In New York, That Thud Might Just Be the Giants

Coach Tom Coughlin responds to Giants' fans' calls for his job ousting his offensive coordinator with one game left in the regular season. (Ray Stubblebine - Reuters)

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., Dec. 27 -- How's this for a playoff push? The star tailback is retiring. The standout defensive end has a foot injury that has ended his season and perhaps puts his future with the franchise in doubt. The coach has responded to fans' calls for him to be fired by ousting his offensive coordinator with one game left in the regular season. And all of it comes against the backdrop of six losses in seven games.

Such was the state of Team Tabloid, a.k.a. the New York Giants, as it spent Wednesday readying to face the Washington Redskins on Saturday night at FedEx Field. After winning the NFC East title last season and stringing together five straight victories to post a 6-2 record midway through this season, they now are in disarray. Yet their 7-8 record still is good enough in the sorry NFC that they almost certainly will secure the conference's second wild-card playoff berth if they beat the last-place Redskins.

"You can't think about what's going on," quarterback Eli Manning said in the locker room at Giants Stadium early Wednesday afternoon. "We have to concentrate on playing this game. We have a chance to make the playoffs, and that's all you can ask for sometimes."

If the Giants don't reach the playoffs, Saturday's game would be the final NFL game for 31-year-old tailback Tiki Barber, who has announced plans to walk away from the sport in his prime to pursue his successful broadcasting career. Barber's final game at Giants Stadium didn't exactly produce an inspired performance by his teammates, as the Giants surrendered 30 straight points after an early touchdown and lost 30-7 to the New Orleans Saints.

The outlook hasn't gotten any brighter since then. On Tuesday, the Giants placed defensive end Michael Strahan on the injured reserve list, ending his season. He had missed six games with a mid-foot sprain before returning to the lineup Sunday, only to aggravate the injury during the game. He was told by doctors he might have to undergo surgery. Teammates said Wednesday they expect Strahan to endure the six to eight months of rehabilitation that he'd be facing after surgery and return next season. But even if he does, the Giants might have to consider releasing him if he's not going to be healthy. He's under contract for two more seasons for salaries totaling $8 million.

The Giants also placed left tackle Luke Petitgout and punt returner Chad Morton on the IR list Tuesday. Petitgout hadn't played since suffering a broken leg last month, and Morton suffered a knee injury Sunday.

The turnover isn't limited to players. On Tuesday, Coughlin announced that he'd demoted offensive coordinator John Hufnagel and handed the offensive play-calling duties to quarterbacks coach Kevin Gilbride. Manning, the top overall selection in the 2004 draft who is in his third NFL season and his second full season as a starter, has failed to develop as rapidly as the team had hoped, and the Giants didn't have a single offensive snap in Saints territory Sunday. The Hufnagel move smacks of desperation, but, for Coughlin and the Giants, these clearly are desperate times.

Manning has had a good relationship with Gilbride. As an overwhelmed rookie, he sought out Gilbride on the train ride home from a particularly dreadful game in Baltimore and then, at Gilbride's urging, got Coughlin to simplify the offensive scheme for him. But Manning said Wednesday that the current problem with the offense isn't complexity or game-planning or play-calling, and he and other players said they know nothing will change if they don't take it upon themselves to improve their performance.

"It's not like we're going to change the whole offense in a few days," wide receiver Plaxico Burress said. "It's still the same thing -- maybe a couple different calls, but still the same offense. We just need to be more consistent. We haven't done that all year."

Said Manning: "I don't think it's the play-calling that's going to make a difference this week. It's the players stepping up and making a commitment to do the things we have to do to win a football game. We need to play better football than we've been playing. . . . We've got a one-game season now and we have to find a way to win a football game."

Coughlin's offensive coordinator switch comes on the heels of the fans chanting during Sunday's game for him to be fired. His contract runs through next season, and there was every reason to believe at midseason that co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch would extend Coughlin's deal in the offseason so that he wouldn't have to coach in the final season of his contract next year. Only a complete collapse by the Giants, it seemed then, could keep Coughlin from getting an extension. But what's happening now might qualify as that, and it's possible that Coughlin will be coaching for his job Saturday. The Giants already have begun conducting interviews to find a replacement for retiring general manager Ernie Accorsi, the man whose legacy in the sport will hinge on whether Manning becomes the special quarterback that Accorsi thought he'd be.

"It's a slap in the face to everybody. . . . It means we're not doing our jobs," middle linebacker Antonio Pierce said of the ouster of Hufnagel. "It's not just one man. It's everybody. When you play like we did last week, it's everybody. If things keep going like they're going, there will be a lot of changes around here."

But there is one more chance at redemption, thanks to the forgiving nature of the NFC wild-card scramble.

"We've been losing and losing," backup tailback Brandon Jacobs said. "And after all that, we still have a chance to get in the playoffs."