TOM HIGH ON GIANTS
Sees big 2015 for Spags, Odell & Cruz
PHOENIX — This was not the Tom Coughlin the world is used to seeing. There he was Wednesday morning at the NFC coaches’ breakfast telling a hilarious story about his recent “conversation” with his iPhone. He spoke excitedly about having defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo back on his staff, was optimistic about Victor Cruz returning from patella knee surgery and listed 10 things the versatile Odell Beckham Jr. can do on the field, including playing backup quarterback.
It was a departure from the red-faced drill sergeant Giants fans are used to seeing on Sundays. The coach who — despite his argument to the contrary — has built a unique all-or-nothing legacy with the Giants.
When Coughlin was hired in 2004 by John Mara and Ernie Accorsi, with a strong push from Wellington Mara, who wanted discipline returned to the program, there isn’t anyone in the organization who wouldn’t have signed up for two Super Bowl championships in Coughlin’s first 11 seasons and an 8-3 playoff record.
But here’s the oddity: Coughlin has not won a playoff game in any of his other nine seasons and has made the playoffs just three times in the years other than the two he won the Super Bowl.
“We won a bunch of playoff games in those two years,” Coughlin said Tuesday.
It was two of the most impressive Super Bowl runs in history. In 2007, the Giants won three playoff games on the road in Tampa, Dallas and in overtime in subhuman temperatures in Green Bay, and then beat the undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. Four years, later they beat the Falcons at home, won at Green Bay, in San Francisco in OT and then beat the Patriots again in Super Bowl XLVI.
In the other nine seasons, Coughlin has missed the playoffs five times, and in 2005 lost to the Panthers at home in the wild-card round, in 2006 at Philly in the wild-card round and in 2008 at home in the divisional round against the Eagles.
“I don’t think about that stuff,” Coughlin said Tuesday. “Do I think about it on a yearly basis, whether we are in the playoffs, whether we’re winning in the playoffs? Yeah, sure I do. That’s where we should be every year. That’s the way I feel about it. To sit and try to say, ‘Do you see yourself as all or nothing?’ No.”
What he does see is good things for the Giants in 2015, especially when it comes to Cruz. “I think he will be the player he was and hopefully better,” Coughlin said. “As far as when, I would be careful what I would say there. Hopefully, it’s the first game. You know what? If it isn’t, we’ve done that one before. We just went through it.”
He was referring to Beckham missing the first four games last year with a hamstring injury. He said he watched Cruz work out at the indoor practice facility last week and that he looks really good. He reported Cruz is running again. He was injured in the sixth game last year, and with Beckham missing the first four with a hamstring injury, Cruz and Beckham played less than six quarters together.
Now with Shane Vereen, a free agent signed from the Patriots, the best running back in the league catching passes out of the backfield, I asked Coughlin if offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo is like a mad scientist working on ways to get them the ball. “He’s got one of those hats on at night and the stuff comes boiling out of the room,” he said. “He’s in that mode.”
Coughlin believes Beckham, who had a spectacular rookie year, is “just touching the surface,” of what he can do. He then said, “He can throw the ball, run the ball, he can catch the ball in all situations, he can kick, he’s your backup extra point/field goal guy, he’s your backup quarterback, he can run the scout team if you want, working on the zone option. He can do that for you, if you like.”
He’s a 53-man roster all by himself. Is that scary for the rest of the league? “I hope so,” Coughlin said.
Coughlin’s good mood didn’t camouflage the disappointment he has as the Giants went 7-9 and then 6-10 the last two seasons. “It’s very frustrating, very disappointing, very difficult to live with,” Coughlin said. “The losses stay with you forever. That’s where I am.”
While the rest of the NFC East has changed dramatically (The Eagles traded for Sam Bradford and signed DeMarco Murray away from Dallas to name a few moves), the Giants have stayed away from the huge signings and added role players and are counting on the return of injured players.
Coughlin, meanwhile, was given a one-year, $7 million extension after last season that takes him through the 2016 season. He also has a $1 million incentive package based on getting to the playoffs and having playoff success. He will be 69 in August. “I’m excited about what I do,” he said.
If Coughlin’s mood is this good in December, then Giants Nation will be in a good mood, too.