The Giants tend to be very patient with coaches and General Managers. It’s easy to exercise patience when the team isn’t disastrously bad.
This year, the team is disastrously bad. And Sunday’s game seems to feature the cardinal sin of any football operation -- a team (specifically a defense) that has quit on its coach, Ben McAdoo.
The reason isn’t clear, but it appears that the New York defense simply hasn’t been trying as hard as maybe it otherwise could, should, or would. When the Rams turned a third-and-33 into a 52-yard touchdown, the video shows cornerback Eli Apple freezing up when he could have stopped receiver Robert Woods short of the sticks. The Giants defense otherwise has come off at times as lethargic and a step behind the L.A. offense.
It could be that the L.A. offense is a step ahead of the Giants defense. Or it could be that the Giants defense doesn’t really care today -- possibly because of the decision to suspend cornerback Janoris Jenkins, the second time this year McAdoo has suspended a member of the secondary.
Whatever the reason and regardless of whether the Giants are waging a McAdoo mutiny, the second-year head coach needs to get things figured out quickly, or there won’t be a third.