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The New York Giants will open the Steve Spagnuolo era as head coach on Sunday as 6-point underdogs at home to the Dallas Cowboys.
Win or lose, the firings this week of Ben McAdoo as coach and Jerry Reese as general manager are likely to leave fans at MetLife Stadium in a better frame of mind than they would have been if no changes had been made.
The team’s 2-10 record, the botching of the Eli Manning situation last week, and the general dysfunction that has permeated the franchise all season have left fans and former players disillusioned.
Manning, incidentally, is expected to start on Sunday.
Giants coaches and staffers had final game-planning discussions today and sources say the expected result is finalized: Eli Manning is the starting quarterback. On Sunday vs the Cowboys, he’ll extend his streak to one.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) December 5, 2017
Co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch likely understood just how ugly things could get at MetLife Stadium with three of the team’s final four games at home.
“I was certainly cognizant of what the fan reaction was likely to be over the last four weeks, but that wasn’t the final determining factor,” Mara said Monday when he spoke about the changes. “We just reached a point where we felt, you know what, we’re going to be making these changes probably at the end of the season, so what’s the point in prolonging this any further.”