The 2009 New York Giants season died Sunday night at FedEx Field, home of the Washington Redskins. The cause of death, pending a final autopsy, was a lack of victories resulting from a chronic shortage of defensive intensity. The season was 8-7, expiring before it could finish its final game of the year.
The 2009 season was a direct descendant of the Giants 2007 Super Bowl champion team and the 2008 NFC East champion. However, there had been questions about the season since an incident in 2008 involving wide receiver Plaxico Burress caused the death of the 2008 season.
Despite the uncertainty and youth at a number of key positions, the 2009 season began in grand fashion at 5-0, although many of those wins came against lower-level competition.
After that start, the health of the season began to deteriorate as the lack of defense began to choke off the number of victories. The season had been on life support since a 45-38 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles two weeks ago. It was given last rites after a 41-9 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
The season is survived by General Manager Jerry Reese, Head Coach Tom Coughlin, Quarterback Eli Manning, and an as-yet unknown number of offensive and defensive starters.
Funeral arrangements have not been finalized. There will be public viewing hours beginning at 12 pm CST Sunday January 3 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, MN.
BH,
Great blog! Your efforts are much appreciated.
The Gints were pretty average under Tom C. prior to getting Plaxico.
With Plax we win the Superbowl and go 11-1.
He shoots himself and the Gints die a slow painful death.
Yet, the loss of Spags is clearly a component of the teams fatal state of disorder.
Eli seems to have played with pain did very well at times this year.
Thus, there is hope for future iterations of the Gints.
May Giant Stadium rest in peace!.
EF
Comment by EF — December 28th, 2009 @ 8:53 am
Thoughts and prayers go out to the entire extended NYG family. We thank the good Lord that Wellington was not around for this debacle. Amen.
Comment by stublatt — December 28th, 2009 @ 7:48 pm
Spags shmags – heads better roll.
Comment by daddy-o — December 29th, 2009 @ 1:26 pm
Oh, heads will roll, all right. Just give it time. It looked like Tom wanted to start firing guys during the game Sunday.
Comment by Brian Hellauer — December 30th, 2009 @ 9:26 pm
@stublatt: World without end, amen. That would’ve pushed Wellington over the edge, though I think if The Duke was walking the earth again, the players would’ve shown a bit more pride.
Comment by Brian Hellauer — December 30th, 2009 @ 9:28 pm
@ed. Thanks. Giants issues are definitely fixable; just a shame to see a season go down the tubes like this. On the other hand, when have the Giants made the playoffs four seasons in a row prior to this run?
Comment by Brian Hellauer — December 30th, 2009 @ 9:29 pm