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Tom Coughlin: Loss 'just doesn't make any sense'

Giants head coach can't believe, or explain, what happened to his team on Sunday

Josh Brown after missing a field goal on Sunday
Josh Brown after missing a field goal on Sunday
Rob Foldy/Getty Images

New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin watched his team turn an early 21-0 lead and certain, easy, slam-dunk victory, into a seventh straight loss and had the same reaction most Giants fans did. He couldn't believe it. "It's a loss we feel we should have won. We've done this too many times, We just helped somebody beat us," said a disbelieving Coughlin in his post-game press conference.

"It just doesn't make any sense."

No, it clearly doesn't.

The Giants led 21-3 at halftime and had complete control of the game.

"The lead was not sufficient. We needed to come back out in the second half and put some more points on the board. We didn't do it," Coughlin said. "Very disappointing, discouraging loss for us. We came down here feeling like we could win. Thought we again prepared well. Nothing happens on game day.

"You've gotta play four quarters," Coughlin said. "We're playing two, maybe three sometimes."

The Giants handed Jacksonville 14 second-half points on fumbles.

Rashad Jennings inexplicably tried to pick up an Eli Manning fumble in the end zone and run with it rather than falling on it for a safety. Jacksonville's J.T. Thomas took that away from him for a touchdown.

"Make people work for it at least," said Coughlin. "Do the math for me, Two from seven. We have done some things that aren't real smart."

Larry Donnell handed the Jaguars a touchdown when he couldn't protect the ball on a simple third-and-long dump-off where all the Giants were trying to do was get off the field without disaster striking. Donnell, as he has done before this season, simply dropped the ball when he was upended. That turned into a 41-yard touchdown for Aaron Colvin.

"Two turnovers for touchdowns? We could've knelt on the ball in the second half and had a better chance to win," said Coughlin. "He's [Donnell] done that two or three times."

Josh Brown missed his first field goal of the season. The Giants' makeshift offensive line got Eli Manning sacked four times in the second half and couldn't open any running lanes for Jennings or Andre Williams. Manning fumbled three times, with Coughlin saying "ball security in the pocket didn't look very good."

The Giants allowed Blake Bortles (four carries, 69 yards) and Denard Robinson when he was in the Wildcat to get the edge at will.

"We worked all week on dive-option concept. There was no surprise there," Coughlin said.