Can Steve Spagnuolo stop the Giants’ free fall?
Spaguolo has to rebuild his team’s shattered confidence before he think about the head coaching job next year.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -– There was a solemnity besieging the Giants on Wednesday. That was the atmosphere. The abrasions of a 2-10 season has left a numbing, visible sensation in the locker room and across the complex.
It has been a ramble to ruin …
Giants lose to the Cleveland Browns in the preseason (yikes!) and follow that with five consecutive opening-season losses, the final three by three, two and five points. The offensive line crumples. The defense tumbles. The star receiver cracks his ankle. The Rams hang 51 points on them in a home, early-November debacle. The franchise quarterback is benched in blundering fashion. The head coach is fired. The general manger is fired.
Steve Spagnuolo moves from defensive coordinator to interim head coach with the immediate task of moving this team, this franchise, from melancholy to motivated.
He revealed he said a little prayer on Sunday night.
On the flight back from Oakland, after the latest defeat, Spagnuolo said he prayed that the Giants would not suffer firing upheavals once back home. He was fired as the Rams head coach in 2011. He knows the feeling.
To his players on Wednesday morning, he talked about Giants pride. At his news conference on Wednesday afternoon, he talked about the past “rough 60 hours,” and how it was “real emotional.”
Afterward, he told me: “It’s confidence. I’ve got to help build these players’ confidence.”
He was asked what is in his past that will help him in this moment.
“My faith,” he said.
He’s in a spot that will bring a man to his knees.
But for Sapagnuolo, that’s where this giant work begins.
The first part was fixing the Manning mess.
Eli Manning is back at starter after a one-game benching by deposed head coach Ben McAdoo. Spagnuolo made the announcement. But this is clearly Giants owner John Mara’s move.
We know that Mara is quite a letter reader and writer. When the Colin Kaepernick situation was at its zenith, Mara talked about all of the letters he received from Giants fans advising him not to entertain the idea of employing Kaepernick, and their strident views on player protests. After the Manning benching, he talked about the letters he received from Giants fans in uproar. After the firings, he wrote a letter to Giants fans asking for their support and patience.
Mara found a way to get Manning back into the starting lineup as seamlessly as possible –- fire people now. He had said he was not going to do that, that the offseason would be the time to assess. But his hands-off approach in the benching of Manning forced him to take a bold, hands-on approach in fixing it. He knows he blew it. Now to fix it all.
Spagnuolo is the bridge.
The best he can do is reach a 6-10 record. The worst he can do is 2-14. The way this Giants season has spiraled, no extreme is surprising.
With the Dallas Cowboys arriving Sunday, Spagnuolo has the perfect opponent to build confidence among his players. They know Dallas. The rivalry remains intact regardless of records. Manning is motivated, grateful to reclaim his starting role.
And a sampling across the locker room revealed the Giants players ready for relief. They yearn for a Spagnuolo cure.
Running back Paul Perkins: “Any time the things happen that have happened to us, you have eyes on you and you have doubts. I know for me, it will make me tougher.”
Receiver Darius Powe: “I went 1-11 in college my sophomore year (at Cal). This is a time where you have to believe and display some confidence. You have to have that to have some success and for things to get better.’’
Cornerback Dominiqe Rodgers-Cromartie: “I have no hard feelings toward Coach McAdoo. When he suspended me, he did what he had to do as the head coach. I learned from it. Coach Spags has a passionate mindset about football. He has the same about the history of the Giants. That’s going to show up on Sunday from all of us.’’
Safety Darian Thompson: “We’ve lived an all-day, everyday type of thing here this year where the losses have piled up. And there is a certain vibe that is challenging that goes with that. But we still have a job to do. And I realize I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for (former general manager) Jerry Reese drafting me; me and my family owe a lot to him. And we all owe the Giants more. It’s a business, but it’s a great game. And this is a great franchise. We have to show that to the league and to the Cowboys on Sunday.’’
Linebacker B.J. Goodson: “I called Coach McAdoo. I told him how much I appreciate him. He kept it short. He told me about continuing to become the player I can be. I know he cares. We all care about the Giants. It’s time to show it.’’
And, finally, from linebacker Jeremy Cash, only with the Giants for a week, after a year with the Carolina Panthers and month with the Jets: “No one expects us to do anything, but I sense that we will compete and strive for a win on Sunday. It’s just go play ball. Coach Spagnuolo is very knowledgeable. He knows what he wants to do. Only a few plays in this league change can change the course of games. We have to compete in those moments against Dallas.’’
Across the league, people are stunned at this Giants free fall.
The Giants level of sustained stability has been a league envy. Not now. The bottom has fallen. The roof has caved. It is difficult to discern who is more shocked, more rocked, those outside of the Giants circle or those within it.
Manning’s long-term future, the new leadership, all of that will have to wait for another day. For Steve Spagnuolo, this moment is about providing an atmosphere of healing. Hope. Increasing confidence.
This was his answer when asked if he is auditioning for the Giants permanent head coaching job: “I’ll leave that in God’s hands.’’
First, restoration.
As he says a little prayer with every step.