Nothing short of Mike Kafka running the table would have convinced me that the Giants should remove the “interim” tag before his current title. This is a team in desperate need a new voice from outside the organization, preferably one with head coaching experience on his resume.
Still, it is impossible not to love the way Kafka has coached this deeply flawed team in his half-season audition so far. He is aggressive, creative and — compared to his predecessor — in complete control of his emotions on the sidelines. That he is 0-2 after a 34-27 overtime loss to the Detroit Lions is still more on the man who built this roster, GM Joe Schoen, than it is the one currently coaching it.
So if you’re among the fans/observers/injured wide receivers bellyaching about his decision to go for the jugular on a fourth-and-goal play late in the game rather than kick the field goal, I have one question: Have you actually watched this team’s defense?
Kafka surely has. He decided he would rather take his chances with an offense on its way to gaining more than 500 yards on Sunday than a defense that already had blown four double-digit leads — including three in the fourth quarter — so far this season.
The Giants, up three, were facing a fourth-and-goal play at the Lions’ 6-yard line with three minutes left. Had Kafka opted for the field goal, the Giants would have had to kick the ball back to a potent Lions offense knowing a touchdown and extra point would send them home as losers once again.
With a good defense, maybe kicking that field goal is an easier call. It can’t be emphasized enough: This is not a good Giants defense.
“Our decision was a correct one. I stand by it,” Kafka told reporters in Detroit after the game. “We took a shot to go up 10 points.”
If we’re going to quibble with Kafka’s coaching, the decision to throw on second down during that goal-line series — and not forcing the Lions to use their final time out — was the mistake. Even so, the Lions were pinned back in the shadow of their own end zone after quarterback Jameis Winston threw incomplete on fourth down. They needed a 59-yard field goal, a career long for kicker Jason Bates, to tie the game.
Kafka, who called a brilliant offensive game filled with trick plays that kept the Lions off balance all afternoon, mostly pushed all of the right buttons. He can keep the hot streak going this week with one more no-brainer of a decision.
He should fire Shane Bowen.
The defensive coordinator can’t survive another fourth-quarter meltdown, not after his defense gave up 219 yards on just 15 carries to star Detroit running back Jahmyr Gibbs.
The Giants correctly fired head coach Brian Daboll after an unacceptable collapse against the Chicago Bears that included putting his rookie quarterback, Jaxson Dart, at risk too often with designed runs. They incorrectly kept Bowen, the man responsible for the impotent defenses that led to the unthinkable losses in Chicago, Denver and Dallas, and the result was flushing another winnable game on Sunday in Detroit.
Bowen won’t survive this season, so why not let somebody else — anybody else — take the play sheet and see what he can dial up? What do the Giants have to lose but more games?
Kafka has five games left on this audition, including three against teams — Washington, Minnesota and Las Vegas — that are, like the Giants, headed nowhere this season. He still has an opportunity to make the kind of impression on co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch that at least gets him serious consideration for the job.
Mara and Tisch have to like when they’ve seen from their suddenly aggressive and creative team with Kafka calling the shots so far. Imagine how they might feel if this broken defense shows signs of improving under a different coach. It can’t get any worse.
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