BELT’ PARKWAY
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The pressure is on.
Pat Shurmur clarified Monday, for anyone who thinks the Giants are content with losing while Daniel Jones develops, that there is no organizational patience for defeats like Sunday’s to the Arizona Cardinals.
The expectation is for Shurmur, Jones and the 2019 Giants to demonstrate improvement and win some games, even if it’s accepted Jones will take some rookie lumps.
The expectation, as John Mara said in August, is to demonstrate that “this franchise is headed in the right direction.”
Shurmur acknowledged this on Monday when asked if he would consider a quarterback change back to Eli Manning should Jones’ costly mistakes continue.
“No,” Shurmur said. “I think Daniel’s gonna learn from everything that is going on, just like all the other rookies that are playing are going to learn from what’s happening. But you have to learn and you have to win games. And I’m well aware of that. I’m totally well aware of that.”
Shurmur is saying this because, as players acknowledged in the locker room, Sunday was a different kind of loss than their previous two to contenders in the Vikings and Patriots.
This was a loss in a game the Giants needed to win at this juncture to reinforce the progress they were making, one player admitted. Another said the Giants “earned” the disappointing defeat.
And while there is hard work happening to correct their shortcomings, it’s reasonable to wonder if any amount of work will be able to overcome the team’s personnel gaps with tests upcoming against the Detroit Lions, Dallas Cowboys and Jets prior to a Week 11 bye.
Winning isn’t even a fair expectation for Shurmur this season, really, considering GM Dave Gettleman’s belated half-rebuild is the root of why this roster remains in no-man’s land.
Gettleman’s refusal to draft a pass rusher the last two years, for example, is why fans at MetLife Stadium were watching Arizona Cardinals edge rusher Chandler Jones on Sunday thinking: “I wonder what it’s like to have a player like that.”
The offensive line isn’t good enough. Fixing that line was Gettleman’s top job when he was hired in Dec 2017. He hasn’t come close to doing that.
Meanwhile, Indianapolis Colts GM Chris Ballard has assembled a powerful O-line and a winning team despite the Colts being 4-12 in 2017, having head coach candidate Josh McDaniels strand Indy at the altar a year ago, and seeing QB Andrew Luck retire this August.
Shurmur and Gettleman, though, seem tied at the hip in the decision-making for this regime.
Shurmur, after all, was the one puffing his chest out at Jones’ doubters and claiming that the Giants were right for drafting him after a preseason win in Cincinnati.
“You can ask me all you want about why I like him,” Shurmur said in August. “I think it’s time to start asking the people that didn’t like him what they think, quite frankly.”
Shurmur also is the offensive play-caller, quarterback whisperer and head coach. He is the one who continues to defend his indefensible in-game management. And Shurmur is the man — this is a big one — who benched Manning after just two games.
That was a major decision, one I agreed with. Shurmur stuck his neck out believing Jones was the better player at this time, for this team.
It wasn’t just a move looking to the future. It was a move to help this year’s team win more games than it could with Manning. That’s what Shurmur believed would happen.
Sunday’s loss provided a wake-up call, though, that Jones’ presence may not elevate this team much further this season. Frankly, while Manning wouldn’t have beaten the Buccaneers in Week 3, he probably would have beaten lowly Washington in Week 4.
So the Giants, because of the QB switch, are 2-5 instead of 1-6. That’s a minimal jump.
No one is declaring Jones a bust right now. No one is judging his entire career based on five games. The Giants still are evaluating their leadership and direction constantly, however. And this is a high-stakes business.
Giants’ veteran edge rusher Markus Golden had a solid perspective on how to approach this dire situation. He recognizes how disappointing Sunday’s loss was and believes there is a high level of urgency from the Giants to turn this around immediately.
But he also is naturally even-keeled, and Golden said it’s important to stress to young teammates that there is a way to attack improvement constructively without panicking.
“You can’t freak out, you can’t panic,” Golden said Monday. “There is nothing wrong with having urgency. But there’s a difference between urgency — and being hard on yourself (to improve) — instead of panicking.”
The Giants care. Oh, they care a great deal. They are a team, however, that expects to win without being built to win, and with a coach and quarterback who are costing the team points and wins.
You heard Shurmur say it himself: “you have to learn and you have to win games.” Jones isn’t learning from his mistakes, and Shurmur isn’t winning games.
So the pressure, naturally, has turned up.