LOST-SEASON
It's time to stick a fork in McAdoo's Big Blue mess
TAMPA, Fla. — The Giants aren’t even Dead Team Walking, they aren’t even Dead Team Hobbling. Just Dead Team. McAdoo-or-die game. McAdead. Of course they won’t concede this is already a lost season, but everyone else, certainly forlorn and angry Giants fans, will surely do it for them.
Maybe the 2017 Giants can embrace a 12game season in which nothing is expected of them anymore and the pressure is off.
Maybe eight or nine wins will be enough to get you a wild-card berth. Dream on.
Turkeys, all these weeks before Thanksgiving. Stick a fork in ’em.
There isn’t anyone left outside 1925 Giants Drive who can possibly conclude anything other than that fifth Lombardi Trophy was an illusion and a delusion.
Anyone think the 0-4 Giants would be better at Sucking For Sam Darnold than the Jets? Worst Team in the NFC. The 1992 Chargers are the only team in NFL history to start 0-4 and make the playoffs. “We need to win a damn game!” McAdoo said. It sounded like a cry in the dark. These are your 2017 New York Giants: A shell-shocked team that has a patent on walkoff field goal defeats, this one 25-23 on a Nick Folk 34 yards.
“We’re so far in the hole that it’s hard to see,”’ Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie said. A team in crisis searching for answers. “We feel like s--t,” Jonathan Casillas said. “Everybody does. It’s gonna feel like this for a while. People always say the 24-hour rule. It might be a little longer than that. No one ever predicted for us to do anything like that. It’s gonna be really hard to swallow this one.”
A defense that has forgotten how to tackle and crumbles when it is asked to make a stand in the fourth quarter.
A team that finds a way to lose on a day when Eli Manning (30--for-49, 288 yards, two TDs, one rushing TD) lifts everyone around him the way a franchise quarterback does and tries to single-handedly save the season.
“It’s not one person, it’s not one thing, it’s not one group,” Manning said. “It’s just everybody kind of has part in that. Good teams find a way to overcome those and make plays in critical moments and win games.” Bad News Giants do not. Manning found Odell Beckham Jr. (seven receptions, 90 yards and two drops) with a 42-yard bomb down the middle on the drive he capped with a 2-yard TD pass to Rhett Ellison that gave the Giants the 23-22 lead with 3:16 remaining. But it stayed 23-22 after the failed two-point conversion when Beckham was flagged for illegal touching and D.J. Fluker was caught holding.
“We gotta help ’em out, try to get ’em the lead earlier in games. ... We’re playing from behind too much,” Manning said.
He was being kind. It wasn’t his offense’s fault that Landon Collins let tight end Cameron Brate get past him for a 26-yard completion on the fateful final drive. No Olivier Vernon (ankle) is no excuse.
“Our defense gotta be the one that suck it up and make a damn play when it comes down to it,” Casillas said.
These are your 2017 New York Giants:
A head coach who passes up a 47yard field goal in the first quarter and goes for it fourth-and-4 and doesn’t get it throwing short for Brandon Marshall.
“It was challenging to handle the ball,” McAdoo said.
And loses a timeout early in the fourth quarter on a futile challenge of a Michael Evans drop that was not ruled a fumble.
A 2016 first-round draft choice (Eli Apple) who too often forgets how to cover with the ball in the air and was beaten by Evans for a 6yard TD. A blown coverage that turns O.J. Howard loose for a 58-yard TD. Followed by another blown coverage that turns Brate loose for a 35-yard completion.
An offensive line that did not surrender a sack for a change but could not help Shane Vereen get a lousy yard on third down from the Bucs 13 at a time when a touchdown was better than the field goal that made it Bucs 13, Giants 3.
A Front Four that registered one sack on a day when Winston attempted 38 passes.
A reeling punter who shanked a 15-yard punt that gave Winston a short field for a touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.
A field-goal kicker who helped neutralize a pair of Folk misses and missed PAT with a 43 yards wide right early in the fourth quarter.
“I’m not surprised, I’m not shocked,” McAdoo said. “You can’t carry things over from one year to the next. We talked about that in the offseason. ... I’m irritated that we’re 0-4.”
McAdead.