Giants' GM accepts blame for dismal play
Giants general manager Jerry Reese says blame falls on him for 1-6 start in campaign that began with high expectations
GM Jerry Reese accepted responsibility for the Giants' dismal play in a season that started with Super Bowl hopes.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. » General manager Jerry Reese has accepted responsibility for the New York Giants’ dismal play in a season that started with legitimate Super Bowl hopes and now sees them mired with one win in seven games.
Speaking as the Giants prepared to leave for their bye week, Reese said he put the current roster together so the blame falls on him.
The 54-year-old believes that the Giants have good players, they can make adjustments and they will perform well in their final nine games.
Reese insisted that no one is going to lie down.
“If you want me to get up here and have a tantrum, I am not going to do that,” Reese said near the end of his 20-minute news conference.
“It’s frustrating anytime you lose football games and you are 1-6. There is frustration, but I am not going to fall on the floor and kick and scream. I am not going to do that. Of course, we are all frustrated. We can fix that by playing the game the right way.”
If the Giants don’t turn things around, this will be the fifth time in six years that they will have missed the playoffs. That will leave Reese’s future once again in the hands of co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch.
The Giants had created great expectations last season, ending a four-season playoff drought by posting an 11-5 regular-season record under new coach Ben McAdoo.
However, Reese said the team bought into the hype about this
being a title contender this season, and it has not played with the same hunger as a year ago.
“I know we played hard in some games but there is a difference in playing hard and having that hunger that you have to have to win in this league,” Reese said, adding it’s a hard lesson for players to learn after they seemingly found a way to win all the close ones last season.
Now in his 11th season as general manager, Reese refused to point fingers, particularly at the offensive line, which has struggled the past two seasons.
It was the one area that he opted not to fix in the offseason, saying he felt the young group he had was all coming back, had some continuity and had shown flashes last season.
It has not worked out, although Reese feels the line has improved as a whole and so has left tackle Ereck Flowers, who gets much of the criticism directed at the line. Surprisingly, Reese didn’t know if Flowers will remain the left tackle long term.
Reese said there were some veteran offensive linemen available but he did not want to sign any older players, opting to keep the line young.