The day after that hideous 41-9 thrashing at the hands of the Carolina Panthers, Coach Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning manned up and attempted to apologize for the team’s putrid performance.
“To a man, we would like to apologize,” Coughlin said. “For whatever reason, a team that had an awful lot to play for, that had opportunities there, that was playing in Giants Stadium for the last regular-season game of the Giants, didn’t play up to our capabilities.”
“I apologize. I’m sorry. I wish I had an answer,” echoed quarterback Eli Manning. “I wish we could have come out and played better football. I don’t have an answer as to why it happened or why it has happened throughout the season, where we have been up and down in our play.”
This is all well and good, as the cliche goes, but all is not well and this is not good enough. It would have been better if Coughlin and Manning had been joined by someone from the defense stepping up and accepting responsibility for their performance Sunday and for the entire season. Given that everybody associated with that historic, epically bad unit is walking on exceedingly thin ice, that is probably too much to ask.
It would be better if, instead of apologies, on Sunday the Giants pop out of their coffin during the upcoming Week 17 wake in the Metrodome and offer a performance they can be proud of, even if it is a “meaningless game.” They’ve done it before.
For now, the Giants deserve all the criticism and scorn heaped upon them by great Giants like Harry Carson and Carl Banks, and even that from lesser lights like Mike Francesa and Troy Aikman. The loss to the Panthers was a disgusting way to close a stadium that has seen as much passion and pride as any in the NFL during the past 34 years. It’s up to these Giants to make amends. They can start Sunday.
Right on brother.
Comment by daddy-o — January 2nd, 2010 @ 2:49 pm