Tom Coughlin defends playcalling on Giants' final possession in loss to Patriots

Tom Coughlin stood behind the play-calling at the end of the Giants' final scoring opportunity in Sunday's loss to the Patriots.

The decision that drew the particular ire of fans and social media observers was passing on first-and-goal from the 5 with 2:06 remaining instead of running the ball and forcing the Patriots to use their final timeout.

"They've got six defensive linemen in the game, they've got a timeout, they've got the two-minute warning," Coughlin said. "If you calculate it, if you run the ball there, you're going to have maybe one play in which you're trying to score. You're not going to run the ball into six defensive linemen. You're trying to score. Your matchups are very good in those circumstances one-on-one. You've got to take advantage of what the opponent gives you. For two downs, you had six defensive linemen in the game. Go for it. That's what you do. If it was something vanilla and you could run, you could run, but in that circumstance you're going for the score and we had the score."

Eli Manning's pass went to Odell Beckham Jr. in the left side of the end zone, where he made a catch with two feet down but had the ball batted away by cornerback Malcolm Butler before controlling it through the play.

The Giants wound up settling for a field goal for a two-point lead with 1:47 left. That left what turned out to be just enough time for Tom Brady and the Patriots to get into field-goal range.

"Against Brady, you have to make those decisions going forward," Coughlin said. "We all knew even though they had no timeouts left, we're up two points. With that kicker, all they had to do was get to a certain point on the field . . . They did use the last timeout. They used it on the slide by Eli. So we had the circumstance where after the field goal they had no timeouts and they actually worked the ball in the field as much as a couple of ways to surprise me, which we all know about the first-down play. I mean the game should've been over."

That was a reference to the dropped interception by rookie safety Landon Collins on the Patriots' first play of the drive from their 20-yard line.

Another part of the problem was that the Giants got to first-and-goal too quickly, but just by a handful of seconds. That two-minute warning was in the way.

"If we got it to the two-minute warning and they only had the one timeout, you'd probably play it differently," Manning said. "2:06 is a different mindset just because of that timeout. If you would have been right at the two-minute warning and it's first-and-goal from the 5 and they got the one timeout, it might be a situation where you run it, run it, run it, kick the field goal, settle for that and give them the ball back with 15 or 20 seconds. That wasn't it. We had the mindset that we've got to score a touchdown and they weren't going to let us run the ball. They went with goal-line people and played zero [man-to-man] coverage and we got our guys vs. their guys and we've got to execute throwing the football."

Interestingly, the Giants had called a run play on first-and-goal, but Manning switched out of it based on the Patriots' personnel. It was somewhat similar to the way the Patriots stacked the line at the end of Super Bowl XLIX against the Seahawks, forcing them into passing on a play when they had an opportunity to run. Of course, the Seahawks had Marshawn Lynch in their backfield. Coughlin admitted that the Giants' inability to move the ball on the ground factored into the decision to pass.

"In that circumstance, the odds were against us running the ball in because of the six big people that they put up front," Coughlin said.

So did the Patriots goad the Giants into throwing the ball?

"I don't look at it as dictating," Coughlin said. "I look at it as your matchups are all singled. There is nobody else behind the line of scrimmage, it's one-on-one. So go beat somebody and score."

The Giants almost did.

As it turned out, they settled for the 29-yard field goal by Josh Brown. Now, had they known that would happen, that would have changed the strategy. But the Giants were trying to score a touchdown -- and with any luck a two-point conversion -- to go ahead by seven.

"I'm not playing for the field goal," Coughlin said. "I'm not playing for the field goal."

When they ultimately had to, it was too late. Or, as it turned out to be, too soon.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.