Mac may have to hand ‘O’ver reins

Ben McAdoo’s offense has transitioned into Ben McAcan’t’s offense. If the Giants don’t start scoring some points in bunches, starting Monday night against Detroit, with or without Odell Beckham Jr., it will be time for the countdown to start on McAdoo turning over his diner menu/play call board along with the play calling duties to offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan. McAdoo’s highscoring creative offense was the reason he was promoted to replace Tom Coughlin when the Giants fired the two-time Super Bowl winning coach following the 2015 season. Now McAdoo runs a low-scoring, predictable offense that has Big Blue Nation in a panic one game into the season. The offense is in desperate need of a spark. Maybe it’s OBJ. Maybe it’s Sullivan. One inept game in Dallas is a small sample size, but the problems go deeper than one game and the three points scored against an average defense are more problematic than just OBJ missing the game. The Giants have now gone the last seven games, including the playoff loss to the Packers, without reaching 20 points, with Beckham only missing the last game. Next longest streak: Four teams with two games. The NFL is a passing league and owners all want the latest passing game guru. These guys are reluctant to hand off the play calling, which is what got them the job. There are 18 head coaches whose expertise is offense and 13 of them, including McAdoo, call the plays. McAdoo’s mentor Mike McCarthy in Green Bay delegated the play calling in 2015 to offensive coordinator Tom Clements but took it back late that season and said he will never give it up again. Jason Garrett of the Cowboys was forced to give up play calling by Jerry Jones in 2013, but not until Scott Linehan was hired in 2014 did it work out. The list of current head coaches who have won the Super Bowl as play callers is short: Sean Payton and McCarthy. Neither Bill Parcells nor Coughlin called the offensive plays for either of their two Super Bowl title teams. You can make numbers do just about anything to prove a point, but I’m going to keep this simple. There’s no denying a trend with McAdoo. Consider the last four seasons: 2013 is the year before McAdoo arrived and offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride was calling the plays, 2014 and 2015 were the seasons McAdoo called the plays as the Giants offensive coordinator and last season was his first as a head coach/play caller.

So, here are the Giants’ offensive rankings, based on total yards, and their average points per game:

2013: 28th ranked offense; 18.4 PPG

2014: 10th ranked offense; 23.8 PPG

2015: 8th ranked offense; 26.4 PPG

2016: 25th ranked offense; 19.4 PPG The Giants were 5.4 points better in McAdoo’s first year than they were in the previous season. They scored almost three points more per game in his second season than they did in his first. Yet, in his first year as head coach, they were down seven points — one touchdown — per game. They were only one point better than in the year prior to his arrival. Then they went out and scored three points in the loss in Dallas.

McAdoo is protective of his play calling. That’s understandable. It’s a prestigious job and an impact job.

But consider this: A locker room source confirmed Thursday that McAdoo allowed Sullivan to call the plays in the final preseason game in New England on Aug. 31. It was backups vs. backups, but the Giants scored 40 points, which included one defensive TD. The week before against the Jets with McAdoo calling the plays, they scored 32 points with two defensive TDs. It was only preseason, so it was meaningless, but still.

Sullivan has a close relationship with Eli Manning back from when he was the quarterbacks coach in 2010-11 and then again in 2015. Sullivan called plays with the Bucs in 2012-13.

McAdoo doesn’t appear overwhelmed on game day making strategic decisions and calling the plays. But how much better would he be as a head coach if he didn’t call the plays? How much better would he be calling the plays if he wasn’t coaching the entire team?

I asked him Thursday if it is more difficult being the play caller when he’s also the head coach.

“The communication is really the same,” he said. “The difference is you take a third wheel out of the game management part. I have a chance to manage the game and call the plays on offense. I think that’s easier than adding a third spoke to the wheel.”

Jim Fassel turned the Giants’ play calling over to Sean Payton in 1999 and that created a spark. He took it back in 2002 and that created a spark.

“If I can fire myself from my job, I can fire anybody else,” he said.

The Giants need a spark. Is that on McAdoo’s menu?