The legend of “Tom Coughlin: Disciplinarian” is a myth.
Sure he yells a lot. And he has a bunch of rules. But he’s no disciplinarian. Not by a long shot.
When Coughlin was hired as the Giants head coach in 2004, the main selling point was his supposed ability to instill discipline into the team. Ownership felt former coach Jim Fassel was too soft, too friendly with the players. The team needed to be pushed, needed to be more concerned with the details. Coughlin was going to come in and get the Giants to perform with military precision. The Giants will no longer beat themselves. No more silly penalties. No more bad decisions on and off the field. Players will give full effort on every play. Coughlin even insinuated that he would cut down on the number of hurt players, calling injuries “a cancer” that he could cure.
Well two and three fourths seasons later, the Giants aren’t getting better in these areas. In 2004, the Giants accumulated 977 offensive penalty yards, 7th most in the NFL. In 2005 that number grew to 1115 yards, 5th most in the league. Eleven games into the 2006 season the Giants have totaled 614 yards in penalties, 6th most in the league. As for full effort on every play, if you’ve seen Plaxico Burress half hearted attempts when passes are thrown to him or Devin Hester’s 108 yard field goal return when the Giants played Chicago, it’s obvious that the Giants take plays off. Every other week it seems that one of the key players calls the coach out. From Michael Strahan in Coughlin’s first season, to more recently Tiki Barber. And with seven starters currently injured, Coughlin hasn’t made good on his absurd proclamation that injuries are a “mental thing” and that it could be corrected.
No, Giants fans didn’t get the coach they thought they were getting. This team doesn’t play fundamentally sound, gets injured and does not always give a full effort. They have a very average coach who doesn’t command respect from his players. Not exactly the type of guy that will your team to the Superbowl.
Coughlin seems to be one of those coaches who will win his share of games based on his knowledge and experience, but not be able to get his team over the hump. The injuries have really hurt this team, but every team has them, so that's a pretty hollow excuse.
And I'll bet most fans and those in the Giants organization would take Rivers over Manning faster than you can say "incomplete."
I think the Rivers/Manning/Big Ben comparisons are way overblown. None of the three are at the point yet where they can carry a team. Rivers was awful against Oakland. Big Ben has been throwing interceptions and fumbling at an alarming rate and we've all seen how Eli has played the last few weeks.
The difference in all of them is that Eli has been coached the worst out of the three. While San Diego makes sure everything starts and ends with LT (who probably adds 10 points at least to any QBs rating), Pitt was all about the run and forcing turnovers, Coughlin and the offensive staff seem to forget about Tiki/Jacobs and the running game when they play the better teams in the league. Now Eli's confidence is shot.
30 year old life long sports fan of the Knicks, Giants and Mets and since some of my best friends are Jets fans I root that they will end their years of inflicting heartbreak on their fans. I've worked in various roles for the NFL, NBA and AFL (gotta love Arena Football) which has given me a slightly jaded opinion of sports media.
Currently I look forward to watching Reggie Bush, Isiah Thomas getting fired and the Mets making a run at the World Series this fall. I'm absolutely tired of talking about Barry Bonds, T.O.,
Some of my favorite writers include: Paul Zimmerman, Len Pasquarli, William Rhoden, Peter Gammons, Bill Simmons, Peter King, Scoop Jackson, Marty Noble and a host of others that I'm forgetting.
