Giants just hoping to salvage a win
With no playoff hopes, team looks for something from last 2
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Joe Judge had better hope New York Giants co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch have decided to bring him back as coach for a third season.
If they haven’t, the way the Giants (4-11) are playing since quarterback Daniel Jones was hurt late last month is not going to help his cause. He has a 10-21 record with two games left this season. The team is riding a four-game losing streak without Jones and the losses have gotten uglier and uglier.
The worst was the 34-10 setback at Philadelphia on Sunday. The Giants were competitive on one side of the ball for a half because Pat Graham’s unit held the Eagles to three points. The second half was a blowout, thanks in part to mistakes by the offense and special teams, and failures by the tired defense.
It’s hard to say whether Judge deserves a third year. Like most coaches he works very hard. He has added good people on the roster and eliminated issues within the locker room. He just hasn’t won enough. Injuries in 2021, especially on the offensive line, didn’t help.
The Giants can’t keep turning over head coaches, though. They now have had five straight losing seasons. Ben McAdoo got thems to
ble-vaccinated, and many are boosted. The Huskies hadn’t been testing asymptomatic players, though that changed when players returned from Christmas break for practice on Saturday exhibiting symptoms. Asymptomatic players were ultimately tested on Sunday.
UConn announced early Monday evening that any announcements about future events at UConn will be made in the coming days. Ironically, just minutes before the announcement, several reports stated that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) will cut recommended isolation time for COVID-positive people from 10 days to five. That could affect scheduling in all sports, though it’s a virtual certainty the NCAA wouldn’t adopt the policy in time for UConn to play on Saturday — or next week
against Xavier, even though the teams both have Jan. 4 off.
While UConn can’t release the number of players who tested positive, the team was advised not to make the trip to Cincinnati.
Confusion ran wild on Sunday and Monday after the @UConnReport Twitter accounted posted on Sunday morning that “multiple UConn basketball players and a member of the coaching staff tested positive for COVID.” Neither UConn nor the Big East ever officially confirmed the report.
Xavier coach Travis Steele was confused early Monday afternoon at his pregame media availability.
“I know there’s a lot of rumors floating around, ‘Is this game going to happen?’ I have no idea,” Steele told reporters in Cincinnati. “We have not been notified by UConn that the game is off. So I’m assuming that the game is on.”
As of 3:30 p.m. on Monday, Xavier officials were still working on items like game notes, etc., awaiting word from UConn and/or the Big East as to whether the Huskies would be making the trip. Typically, UConn practices at home the day before a road game, then flies out around 5 or 6 p.m., sometimes even later, to its destination.
UConn (1-1 Big East) is coming off a 78-70 win at Marquette on Dec. 21. About a half-hour prior to that game, Marquette announced that starting guard Darryl Morsell had entered COVID-19 protocol, and he didn’t play in the game. The UConn women’s team had its scheduled game in Hartford on Wednesday against Marquette canceled due to COVID issues within the Marquette program.
For the second week in a row, the UConn men were unranked in the AP Top 25 poll released on Monday. Xavier is 11-2 on the season.