Before Sunday, the toughest aspect of selling Pat Shurmur to the New York media and Giants fans came from the perception/reality that Shurmur was the third choice, behind Josh McDaniels and Matt Patricia. Now, that’s just part of the problem.
Shurmur’s offense had its worst output of the season against the Eagles, scoring only seven points. And while there is plenty of blame to go around when a team gets blown out, the game within the game pitting Shurmur against Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz swung sharply in Schwartz’s favor.
But the Giants already have settled on Shurmur, who won only nine of 32 games during two seasons as head coach of the Browns. And even though they sought permission to interview Schwartz during the first Philly bye week, the Eagles didn’t actually interview him — which means they can’t interview him during the second Philly bye week.
Which means that the Giants, if they’re having second thoughts based on Sunday’s game, will have to choose between the Shurmur in the hand versus the Schwartz in the bush, creating the distinct possibility that, come three days after Groundhog Day, they could be starting their coaching search all over again.
It likely won’t come to that. By all appearances, the Giants have had a wink-nod deal in place with Shurmur for more than a week. But nothing is ever done until it’s officialy done, and the Giants could decide, in theory, based on Sunday’s game that they are done with their pursuit of Pat Shurmur.