Giants reflect upon barely missing playoffs
"This team plays better than we're an underdog," said Giants defensive tackle Barry Cofield, above. Credit: AP
Instead of prepping for a playoff opponent, the Giants spent Monday considering which is a more palatable way to be left out of the postseason. Is it better to win 10 games and be knocked out in the last few minutes of the regular season, which this year's Giants accomplished with an empty win over the Redskins on Sunday? Or would being knocked from contention earlier during a flop of a season be easier to take, something along the lines of the 2009 Giants?
Which pill would you like to swallow, Tom Coughlin?
"It's bitter enough," the coach said. "Pick your poison."
The Giants didn't get to pick their fates in the last two years, but they did discuss which tasted worse. Coughlin clearly feels better heading into this offseason than he did a year ago after the team folded to an 8-8 finish.
"Ten wins," Coughlin said when asked the difference between the two. "We're a better team right now."
President and CEO John Mara seems to agree with him. Last year, Mara punctuated the collapse with a mandate that the status quo would not be acceptable, demanding change and noting that the 8-8 season felt more like 4-12.
"When I stood here a year ago, I was angry and extremely disappointed about the way we finished the season," Mara said Monday. "I felt like we weren't competing. There is no worse feeling in sports than when you feel like your team is not competing. I can't say that's the case this year . . . There is no comparison between this year and last year."
Not everyone agreed. General manager Jerry Reese said it was more difficult for him to come to grips with this year's trajectory.
"I'm really disappointed, even more so than last year, because we put ourselves in position, and that's what our goal is every year," Reese said. "We just did not finish the job, and that's very disappointing."
Predictably, Reese pointed to the loss to the Eagles two weeks ago, in which the Giants surrendered a 21-point lead in the final eight minutes and with it the keys to the playoffs.
"We let that game slip away and we were fighting for our lives and we go to Green Bay and for whatever reason, I can't put my finger on that, why we don't go there and play better than we did," Reese said. "You can't depend on other people helping you get to the playoffs. You have to do it yourself, and we were right there on the doorstep."
Had the Giants gotten in Sunday, they would be facing the Eagles this weekend. Two of their six losses this season were to the Eagles, and the Giants held fourth-quarter leads in both of those games.
Rather than dissect which ending is more tolerable, Eli Manning chose to focus on what could have been.
"I'm disappointed in the outcome of the season," he said. "We thought we had potential. We thought we had players to make it in the playoffs and make a run, and we didn't accomplish that. We didn't play well enough at times of the season to make it into the playoffs."
Ultimately, that may be what these Giants will be remembered for long after their 10 wins are forgotten, no matter how they did or didn't get there.
