Giants Head Coach Pat Shurmur Looks Clueless in Loss to Falcons

FALCONS 23 - GIANTS 20

When the Giants hired Pat Shurmur to be its head coach in January, they did so under the assumption that they hired an adult, someone who would be the anti-Ben McAdoo. Someone who could revitalize the career of Eli Manning and bring the Giants back to life one year after going 3-13.

Instead, it has been more of the same and then some. One can even argue that the 2018 Giants under Shurmur are now worse than last year's version under McAdoo.

Monday night's debacle in Atlanta was this team's waterloo.  Facing one of the NFL's worst defenses, the Giants couldn't get anything started until late in the fourth quarter. Running back Saquon Barkley was virtually ineffective, rushing for only 43 yards on 14 carries and Eli Manning once again played comatose. Even though he threw for 399 yards, he was sacked four times and couldn't engineer a scoring drive until the end of the game.

A lot of that has to do with the execution as much as it does the play calling of Shurmur, who turned in one of the worst games by a head coach in Giants history.

Trailing 20-6 with a little less then five minutes remaining in the game, Big Blue finally got into the end zone when Barkley scored from two yards out to cut the deficit to eight points at 20-12. Instead of simply going for the PAT to cut the deficit to a single touchdown, Shurmur instead opted to go for two-points, a hideous decision that blew up in the coaches face. Had the Giants kicked the extra point, a 20-13 deficit would have been possible if New York could stop Atlanta on its next possession.

But these are the 2018 Giants where stupidity reigns supreme.

Atlanta would respond, as Matt Ryan drove Atlanta in position to kick a 56-yard field goal to extend the lead to 23-12, pretty much cementing the Giants fate.

What was even more mind boggling was the Giants ill-fated attempt to score in the final minute. The Giants ate up almost all of the final two minutes of the game on a long 72-yard scoring drive that would make Donovan McNabb blush, highlighted by two bone-headed calls by Shurmur to have Manning try a quarterback sneak not just once, but twice at the Atlanta one yard line. Predictably the Giants didn't score. By the time Big Blue finally scored there were five seconds left in the game. The game was over. What a complete waste.

In a season where the Giants have played awful football, where their star wide receiver not only got paid, but has thrown the franchise under the bus, Monday's game was a new low for the franchise. For all the Giants fans who praised the hiring of Shurmur, what do you think now? There is a reason Shurmur was 9-23 in two seasons with the Browns, and it isn't all on the bad culture in Cleveland. Shurmur was part of that bad culture there, and the Giants ignored it, much the same way the New York Jets ignored the fact Rich Kotitte lost his last seven game with the Eagles in 1994 before hiring him to be their head coach in 1995.

Wait, did I say it? Yes, Pat Shurmur, you are the Giants version of Rich Kotittte.