Four years ago, an undefeated juggernaut, with the game’s best quarterback and the NFL’s highest-scoring offense came to the Meadowlands in December and didn’t beat the New York Giants so much as it survived them and escaped with a hard-fought, entertaining 38-35 victory to remain perfect.
Sound familiar?
It should, if you saw the Green Bay Packers’ victory over the Giants by the exact same score at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.
The team confidence and momentum gained from the Giants’ regular season finale loss to the New England Patriots in 2007 sparked one of the more unlikely runs in sports history, one that of course ended with New York’s third Super Bowl title after the Giants got another crack the still unbeaten Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.
Back then, head coach Tom Coughlin’s job was at stake and there’s a good chance he would have been fired had the Giants not accomplished the unthinkable in the postseason that year.
Fast forward to this season, and Coughlin’s job status is in the same position after a disappointing first-round playoff loss to hated rival Philadelphia, two straight second-half collapses, and a third in progress during which the Giants have gone from 6-2 and a two-game NFC East lead to 6-6 and a game behind Dallas with four regular season games to play this year.
The fallout from Sunday’s loss to the Packers however, could conceivably be the same as the defeat against the Patriots.
Despite the loss, New York played well overall, giving the Packers the closest thing they’ve seen to a loss this season.
And, as good as Green Bay (12-0) is in its own pursuit of perfection (while winning 18 straight starting with a home win over the Giants last year), it’s quite possible that the Giants could be sparked the way they were four years ago.
Just as at the at the end of the 2007 season, one might see how a close loss to the league’s best team could spur a run over the final quarter of the regular season and into the playoffs, including a possible sweep over the first-place Dallas Cowboys (7-5) who despite leading the Giants (6-6), have their own problems (see Sunday’s loss in Arizona).
Ultimately, that would of course be great for the Coughlin, probably saving his tenure as a head coach, and great for the Giants’ this season.
But, would it necessarily be the best thing for the Giants’ organization in the long run?
Those who are Giants fans as well as New York Met fans (like myself) can relate to seeing how the Mets had too much patience with eventually fired managers and former general manager Omar Minaya. The Mets would win for a while and save the jobs of Minaya or managers like Willie Randolph or Jerry Manuel, only to prolong an inevitable and better direction for the future of the organization.
There’s one big difference of course – unlike the aforementioned Met leaders, Coughlin won a championship for his franchise.
Still, Coughlin’s failures can’t be ignored.
It’s not a valiant effort coming up short against the defending champion Packers, or a 49-24 embarrassment in New Orleans against the explosive Saints, or even a close loss in San Francisco that should put Coughlin’s job in jeopardy, especially with the rash of injuries that has befallen Coughlin’s team this season, or with the brutal schedule the Giants are in the midst of during Coughlin’s latest second-half swoon.
Rather, it’s the inexcusable lack of urgency the Giants showed against the likes of Tavaris Jackson, Charlie Whitehurst, and the lowly Seattle Seahawks during a home loss in Week 5, and again, in a Week 11 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles sans Michael Vick.
Just like not playing out the final half-quarter with a 31-10 home lead against the same Eagles last year.
Or worse, allowing 1-7 Dallas, with third-string Jon Kitna to come into the Meadowlands and hand the Giants an inexplicable loss during a season in which New York missed the playoffs, a possible division title, and a two seed by one game, a year ago.
And, even worse than that, with everything to play for, with a playoff berth on the line in their final game ever at Giants Stadium, letting a Giants’ turnover on the game’s opening drive deflate the team so much that a 0-0 score turned into a 41-9 thrashing by the non-playoff, Matt Moore-led Carolina Panthers.
Much of that is on the part of the players, who need to be professionals and play every minute of every game as if they’re the highly-paid professionals they’re supposed to be.
Yet, if Coughlin, especially with his disciplinarian reputation, can’t motivate his team effectively enough to play that way all the time, why are the Giants ultimately paying him ?
It’s quite conceivable that the Giants can use Sunday’s loss to Green Bay as a springboard to the playoffs, and even an opening-round postseason victory.
However, it might be even more believable that the Giants would subsequently fall short thereafter, whether in Green Bay or elsewhere, followed by more flat, uninspired, and frustrating losses to inferior teams, and further second-half collapses next year or in years to come.
Hire a new voice that might be needed – such as Jeff Fisher -as early as next season though, and some of those types of regular season disappointments might cease.
Coughlin remains one of the better NFL coaches around, but given the track record (Super Bowl win included), he might no longer be the right fit for the current group of Giants, who appear to be in need of a new direction.
Thus, seeing the Giants use their loss to the Packers on Sunday the way they did with their defeat to the Patriots four years ago, and winning some, but not quite enough down the stretch this season, might very well be good for Coughlin, but in the long run, bad for the Giants.