Jeremy Shockey vs. Tom Coughlin

It is nice to see that the Seahawks on-field destruction of the Giants has led to an off-field unravelling, specifically the issue between Jeremy Shockey and Tom Coughlin. While everyone is ripping Jeremy Shockey, it should be Tom Couglin taking the brunt of the criticism, both for what he said and how terribly unprepared his team was against the Seahawks. I am not endorsing Jeremy Shockey or his comments here, but Tom Coughlin has no right to be upset with him, especially given the comments he made to the media. With so much being made of Shockey saying "we got outplayed and outcoached," let's take a look at what Couglin said.

Coughlin opened his post-game press-conference with the following comments:

"In the first half, we just gave the game away, and handed it to them. We gave them the ball at point blank range, and gave them great field position. We turned the ball over. A team that does nothing but preach and talk about turnovers, we turned it over like nothing matters, like nothing counts. It cost us the game. We had trouble stopping them. Our pass coverage was practically nonexistent. The scheme, fine, but the individuals playing the scheme, we've got to play better with regard to that...what really bothers me is the first half, the half that we had prepared for. The half we had prepared to start out the game, we had what we thought was a good plan together, and obviously we didn't execute."

Tom Coughlin threw a lot of people under the bus in that opening statement, while avoiding an opportunity to take any responsibility. His scheme was fine, his plan was good, but the players did not play the scheme correctly, the team did not execute the plan. I do not see how Coughlin can say those things and then get upset at Jeremy Shockey for saying the team got beat on the field and in the game-planning. And how can Coughlin make the following comments in regard to Shockey's comments with a straight face:

"Naturally I'm concerned. I'm concerned because there's nothing to be gained by pointing the finger. If you're truly a team and you're in it together, we win or lose together. We don't make a point of pointing the finger at anyone. When we lose, I lose. I take the responsibility for the loss. That's my job."

Sorry Tom, but when you lose, you take no responsibility, claim you had a good plan and a good scheme and point the finger at your players' inability to execute your scheme and plan. And to make it even worse, Jeremy Shockey was right when he said the team got outcoached. The Seahawks did a lot of things on offense that the Giants had never seen, but it didn't take a great football mind to realize Seattle was going to use 4-WR sets. The Giants did not appear to have any idea what they were doing against those spread formations, even though Tom Coughlin says the team expected to see those looks. Some of that is execution, but when guys are wide-open in the endzone over and over, it is a scheme thing.

Shockey is an offensive player, so it is pretty safe to assume his comments were really directed toward what the Giants were doing when they had the ball. Again, it didn't take a genius to realize what the Seahawks were going to do. Namely, try to use the front seven to put pressure on Eli Manning and stop Tiki Barber. I spent about 10 minutes thinking about what the Seahawks were going to do on defense and I realized that. I am not self-promoting here, but if I can figure out what is going on in 10 minutes, then Tom Coughlin should be able to with a week to prepare.

It is not a coincidence that our safeties came up with 3 interceptions; they were sitting back there waiting to help in coverage because they were not concerned about stopping the run or putting pressure on Eli Manning. Even an average football mind knows that running play-action passes doesn't help against a secondary that is not going to bite on the run. Coughlin should have been running more draws to further isolate the front seven and give Tiki Barber more room to run, especially once he reached the second level. Throwing some short passes over the middle and putting pressure on the linebackers to play in coverage would have helped mitigate the pass-rush as well. It was just a bad game plan.

This is not the first time Coughlin has been called out for getting outcoached. The Giants clearly had no idea what Carolina was going to do in the playoffs last year, and Tiki Barber let the world know about it. Plaxico Burress was so upset, he refused to attend the subsequent team meeting. Coughlin had his ass handed to him by John Fox last year and Mike Holmgren and company again this past Sunday. If he wants his players to keep mum about how poorly he planned for those games, then he needs to avoid throwing them under the bus in his post-game press conferences.