ON HIS OWN
PHILADELPHIA – His body of work does not inspire New York to believe he will deliver it a championship any time soon. There isn’t a Giant fan who longs for the young Bill Parcells, or even for the young Eric Mangini, who will tell you today that Tom Coughlin is a great coach.
It means he needs to coach a great game against the Eagles today to keep his job.
Coughlin has the same Us-Against-the-World scenario that Parcells had at Candlestick Park when he and Bill Belichick denied Joe Montana a threepeat in the 1990 NFC Championship Game.
Let’s see what Coughlin can do with it.
Coughlin has the underdog team, the undermanned team, and no one who has been waiting 16 years for a third Lombardi Trophy particularly cares. A fan base that was promised a disciplined Super Bowl contender feels betrayed.
So this isn’t just the Second Season for the Giants players: it is the Second Season for the Giants coach as well. The coach who wants everyone five minutes early to his meetings would have been five minutes late to the playoffs if Tiki Barber hadn’t been right on time against the Redskins.
His record as he enters this back-alley brawl disguised as an NFC wild-card playoff game is 25-24. Giant fans were promised more than mediocrity when Coughlin was introduced and mentioned in the same sentence as Vince Lombardi three years ago. If Coughlin fails to deliver now, if his record falls to 25-25, a record that would include two first-round playoff losses, Giant fans again will be calling for his head, and Coughlin deserves to be Dead Coach Walking out the door. If the Giants do not show up, he is gone.
It wouldn’t exactly bring a tear to the eyes of many of his players, who have grown weary of Coughlin’s unwavering, joyless approach that has made it impossible to rally around him.
“He is set on discipline and on this schedule you guys cannot leave here until this time … it’s this way with the coaches and the players,” one player said. “And damn if you get your work done early or what.
“Guys can’t wait to get out of here, because we feel like we’re being treated like adolescents. It’s like he doesn’t trust us to do our jobs.”
Asked what percentage of the team feels that way, the player said:
“I’d say 95. And that five percent who don’t are the rookies who don’t know any better.”
Yet if Coughlin somehow can beat Andy Reid, truly an elite coach, if he can devise the mother of all game plans and motivate his team to play above and beyond its means, he will get to stay for 2007, extension or no extension. All bets would be off after that while the new GM – the Patriots’ Scott Pioli is the only way to go – waits for either Bill Belichick or Bill Cowher.
Coughlin rode roughshod over the Giants this week. His old-school style works only if he wins. “His take on it,” one player said, “is, ‘I’m trying to [tick] you guys off so you play better.'”
He got the spark he wanted from new offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride. He needs another one. The Second Season offers redemption for the downtrodden and dysfunctional. But understand that the last thing on the Giant players’ minds is saving their coach. Coughlin better recognize that it’s up to him to save himself.
