Giants Nearly Fumble Away Game To Eagles

When Tom Coughlin arrived he made many claims as to what he would do for this franchise, with obviously, winning being the most important. That has been accomplished. For the third straight year the Giants will have a non losing season and will more than likely, barring a miracle by the New Orlean Saints (the only team left that can knock them out of a playoff spot) it looks like the Giants will wrap up a wildcard spot, and are still in the driver's seat for the #5 seed.

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As a Giants fan you would have to look back to 1991 for the last time the Giants had this many non losing seasons in a row, as well as the same number of playoff appearances consecutively. There is no question, regardless of the heat Coughlin took early on here in NY, that the only thing he does do, and does it well, is win. More on that in a moment.

When he also arrived an even bigger challenge was to solve the fumbling problem that haunted former Giants running back Tiki Barber. He did that as well, and he went on to become the greatest running back in Giants history. That challenge has seemed to resurface these past few weeks, and it almost cost them the game against the Eagles on Sunday.

In for the Giants to go anywhere come January they need to start learning how to hold onto the ball in December. On Sunday, Jacobs put the ball on the ground twice, and Amani Toomer (although the call was correct, that it was not a fumble), put it out there as well. Whatever Coughlin did to fix Barber's problem, he needs to do the same for Jacobs. It is clear that in order for this team to be a contender they will need Jacobs now more than ever with the season ending injury to Ward.

When Coughling arrived in NY he was labeled as a "General", wears his players down, too much old school. Isn't that what you want out of your head coach? Someone who will make the players accountable for their bad play? There seemed to be a revolt against him early on in his tenure here, however those bad apples were weeded out and now he finally has most of his own guys here that play extremely hard for him.

Nothing was more evident in that as we saw the Giants defense step up big when they had to on Sunday against the Eagles after the first Jacobs fumble. When there backs were against the wall with the offense putting the team in a bad situation for the second straight week, the defense responded. The knock on the Giants defense for the past 15 years has been, that they just can not make a good stop. It looks as if Tom Coughlin and defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnualo just may have solved that issue as well.

By: Michael C. Podlesny


About the Author:
Michael C. Podlesny is the co-host of the Big Blue Review, a weekly podcast featuring the latest news on The New York Giants. The podcast can be downloaded from Michael's blog at http://bigbluereviewpodcast.blogspot.com/