Ben finally takes blame after pointing finger at Eli

Ben McAdoo suddenly is clarifying that he deserves blame for that fourth-and-goal delay of game in Monday’s loss to the Lions, too, not just Eli Manning. McAdoo’s first impulse after the embarrassing home opener was to pin that penalty on “sloppy quarterback play.” But suddenly in Friday’s McAdoo Report, a weekly in-house interview, McAdoo said that upon further review, he was too slow on the draw to go for it and actually call the play.

“Looking back on it, I can make the decision faster, I can get the call in faster,” McAdoo said in an alarming about-face. “I always look at myself critically, but it is up to Eli to get the ball snapped. That’s every quarterback everywhere since the beginning of time, since there was a play clock. That’s the case.”

Manning took responsibility for the penalty, too, and no one is arguing the quarterback isn’t partially to blame both for that penalty and for the Giants’ 0-2 record. But it is McAdoo’s curious public behavior and comments lately that prompt questioning of his ability to manage this team in the hot New York spotlight.

From the NFL Combine to Monday’s loss, McAdoo has found convenient ways of blaming Manning for everything from his footwork to his awareness, even as a way of excusing the offensive line’s failures.

McAdoo began his postgame press conference by telling both the players and media to “put this game on me,” but then that’s not what he did. At least not until four days later, four days after McAdoo put Manning on blast on national television, when the coach quietly slipped into an in-house interview that oh, right, he messed up, too. This is difficult to take seriously. How can McAdoo be so subtle about this when he was so public about Manning’s failures, and why only now is he admitting this? Is he making a change because of public criticism, like he seemingly did when he abandoned his Shaggy Mop McAdoo haircut from Year One in favor of this outrageous new Slicked-Back Benny look for Year Two?

The fact is McAdoo might have gone 11-5 in his first season and gotten a haircut, but he still has to prove Sunday and beyond that he isn’t in over his head.

Take, for example, McAdoo’s decision to go for it on that fourth down in the first place. It was the wrong call.

It was probably difficult in the moment inside that stadium to fight the urge to satisfy the rabid Giants faithful with a touchdown, to ride the wave of momentum on that drive. But the fact is, the Giants were trailing, 17-7, at the time. A field goal would have brought them within a touchdown, and that’s what happened after Manning took the penalty: Aldrick Rosas booted a 25-yarder to draw the Giants within seven.

Unfortunately in the early fourth quarter, Brandon Marshall dropped a big second-down pass down the sideline, Lions returnman Jamal Agnew took the ensuing punt return 88 yards to the house, and that was it.

But Manning’s mistake actually positioned the Giants perfectly with the field goal to tie it up if Marshall had caught that pass and McAdoo’s sloppy quarterback had been able to continue that drive.

And yet, even McAdoo’s defensive answer about play-calling on Friday had a tinge of assigning blame to people other than him — as if he is laying the groundwork for defending why he may continue to call the plays on Sunday.

“Play calling is a part of the week,” McAdoo said. “It’s not just one guy pulling plays out of a hat. It’s the way you prepare going into a ballgame from what you see on the field during the course of the week and how you prepare. So, there are a lot of people who have their hand in play calling. One guy spits the play out to the quarterback, but a lot goes into that. It is not just one guy showing up on game day calling plays.” In that same in-house McAdoo Report interview, McAdoo said of the play-calling decision that “whatever is best for the team to have success is important to me.” “It’s not ego,” McAdoo said. “I don’t have an ego in this thing. It’s what I have to do to help the team be successful. If giving up plays means we can score one more point a game or one more yard a game, then I am willing to do it. I am not saying I am going to do it.”

Fine, but if McAdoo doesn’t have an ego, he shouldn’t be sensitive to accepting some blame himself.