Good morning, New York Giants fans! Let's get your Morning Report started. We begin in a place we already visited this week, and one that I suspect will be a place we come back to often as the second half of the season unfolds.
Is It Coughlin's Time?
In the video clip above, the loquacious Stephen A. Smith makes a calmly delivered, well-reasoned, case that Tom Coughlin's time with the Giants has simply run its course. The clip is well worth listening to, at least until Skip Bayless begins to blabber.
Smith may be right. No one connected with the Giants wants to shove Coughlin out the door if he doesn't want to go -- he's accomplished too much and he means too much to the people in the organization. I weighed in with my thoughts on Tuesday. Smith was one of several analysts who have weighed in since that time.
Here is Ralph Vacchiano of the Daily News:
It won’t be an easy decision, either. There is nothing but love for the 68-year-old Coughlin among his bosses, mixed with gratitude for bringing the franchise another championship era. In the past few years, when more reactionary owners might have made a quicker change, they searched for any reason to justify keeping Coughlin around.
What they hoped, based on recent interviews with several members of the front office, is that Coughlin would squeeze another playoff berth out of this team, get it pointing in the right direction. Then, when his contract expired after the 2015 season with him months from turning 70, there would be a quick and clean succession to offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo. There are some in the front office who have seen McAdoo’s preparation and attention to detail and view him as something of a Coughlin clone.
But the more this season falls apart, the more difficult it will be to get to 2015.
Mark Cannizzarro of the New York Post had this to say:
.. barring a significant turn of events, 3-5 can speed-dial to 3-8 rather quickly and would leave five weeks of garbage time to play out.
That's a lot of time for ownership to ponder whether - despite all the great things Coughlin has done for the franchise - it is time to move in a different direction with some younger blood and a different energy.
By The Numbers
-- Will the Giants ever play a close game? They are the only team in the NFL that has had every one of its games this season decided by more than seven points. The final margin in their three victories was 13, 31 and 10 points. The difference in their five defeats was 21, 11, 27, 10 and 16 points.
-- The Giants' last three opponents - Philadelphia, Dallas and Indianapolis - gained 448, 423 and 443 yards. It's the first time the Giants have allowed that many yards yards in each of three consecutive games since a three-game stretch in 2011, when New Orleans (577), Green Bay (449) and Dallas (444) torched the Giants' defense.
Around The Inter-Google
Who knew that the Giants had an official candy?
Pat Traina looks at the major injuries suffered by the Giants and the new players forced into the spotlight.
Ernie Palladino says the Giants flunked thieir midterm.
Wednesday we broke down the odds of a magical run to the playoffs by the Giants. They aren't good. Steve Serby of the New York Post isn't abandoning ship quite yet, however.
Former Giant Luke Petitgout has been charged with sexual assault.