Giants’ finish key to Coughlin’s future
Tom Coughlin is not your average 69-year-old, as his response to a knockdown from one of his own New York Giants players Monday night showed.
The NFL’s oldest head coach didn’t even seem shaken after getting trucked by cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie in the Giants’ win against the Miami Dolphins. Coughlin even smiled and joked about it after the game.
Once this season ends, Coughlin will reflect and assess his plans for the future, probably more than he ever has. Ownership is sure to do the same with one year left on the coach’s contract.
But for all of the speculation in league circles that this is the end for Coughlin, whether the Giants end a three-year playoff drought or not, it would surprise those who know him if he’s considering much beyond how to upend the unbeaten Carolina Panthers on Sunday. If anything, players see a guy with more energy and motivation right now because the Giants, despite all of the blown leads and missed opportunities that have left them at 6-7, are tied for the NFC East lead.
Health certainly doesn’t seem to be an issue. Coughlin works out almost every day — stretching and weights in the morning, cardio later on. And Coughlin’s hard-line reputation hasn’t stopped him from adapting or evolving as a coach. This past offseason, the Giants invited experts to give a course on connecting with Millennials. Coughlin changed up the practice schedule this season to provide more recovery time, too.
Could the Giants decide it’s time to start fresh? Sure. Nothing is guaranteed, even for a man who has led the team to two Super Bowl wins and a 102-87 record (plus 8-3 in the playoffs) over 12 seasons. Co-owner John Mara indicated after last season that this was a must-win type of year. But considering what Coughlin and his staff are working with personnel-wise, especially on defense, there’s a case to be made general manager Jerry Reese should go before Coughlin does.
On the other hand, Reese’s most notable recent draft pick is superstar wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who’s the best thing the Giants have going.
Whatever happens, it might take time after the season, which Coughlin and everybody else in that building hopes doesn’t end in Week 17. Another non-playoff season almost surely would mean changes, even if Coughlin isn’t pondering that now.
JAGUARS ROARING AGAIN Where should Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles and wide receiver Allen Robinson rank among the NFL’s top touchdown combinations?
“With our statistics, one of the top,” Robinson told USA TODAY Sports this week. “But I think that’s a testament to all of our offense. We’ve just been blessed with so many weapons that, depending on how teams play us, we make it easy on one another.”
If that sounds like hyperbole, you haven’t been watching a Jaguars offense that’s up to ninth in the NFL in scoring after last week’s 51-16 drubbing of the Indianapolis Colts pulled them within one game of the lead in the lousy AFC South.
Two NFL MVP candidates, the New England Patriots’ Tom Brady and the Arizona Cardinals’ Carson Palmer, are the only quarterbacks with more touchdown passes than Bortles’ 30. A dozen have gone to Robinson, who’s tied for the NFL lead and ranks eighth in receiving yards (1,067).
Robinson is 22. Bortles is 23. Allen Hurns, the Jaguars’ secondleading receiver, is 24. Yet they’ve already had almost two full seasons together to build rhythm and timing, albeit in two schemes after Greg Olson replaced Jedd Fisch as offensive coordinator in the offseason.
The Jaguars’ rebuilding plan is about developing those young players and supplementing with the likes of tight end Julius Thomas, a high-priced free agent who has been productive since he got healthy, with TD catches in four consecutive games.
“By us playing a lot last year, we really have benefited going into OTAs, going into camp,” Robinson said. “Then with Coach Ole coming in, just had to hone in on learning a new offense, which I think has benefited us a lot as well.”
INSIDE RUNS
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross spent time with Jim Harbaugh at the University of Michigan this fall, and Harbaugh was in Miami when brother John’s Baltimore Ravens played the Dolphins a couple weeks ago. But Jim Harbaugh isn’t a candidate for Miami’s head coaching vacancy, for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most important: Ross, a Michigan alum, has no interest in becoming unwelcome at his alma mater. He has donated more than $300 million to Michigan, and the business school is named for him. Interim coach Dan Campbell, 4-5 since replacing Joe Philbin, will be among the Dolphins’ considerations.
Scouting report on the first game of Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel’s lateseason audition: Solid; did a good job stepping up under pressure; didn’t panic; mostly got rid of the ball quickly. The San Francisco 49ers didn’t put up much of a fight, though. It gets a lot tougher from here: the Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs on the road and then the Pittsburgh Steelers at home in Week 17.
Criticism of Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn and his staff for the team’s “collapse” doesn’t add up. Scouts who watched them during a 5-0 start doubted it was sustainable based on their personnel limitations. Is a six-game slide a good sign? Of course not. But Quinn took over a team that went 6-10 in 2014. They’ve already matched that win total in his first season, and if they finish 7-9 or 8-8, Quinn shouldn’t be punished for the route they took to get there.
Perhaps urgency will help running back Christine Michael in his return to Seattle. Since September, he has been traded by the Seahawks to the Dallas Cowboys, who cut him last month, and left to join the practice squad of the Washington Redskins, who cut him Tuesday. A second-round draft pick out of Texas A&M in 2013, Michael is just 25 and an explosive athlete. But he’s not going to get many more chances if he can’t figure out how to be a pro. There is clear opportunity in a depleted Seahawks backfield.