s a level of frustration as it is with every single player, there’s no need to pinpoint one person. We’re not executing like we need to and are capable of, so … we need to just start clicking.”
The Giants will be gameplanning a little more in their critical next-to-last preseason game.
“As far as opening up the wide-open playbook, we’re not doing that,” Jennings said.
Cruz seconds that emotion: “We have not shown a lot. We haven’t given a lot of plays or tipped our hand on a lot of things that we have shown yet.”
It hardly looked like the end of Super Bowl XLII for Manning at Monday afternoon’s practice, for whatever it’s worth. It’s just that it’s worth much more with time running out on the preseason.
“It’s a continuous battle right now to sort that thing out of who’s gonna be the playmakers?” Coughlin said. “Who are they?”
No. 1 draft choice Odell Beckham Jr. is expected to make his debut in the Snoopy Bowl against the Legion of Doomed Jets secondary.
“He’s explosive,” Jennings said. “He’s a playmaker. You can’t get enough playmakers on the field, and he’s definitely one.”
Don’t panic.
“I don’t think we’ve ever been a great preseason team as far as I remember,” Manning said.
Of course, until they show us, not just tell us, forgive Coughlin in the event that someone asks, “What do you think about your offense’s execution?” and he feels compelled to blurt out: “That’s not a bad idea!”