BLUE CHRISTMAS
If the Giants lose at Arizona on Sunday, they’ll set the franchise record for losses in a season
No Giants team in the history of the franchise has ever lost 13 games in a season, but the 2017 version of Big Blue could achieve that dubious distinction Sunday in Arizona when interim coach Steve Spagnuolo’s 2-12 squad faces the 6-8 Cardinals.
A Giants season that began with Super Bowl aspirations has cratered mightily — including the firings of head coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese — but losing a 13th game would have the Giants making history of the worst kind.
“We haven’t talked about that. We don’t really need any added incentive,” Spagnuolo said Friday, when asked if there was extra motivation to win Sunday. “We’re trying to win a football game. Chasing that feeling of what it feels like in the locker room to win. That’s what we’re looking for.”
There are several key Giants players who are battling injuries going into Sunday’s game, notably veteran defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, who revealed Friday that he has a broken finger on his right hand, the same hand that suffered a gruesome injury two years ago, July 4, 2015, as a result of a fireworks mishap in Florida.
Pierre-Paul, who is listed as questionable for Sunday on the team’s injury report, said he absolutely plans to play against Arizona.
“I’m always planning to play, man. I’m ready to go. I’m getting on the plane and we’re going to Arizona and I’m ready to run around,” said Pierre-Paul. “We started this year with the goal of going to the Super Bowl, but obviously that’s not going to happen. But at the end of the day, we got to be pros. We come to work to work.”
Pierre-Paul said he “basically broke” his finger during the loss to Oakland earlier this season, although he wouldn’t say which digit is fractured. He added that it wouldn’t affect his mobility or performance on the field.
“Ain’t no sympathy over here, man. I’m going out to play a game and I’m going 110 percent, so (Arizona) better be ready,” said Pierre-Paul.
Spagnuolo said the quarterback depth would remain the same Sunday — Eli Manning, Geno Smith and Davis Webb — although Webb won’t be active despite getting first-team reps against the firstteam defense this past week.
“I don’t think we’d be able to do that, it’s just too tricky with 46 (active players),” said Spagnuolo of Webb remaining inactive.
The Giants are still conducting a GM search to replace Reese, and they have interviewed four candidates so far — Dave Gettleman, Marc Ross and Louis Riddick and Kevin Abrams, the current Big Blue assistant GM.
Whoever is hired to fill the GM post will take on a Herculean task — trying to right the ship after the 2017 debacle. There have been five seasons in which the Giants have lost at least 12 games — 1966, 1974, 1980, 1983 (Bill Parcells’ first season as coach), and 2003. Sunday will be a battle against more than just the Cardinals’ talented receiver Larry Fitzgerald. It will be a fight to avoid ignominy.