McAduped

In 2014, the New York Giants hired Ben McAdoo to be the team’s offensive coordinator. Prior to joining the Giants, McAdoo spent eight years as an assistant coach with the Green Bay Packers; first as the team’s tight ends coach, and then as their quarterbacks coach. The Giants admired McAdoo’s work with Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and they felt that he would be a perfect match to collaborate with quarterback Eli Manning in New York. With McAdoo as the Giants offensive coordinator, Manning enjoyed two of his best seasons in the National Football League as he completed more than 62% of his passes. However with the Giants not putting a talented team around Manning, they would fail to make the playoffs in each of those seasons. And after the Giants went 6-10 in 2015, longtime head coach Tom Coughlin was fired and replaced with McAdoo.

The Giants promoted McAdoo due to his familiarity with Manning, while he was also seen as someone who could kick start a stagnant offense.

In McAdoo’s first year as the Giants head coach, New York went 11-5 to make the playoffs for the first time since 2011 which was the last time that they won the Super Bowl. However the strength of the Giants in 2016 was their defense as New York was 25th in the National Football League last season in total offense in spite of the presence of Manning and wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

Things have not gotten better for the Giants this year as following Monday night’s home loss to the Detroit Lions, they have begun this season with a record of 0-2 for the fourth time in the last five campaigns. And in each of those seasons the Giants failed to post a winning record.

The stagnation that has hurt the Giants offense in recent years is still in place as New York has only mustered 13 points in two games this season, while they have only produced 27 first downs which is 28th in the National Football League. And for a guy in McAdoo that was supposed to be an offensive guru, he must have done a tremendous sell job on his interview because he is stealing money.

Manning has taken his fair share of criticism during his time with the Giants, but he still has one of the best arms and sharpest minds in the National Football League, while he has a talented duo of Beckham and wide receiver Brandon Marshall to get the football to. However it doesn’t mean a thing if Manning is running for his life in the pocket.

In 2016, the Giants offensive line was suspect at best and they’ve gotten worse in 2017. McAdoo and Giants general manager Jerry Reese never took the time to upgrade the team’s offensive line during the off-season. Already Manning has been sacked eight times compared to 21 for all of last season. In 2015, Reese used a first-round pick on offensive tackle Ereck Flowers who was expected to protect the blindside of Manning which has not been the case. Flowers has consistently shown vulnerability due to his lack of footwork. And instead of Reese and McAdoo shifting Flowers to right tackle, they continue to hold him responsible for protecting Manning’s blindside.

The Giants have lacked a running game for several years which continues here in 2017 as they are last in the National Football League in rushing with just 97 yards after two games. The Giants attempted to sign running backs LeGarrette Blount and Adrian Peterson during the off-season. But Blount opted to join the Philadelphia Eagles, while Peterson is now with the New Orleans Saints, and the Giants running game is still stuck in the mud.

In the Giants last seven regular season games they have failed to produce at least 20 points which falls into the lap of the “wonder boy” in McAdoo. At first it appeared that McAdoo was “sandbagging” his play calling as the Giants offensive coordinator in order to get Coughlin fired, but now it is clear that he simply cannot get it done. And following the Giants loss to the Lions, McAdoo couldn’t even own it, but he was more than happy to thrown Manning under the bus after New York was hit with a delay of game penalty in the third quarter during a key fourth-and-goal situation.

Manning will never be seen as the perfect quarterback, but he has earned respect in the Big Apple due to the fact that he has produced a pair of Super Bowl Titles, while McAdoo doesn’t have that much on his resume with Big Blue.

Now McAdoo must attempt to rally the troops as the Giants must get prepared on a short week to face their NFC East rivals in the Philadelphia Eagles on the road this Sunday. And if the Giants were to fall to the Eagles, they would be 0-3 overall, 0-3 in the NFC, and 0-2 in the NFC East as no team has ever won the Super Bowl after beginning the season with a record of 0-3.

But all of the blame for the Giants struggles don’t fall into the lap of McAdoo as Reese deserves his fair share of criticism as well. After the Giants last Super Bowl Title, the team got old, and as Reese saw key veterans retire, he has been unable to consistently draft well and replace that talent which has shown up in New York’s inability to run the football or protect Manning. Giants co-owner John Mara put Reese on notice publicly last year which led to New York making the playoffs, but will he be able last if Big Blue has another subpar year?

It is only September, but the Giants already find themselves at the crossroads. And if the Giants are unable to figure things out soon, there might be some house cleaning going on in East Rutherford.