Nightmare at Dallas

I was going to title this posting Return of the Fumble, but the above title will suffice. Besides, there was only one true culprit that November day at the Meadowlands and at least Bob Gibson, the offensive coordinator who called that ridiculous play, got his just deserts. Last Sunday's loss had a litany of villains.

Let's start with the head coach. It pains me to say this, but Tom Coughlin needs to go. He simply isn't up to handling a team the way a head coach needs to. There is simply no excuse for him not making sure his assistant coach and quarterback were on the same page. With just under 2 minutes left in the game, up by three and the ball at the 2 yard line, with no timeouts left for Dallas, how in the world do you allow a pass play to be called by your offensive coordinator? The correct call is a run up the middle. If you get in, the game is over; if you don't, you run another 40 seconds off the clock and you kick a field goal. The Cowboys would have about 58 seconds left in which to march the length of the field instead of a minute 38 seconds. Tom blew it big time.

But even allowing for the Coughlin meltdown, Eli Manning should've known that the Cowboys had no timeouts left - and if he didn't, shame on him. If he didn't have a man open in the end zone, the correct play was to fall down on the ball and take the sack. Again, the Giants would've kicked a field goal and Dallas would've gotten the ball back with under a minute to play. Manning should know better. No excuse.

But now we come down to the defensive coordinator: Steve Spagnuolo. For most of the game, his players made life hell for the Cowboys. They relentlessly pursued Dallas and forced three turnovers, two of which lead to scores for the Giants. But on the last two Cowboy possessions, they were nowhere to be found. Saying they were soft would do a disservice to the word soft. Dallas marched down the field twice virtually uncontested. The winning drive took all of 90 seconds. Tony Romo could've had a ham sandwich and a cup of coffee in the pocket, that's how pathetic the Giants' defense looked. This was the epitome of a prevent defense.

All three of these geniuses have a lot of explaining to do. They didn't just snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, like that infamous 1978 Giants team did that November Sunday; they let a team that had outplayed them but made several bad plays steal a game they had no right to win.

That's right, this was a game the Giants by all accounts should not have won, but were less than 2 minutes away from taking. The Cowboys had the ball most of the game and controlled the line of scrimmage. Had they not turned the ball over three times, the Giants would never have been in a position to win at all.

And that's what makes this loss so brutal. For most of the game, the Giants teased their fans and had them thinking, maybe we're not so bad after all. And then the roof fell in and reality came back to bite them in the ass. They've had moments like this in the Coughlin era - way too many for my taste. But this one stung more than all the others combined.

The Giants will try to spin this by saying, "it's one game, we'll learn from this and not let it happen again." Sure they will. And I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you for a wooden nickel.

The football Giants have been making way too many excuses for way too long. It has been four years since the team last had a winning record and that just happened to be the year they last won the Super Bowl.

The sad truth is that if the Giants ever expect Eli Manning to deliver another title they are going to have to get him a coaching staff and yes a G.M. (you didn't think I had forgotten about you, Jerry Reese?). Both the offensive and defensive lines are a mess and both the secondary and linebackers are thin. John Beason's absence proved fatal on that last Cowboy drive.

It is the job of the general manager to get the best players for his coaching staff, and it is the coaching staff's job to make sure they get the best out of those players come game time. Both have been utter failures these last few years and it's high time that Steve Tisch and John Mara realized this and pulled the plug on this current group.

Enough with the lame excuses. Enough with coming up short and allowing games to get away. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over. For the Giants, that has become a mantra.