The Sheridan Question

Getting back to the previous entry, a lot of you have been calling for defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan's head for a long time. But the outcry reached a crescendo after last night's big-play disaster against Philadelphia.

That's understandable. The Giants were beaten by, among other things, nine, count'em, nine big plays. Six passes of 20 yards or more, and three runs of 10 or more yards. And the secondary let the Eagles' only real receiving threat, DeSean Jackson, catch six balls for 178 yards and a touchdown in one of the great receiving performances in Meadowlands history. Among them were grabs of 60 yards for a touchdown, and non-scoring catches of 32 and 44 yards, the latter coming on a third-and-20.


And the heck of it was, the Giants played a lot of Cover-2, a defense that by nature is supposed to prevent the big play. The whole philosophy of that coverage is to keep everything in front of the defensive backs. And yet, Jackson got behind the corners and safeties almost at will.


Seeing how easy it was for the Eagles to move through the Giants' defense, it's no wonder the question came up as to whether Tom Coughlin has seen enough of Steve Spagnuolo's successor. But -- and you won't be happy with this at all -- the answer was no. As things stand now, Sheridan will be keeping his job, at least for this season. That, despite continued communication problems and a failure to execute plays that have been repped over and over again in practice. That, despite his unit having allowed a whopping 259 points in this 2-6 stretch, an average of 32.3 points per game.


At the same time, Coughlin said he's not particularly happy with Sheridan.


"We should be a better football team," Coughlin said. "Our record should be better than it is."


Coughlin said he's expressed as much to his defensive coordinator, while at the same time propping him up against an increasing tide of criticism.


"We talk every day," Coughlin said. "I let him know my support for him, and I also let him know (the defensive play) has to be better. We have to do a better job. The inconsistency part of it is disturbing. Six big-play passes and three big-play runs, you're not going to beat anybody like that."


A couple of the players also found it disturbing. Aaron Ross called the feeling "sickening" of watching DeSean Jackson blow up the field past safety Michael Johnson -- in 2-Deep coverage -- as Johnson pinched up to cover a backup tight end.


But part of the problem, as you'll see in this video, is that perhaps Sheridan is asking players to do something they're not comfortable with. Terrell Thomas said he'd rather play bump-and-run with someone like Jackson, a tactic that went virtually unused last night as the Giants consistently went to off-coverage.


That said, however, even Thomas and Michael Boley supported their coordinator, as did Mathias Kiwanuka.

"We have 100 percent faith in him,” Kiwanuka said. “He knows Xs and Os better than a lot of people in this league and has given us an opportunity to play and put us in position to win games and we haven’t done it."

Coughlin chalked up the deep play issue to field awareness rather than communication or physical deficits.

"To me, it's an awareness thing," Coughlin said, specific to Jackson's 60-yard touchdown catch. "Why in the world we're stuck on this backup tight end coming off at us instead of the knowlege of where (Jackson) is. He's the one guy, wherever he is on the field."

Whatever the case, Coughlin said Sheridan will not join John Hufnagel as his only coordinator to be deposed before season's end. Hufnagel, you may remember, was replaced by Kevin Gilbride before the 2006 regular-season finale in Washington, which turned into a Giants win that got them into the playoffs.

It appears that, for now, Coughlin will stick with Sheridan through thick and thin. And things are getting awfully thin right now.

EP