Post-mortem: How your team’s 2019 season came undone
Like the great racecar driver Ricky Bobby used to say, “if
you ain’t first, your last”. There can
only be one Super Bowl LIV Champ so eventually 31 other teams will come face to
face with the demise of their 2019 season.
For some teams this will come in a celebrated blaze of glory during a shootout
divisional or championship round playoff loss, for others the end came at the
final gun of their week 17 game like the mortal pop of a dimming incandescent
light bulb finally blowing out. Some
team’s seasons died in its infancy and they’ve been zombie walking through most
of the regular season collecting pay checks while eyeing hot new coaching
candidates and 2020 draft prospects.
With most teams’ seasons already in a body bag Bobtanney.com
is pulling our rubber gloves on to do an elbow deep autopsy on the loser teams
from the 2019 NFL season. On second
thought, nurse, scratch the rubber gloves, we’re going in bare backhands on
this one. Bring in the NEXT victim!
This edition's cadaver is the NY Giants
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| The Eli Era Hospice Tour Was as Depressing as Expected. |
(Subscribe or check back regularly to see what team is next
on our Autopsy table in this series)
AUTOPSY REPORT
Autopsy#: NFCeast4-12
DECEDENT: NY Giants
The 2019 Giants’ season had the palpable sensation of a
funeral from the get-go. Whether it was
the off-season trade of Odell Beckham, the unceremonious (yet somehow overdue)
conclusion to the Eli Manning era, or the looming (and now come to pass) firing
of Head Coach Pat Shurmur, there was lots to lament on if you were a Giants fan
in 2019.
The dumping of Shurmur after just two seasons couldn’t have
come soon enough for many Giant’s fans who view his leadership as the cancer
that ultimately killed their 2019 season.
Shurmur did seem overmatched as a Head Coach with his game clock and
situational football management often appearing more suspect than Spacey,
Baldwin, Pollak, del Toro and the rest of the gang from The Usual Suspects. His
play calling skills didn’t fare any better as his neglect to utilize (arguably)
the most talented tailback in the world was borderline special needs. His decision to play Daniel Jones early did
make sense from a ‘save your own ass’ point of view (a rookie QB usually buys a
coach some grooming time), and Jones’ did flash some great potential here and
there, but not enough to overcome the many holes in this team’s make up including
a poor O-line and a regretful Defense. Overall
the youth movement wasn’t enough to save Shurmur or the 2019 Giants whose
season died a sad and ominous death.
CAUSE OF DEATH:
Structural heart disease.
When a locker-room has divided allegiances between the decorated yet
past prime vet and the talented yet unpolished newb at the pivot position of QB,
they need strong leadership and creative ideas from the coaching staff to maximize
their on-field talent and manufacture points and wins to energize the players
and give the team a strong united heartbeat.
This team didn’t have the strong steady leadership hand it needed, and their
heart gave out on them. I can’t help but
feel this could have been avoided if Shurmur had just rented “Any Given Sunday”
to see how this could have played out. Or at the very least, given Saquon
Barkley more than 217 measly attempts this season!!
HOPE FOR RESURRECTION:
Any time a team comes in to a new season with a brand new
head coach and a fresh-faced QB with the better part of a season under his belt
there will be hope for success, but if the Giants brass can’t start plugging
some of the holes they have in the O-line and on defense through free agency
and the draft then don’t expect a clean bill of health in 2020.
By Evan Slade AKA Jack Lambert's dentist
Other 2019 Autopsy Reports:
