The Giants haven’t won a game all year, and injuries have knocked out stars like Odell Beckham and Brandon Marshall for the year. On Sunday night, the Giants play the 3-1 Broncos. In Denver. With the home team coming off a bye.
And so the reasonable person, when attempting to select a winner in the game, will rely on the performance of the Giants and Broncos to date, the health of the respective teams, and select Denver.
Giants coach Ben McAdoo is groping for motivation in that obvious reality.
“There’s nobody giving us a chance in hell to go win this ball game,” McAdoo told reporters on Friday, via NorthJersey.com. “People don’t think we can score without [Beckham]. They think our defense has lost its stinger. Special teams isn’t important in the whole locker room. So we’re gonna find out what we’re made out of on a big stage. And I think we have a good football team.”
He’s been saying the team is good since it went 0-2. As former Giants coach Bill Parcells always said, however, you are what your record says you are. The team’s current record is not good.
It’s hard to fault McAdoo for emptying the tool bag in an effort to win a game. Even though the Giants aren’t wired to dump a coach after only two seasons (and one year removed from a playoff berth), a disastrous 2017 surely could prompt ownership to consider extreme action.
Would McAdoo return if he goes 3-13? 2-14? 1-15? Surely, an 0-16 season would result in a coaching change. And while that outcome remains highly unlikely, a losing season seems inevitable at this point. The question is whether the Giants lose so many games that the coach (and maybe others) will lose his job.