New York Giants: Why Pat Shurmur is not the long term solution

After another disappointing loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 13, the New York Giants sit at 2-10 on the 2019-2020 NFL season. The loss, which occurred on owner John Mara’s 65th birthday, extended the team’s losing streak to eight games.

Pat Shurmur is now the first New York Giants head coach with more than ten losses in each of his first two seasons with the team since Ray Perkins in 1979-1980.

Not to mention, last week’s loss to the Chicago Bears marked the first time in the history of the franchise that the Giants were winless in both October and November.

For Giants fans, the silver lining is another top pick in the NFL Draft, but the lack of progression shown from the team in the past two years has many rightfully questioning Shurmur’s future in New York.

Shurmur is now 17-43 in his career as an NFL head coach, good for a paltry 28% win rate. He has not won more than five games in any season, and with matchups against the more talented Philadelphia Eagles rounding out two of the last four games of the season, don’t expect that drought to end just yet.

But the justification for moving on from Shurmur goes well beyond his .283 winning percentage.

The former offensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams, Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings was granted the head coaching job in New York primarily for his ability as a play-caller and decision-maker.

But regardless of team personnel, an honest evaluation of these two aspects over the past two seasons suggests otherwise.

Let’s start with the 34-27 loss against the hapless New York Jets in week 11.

Forget about the fact that the Giants lost the game.

Superstar running back Saquon Barkley is a generational talent. For Barkley to have just one rushing yard on only 13 carries against a bottom-ten-team is inexcusable.

Obviously, bad offensive line play had a lot to do with the uncharacteristic performance from Barkley, as well as the Jets actually being stout against the run. However, Barkley, who has fought through a number of injuries this season, was not completely healthy and Shurmur’s play-calling was lackluster.

It’s safe to say that Barkley’s long-term health is far more valuable than the one or two more games that he could help the Giants win this season. On the other hand, Shurmur’s play-calling this season has been nothing more than below-average.

Since he has joined New York, Shurmur has implemented a predictable scheme, often running inside zone runs on first down, creating many second-and-long situations, and having his receivers run routes that fall short of the first down marker on third down.

Again, injuries and lack of talent on the offensive side of the ball cannot be ignored, but it seems as if teams have been able to sort of figure the Giants offense out as each game progresses, with Big Blue often hanging around early in the first half only to fail to move the ball down the field for the most part in the second half.

Throughout the duration of the past two years, there has been numerous occasions where Shurmur has seemed to wave to the white flag in winnable games with conservative play calling in late-game situations, while in turn being far too aggressive in other situations that have left fans scratching their heads.

In Week 6, the Giants were down 28-14 with 7:08 remaining in Foxborough against the defending champion New England Patriots.

On 4th down, Shurmur opted to punt the Giants’ hopes at winning the game away. Frankly, it seemed as if Shurmur was more concerned about making it look like his team put up a better fight on the scoreboard instead of giving his rookie quarterback a chance to grow on the road in a valuable situation.

Another loss that immediately stands out to explain his over-aggressiveness at the wrong times, took place the very next week at home against the Arizona Cardinals. Shurmur  stunningly called a draw on third-and-18 late in the fourth quarter, with the Giants trailing by less than a score and needing to put together a drive to win the game. Barkley gained just three yards on the run, setting up fourth-and-15 at New York’s 33-yard line with 2:35 remaining. It appeared as though Shurmur was just trying to punt and live to see another day (drive), but what happened next is unexplainable.

Trailing by three points, Shurmur had two timeouts and the two-minute warning to stop the clock. Given the down and distance, the logical call would have been a punt, a hope for a defensive stop and another shot for rookie quarterback Daniel Jones.

Shurmur kept his offense on the field, which would have probably been okay if he had chosen to throw the ball on the previous down, but the ball ended back up in the hands of the Cardinals in Giants territory instead, and Big Blue went on to predictably lose the game.

Another glaring issue for Shurmur has been one of the most important components of being a good football coach at any level. Throughout his tenure as head coach, there has been numerous instances where Shurmur has completely mismanaged the clock in key situations.

The constant lack of execution dates back to last season, with Shurmur making questionable decisions in losses to the New Orleans Saints, and the Atlanta Falcons.

The list goes on and on, but the point isn’t the fact that New York has been losing games, it’s the continuous fashion in which it has lost.

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The fourth-quarter punt sequence against the Bears in Week 12 is a prime example of why the Giants must move on from Shurmur.

Head coach Matt Nagy outmaneuvered Shurmur by getting the Giants to leave its defense on the field while Chicago’s punting team quickly got set and put a Jones in a near-impossible situation to come back from.

Shurmur has failed to put his players positions to come out on top in multiple winnable games, and with a rookie quarterback trying emerge as the face of the franchise, it’s time to seek out other options.

Who the Giants should replace him with is different discussion for a different day, but one thing is for sure: Shurmur should not be a part of General Manager Dave Gettleman’s long-term plan.

The players in the locker room seem to have moved on – as many reports surfaced after yesterday’s embarrassing ‘home’ loss to the Packers of players voicing their frustration with the gameplan – and the front office needs to do the same.