New Quarterback, same offense. Head Coach Pat Shurmur is starting to lose the confidence of Giants fans. This fan, at least, for starters.
Four weeks into the Daniel Jones era and the New York Giants are 2-2 with Jones under center, after an 0-2 start to the season.
Since then, I have yet to see much of a difference between Pat Shurmur’s offensive play calling with Eli Manning as the signal caller and the schemes he’s now using with Jones. You’d think with a mobile quarterback, he would be able to open up his playbook and find more creative and effective plays to confuse the opposing team’s defense and make them expect more quarterback options.
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However, the opposite seems to be happening. Since Jones’s impressive debut performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 3, his numbers have steadily declined; dropping from 336 passing yards in his comeback win against the Bucs to 225 against the Redskins, 182 against the Vikings, and 161 against the Patriots, with only one touchdown pass in each game, six interceptions, and a passing rating spiraling downward.
Despite injuries to a number of their starting players this season, I think Shurmur is currently the weakest component of the Giants offense. His play-calling has been uninspiring, predictable and is not fooling anyone.
It’s time for him to turn over the offensive play calling responsibilities to the offensive coordinator, Mike Shula. While Shula is no Doug Peterson to say the least, it’s clear that having to call the plays is too large of a responsibility for Shurmur to bear, and for someone who has not shown himself to be a capable Head Coach, it’s a wonder why he has so much autonomy.
Interestingly, this is the same request Giants fans were calling for the last head coach to do during his second year as the Giants head coach – and that was the beginning of the end for that coach. Shurmur appears to be heading down a similar path and that is not good for the franchise or the fan base.
His play calling against a stacked Patriots defense was ineffective without three of his starting players (Saquon Barkley, Evan Engram, and Sterling Shepherd) out due to injury. So far, I am not impressed with Shurmur this season, and am also getting tired of his antagonistic relationship toward the media when pressed to explain his in-game decisions.
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His defensive demeanor is not helping anyone; especially not the team. Shurmur’s dwindling support from the fans begins with his slow-moving offense and is intensified by his way too defensive manner during his post-game press conferences, which started with him cancelling his radio spot on WFAN with Mike Francesa over Francesa’s criticism of the team’s 0-2 start.
Although the Giants have suffered several significant injuries to their offense and defense this season (and have yet to have their top weapons on the field at the same time), every team deals with injuries. He needs to work with the group of players he has and design plays that highlight their strengths.
Every coach in the league has to deal with injuries. The good ones learn how to adapt and adjust.
Against the Patriots, the Giants were down 21-14 at the half – and Shurmur could not make adjustments to challenge the Patriots defensive schemes or produce any sort of momentum to support his players.
His defense showed up to play thanks to the efforts of Defensive Coordinator, James Bettcher, but his offense could not get it together or sustain drives – and that fault lies with him. The opposing defense feels like it is never fooled in the least bit by anything Shurmur dials up.
Punting on a 4th and 2 with your team down by two scores and with 7 minutes to play was pathetic. Shurmur gave up on the team at a pivotal moment in the game where his leadership was needed most – and that is unacceptable.
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Never mind the fact that the Giants probably would not have come back to tie the game or the fact that it was not a given that they would have converted on fourth down, but Shurmur should have trusted in his offense to make a play, instead of sending out his punting unit to surrender with so much time left on the clock. Punting the ball away to the best team in the NFL made his chances go down from long shot to not shot.
Going forward, unless he starts coaching better, fans will start to realize that switching quarterbacks was not enough to cover up the systemic problems that exist in their offensive unit – and that realization starts with Pat Shurmur not being up to the challenge.