In the NFL this season, seven punts have been returned by touchdowns. Three of those touchdowns were allowed by the Giants.
Giants special teams coach Tom Quinn knows that it’s totally unacceptable that his team has given up almost as many punt return touchdowns as the other 31 teams combined. He also knows it’s unacceptable that opposing punt returners are averaging 20.4 yards a return. With numbers like that, what can Quinn say?
“It’s been awful,” Quinn told the Star-Ledger. “It’s frustrating. It’s not what our expectations are. It pisses you off and I hope it pisses everyone else off that’s in this building. To take away a shutout from the defense, that hurts. How many times do we have an opportunity to do that?”
Unfortunately, Quinn said there isn’t any one thing the Giants’ coverage unit has done wrong on all of the long returns they’ve allowed, so there’s no easy fix.
“It’s always something different,” Quinn said. ‘They’ve all been different circumstances and it hasn’t been good enough for anyone and we’ve been embarrassed by it.”
This is Quinn’s seventh season as the Giants’ special teams coordinator. If he doesn’t get things turned around soon, it may be his last.