When I was a sophomore in high school on the varsity basketball team, my team had a perfect record: we didn’t win a single game all year. When it came time to print the yearbook, we were the only team that didn’t have a win-loss record accompanying its photo spread.
At the time, that seemed like a glaring omission, but in retrospect I’m glad, because the only people who’ll remember the record of that team are the players and coaches who grinded through the season. That’s how it’s starting to look for the 2014 New York Giants, a listless group seemed fated to finish a perfectly mediocre 8-8, with wins over the also-rans of the league and no victories over contenders.
If they had Rashad Jennings back from injury, perhaps they could get back into this; but when your top two running backs are Andre Williams and Peyton Hillis, both of whom reach the second level of defenders in the amount of time it takes Tom Coughlin to get a red challenge flag out of his sock, then you’re going nowhere fast.
To date the Giants’ signature win this year was over Washington, when the G-men and Larry Donnell (remember him?) trounced Washington 45-14 to raise their record to 2-2. New York would win again the following week over Atlanta to go 3-2, but ever since the team has adeptly avoided victories: scoring zero points against the Eagles; fumbling repeatedly against the Cowboys (hey there, Donnell); taking Eli Manning to Disney World during the bye week, where the kid had a lot of fun; and getting embarrassed on Monday Night Football against the Colts.
Now the team has to travel cross-country to play the reigning Super Bowl champion Seahawks on the road. Are the Giants going to win? Of course they are, because this is the kind of yo-yo, maddening thing that all Tom Coughlin teams do.
Will they do it by passing to Rueben Randle and Preston Parker? Hell no, those two couldn’t catch colds in a place where colds get caught.
Will they do it by running the ball with Thunder (Andre Williams) and Thunderbox (Hillis)? Not a chance.
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Will they do it by throwing the ball? They’ll have to.
Will they take a page from the Steelers’ playbook for Antonio Brown, and get the ball in space to Odell Beckham Jr.? Probably not, but it’s nice to dream.
It’s said that NFL teams script the first 10-15 offense plays of the game. If so, the Giants’ opening script should read like this:
Play 1: Pass to Odell Beckham Jr. Repeat till result is a touchdown, interception or Larry Donnell runs into him and causes a fumble.
People used to give Matthew Stafford grief for constantly throwing to Calvin Johnson, even if Megatron wasn’t open. Stafford’s reply (and I paraphrase): “If you had Calvin Johnson, why would you throw to anyone else?”
Is Odell Beckam Jr. as good as Calvin Johnson? No. But no one else on the Giants is nearly as good as Odell Beckham Jr. So just give him the damn ball – and not in garbage time like last week, when his stat line -- eight catches for 156 yards -- looked more impressive than it actually was.
Give it to him early, give it to him often, and please, give it to him on a play that posterizes Richard Sherman.
There might not be much hope left in this Giants’ season, but at least we can hope for that.
