Going off Coughlin's logic, the Giants' season is now over.
Instead of improving to 6-3 and re-establishing their position in the NFC postseason picture, the Giants became the second team in NFL history to start 5-0 and fall to 5-4 — the other team was the 1989 Los Angeles Rams.
And the Giants have their head coach to thank for that feat.
On Oct. 11, the Giants were the best-kept secret in the NFL. A 5-0 team with the league's best defense and second-best offense. While the major story lines in the league surrounded Peyton Manning's undefeated Colts and his MVP-caliber season, the return of Brett Favre and the surging Vikings and the problems with the Patriots, everyone in the football world was barely talking about the beasts of the NFC East. They must have known something.
The Giants failed to make adjustments against the offensive-minded Saints in Week 6. They were humiliated at home by the Cardinals in Week 7. And they lost all their pride and dignity about two minutes into the rout the Eagles handed them in Week 8.
And on Sunday, in their Week 9 game against the Chargers, the Giants found a new way to lose.
Trailing 17-14 with 3:25 left in the game, a demoralized Chargers offense took the field with what looked like its final chance to mount a comeback. It took quarterback Philip Rivers just one play to end the Chargers' hopes with a pick that gave the Giants the ball on the San Diego 4-yard line with 3:14 left in the game and a three-point lead.
The Meadowlands rose to its collective feet, smelling both blood and the first Giants win in 27 days.
A touchdown and 194 seconds from stopping their three-game slide, or even a field goal and a defensive stop from righting their sinking ship, the Giants got neither.
Coughlin tried to kill the clock, and instead he might very well have killed the Giants' season.
With the ball on the Chargers' 4 and 3:14 remaining, here is the following sequence of plays called by Coughlin and run by the Giants.
3:14, first-and-goal on the San Diego 4: Brandon Jacobs runs around right end to San Diego 1 for three yards. Penalty on Giants' Chris Snee, offensive holding, 10 yards, enforced at San Diego 4 — No play.
OK, a running play from the 4-yard line with your top back. This is a perfectly fine play call, one that will keep the clock running if Jacobs is unable to get in the end zone. But what do you know, Coughlin's son-in-law commits a hold and prevents the Giants from being on the 1. Untimely plays must run in the family.
3:07, first-and-goal on San Diego 14: Eli Manning passes short on the right to Hakeem Nicks to San Diego 14 for no gain.
No problem here, either, as the Giants try to pick up some yards after the catch, instead of risking a deep pass and an interception in the red zone.
Timeout No. 1 by San Diego at 3:01.
3:01, second-and-goal on San Diego 14: Brandon Jacobs runs up the middle to San Diego 9 for five yards.
After the Chargers call timeout, Coughlin begins to worry about the clock rather than the score. Fourteen yards out and knowing that he won't be going for it on fourth down, Coughlin opts for a running play rather than going for the kill, and Roger Goodell begins to wonder if Coughlin has the Chargers' money line at +200.
Timeout No. 2 by San Diego at 2:55.
2:55, third-and-goal on San Diego 9: Brandon Jacobs runs up the middle to San Diego 4 for five yards.
The worst play call ever? Possibly.
Third-and-goal on the 9 and the last chance to get in the end zone and he calls a running play? With a timeout and the two-minute warning still on his side, Chargers coach Norv Turner realizes there is at least one less competent coach in the league than he as Timid Tom decides to run the ball on the Giants' final chance to get in the end zone.
2:11, fourth-and-4 on San Diego 4: Lawrence Tynes' 22-yard field-goal attempt is good. The Giants lead 20-14.
After Tynes split the uprights — something the New York special teams couldn't figure out how to do in the first quarter, another issue that factored into the loss — the Chargers needed just 1:46 to run eight plays and go 80 yards. The Giants needed 1:07 to gain zero yards in a crucial spot with a chance to win the game.
When the Giants took over on the San Diego 4 with 3:14 left, they were able to run just four plays, eat just 1:07 of the clock and score just three points. Is it not a coach's job to put his players in the best possible position to succeed?
Tom Coughlin and his coaching staff have two weeks to prepare the Giants for the Falcons at the Meadowlands. And they have two weeks to figure out how they are going to win five of their last seven games and reach the postseason for the fifth straight year.
With Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington, Carolina and Minnesota remaining on their schedule, and Dallas and Philadelphia currently ahead of them in the NFC East standings, odds are that January will be part of the offseason for the G-Men this year.
The 1989 Rams went 6-1 down the stretch and ended up reaching the NFC Championship. The Giants are capable of doing the same.
But with Tom Coughlin's approach, they are also capable of playing spoiler rather than playing for their postseason lives over the next seven weeks.
For Coughlin's sake, the season better not come down to — and be remembered for — a wasted first-and-goal from the Chargers 4.
