The feelings around town are definitely mixed.  Fire Coughlin or not, get rid of Eli or not, dump Ryan, bench Sanchez.  The only things to which all agree is that the Giants and Jets may not stink, but they are surely not smelling that sweet these days either. 

I’ll buy that last sentiment for sure.  But guess what?  It’s the players.  Even though I do pin the Eagles loss squarely on Coughlin, for the most part it’s the players who are to blame for the losses.  Not all the players, of course, but for the Giants it’s the linebackers and corners and for the Jets, it’s the defensive line.

Even though the Jets already clinched a playoff spot, it’s not as if they’re likely to get out of the first round, not with that defense.  The Giants threw away their playoff spot in that horrible meltdown against the Eagles but, even if that hadn’t happened, the same goes for them.  They’re just not that good.  They would have folded in the wildcard round.

But just because neither coach is the worst in the league, that doesn’t mean they should be retained.

 Ryan has become a clown and an embarrassment.  How can he hold the respect of his team after committing dumb thing after dumb thing?  Coughlin should be held accountable for throwing away that Eagles game.  Never has a defense played so recklessly, never has a return team been so oblivious and never has a punter been so scared. 

Imagine waking up some Monday morning to read that Coughlin is retiring!  Oh baby!  What a breath of fresh air!  No canned responses at press conferences, no confused countenance on the sideline, no listening to him blame every other thing, usually turnovers, for losses rather than just actually admitting to anything.

His public chastising of that rookie punter, Matt Dodge, after the Eagles game was pure Coughlin.  His only object was to make it clear to the television audience that he instructed that punter correctly.  With Coughlin it’s never his fault (although he does his false humility thing taking responsibility for every damned thing under the sun when things aren’t his fault).  In short, Coughlin is the biggest phony in the New York area, which is saying a lot.

As for Ryan, reading of his ousting would be a sad thing.  He’s a terrific personality and great with the defensive x’s and o’s but how many times can you have your lead guy embarrass the entire organization?  How can the players respect that?

I’d say dump them both…..except….

The only sobering aspect of firing each coach is that the replacement could definitely be worse.  These are both “football guys”.  Although it’s very unlikely that anyone could be more embarrassing than Ryan, or that anybody could be more annoying than Coughlin, it’s hard to imagine anyone being more qualified than either as a head football coach. 

Of course, I’d rather have Gruden, I’d rather have Cowher, I’d rather see Tomlin jump over here from Pittsburgh, and I wouldn’t mind having Spagnola back at all.  Other than that select group though, there really isn’t anyone to get excited about.  (Don’t even try talking me into Billick).

So any coaching move would be fraught with peril.  A lot of guys could be worse.  Maybe we should forgive Coughlin for the Eagles debacle, for the boring press conferences, for the Mom and apple pie feeling he gives to everything.  And maybe we could give Ryan a little time to straighten out his act and his life too.

As for the quarterbacks, all we hear about are Eli’s turnovers, never mind that half of them have bounced off some receiver’s hands or head or shoulder pads.  Never mind that he almost never has any time in the pocket, he does have some great receivers, right?  Oh, and never mind that he seems to have everyone’s respect in the locker room.

Is Eli fast?  Well, no.  Is he elusive?  Um, that would be a big no too (except for one notable Super Bowl exception).  Is he really accurate?  Well, he’s getting better.  But Unitas wasn’t any of those things (except for accurate), Starr wasn’t either (except for accurate), or Jurgensen or a lot of other signal-callers of great renown(except for accurate). 

I’d hang on to Eli. I’d concentrate on getting him some time in the pocket though, on the order of the time his brother seems to get in Indianapolis.

As for Sanchez, he surely looks like a keeper to me.  His football instincts aren’t always in evidence but that could be a disconnect between that wacky offensive coordinator and himself.  He just needs a little more experience, not to mention some receivers who catch the ball each and every game, not only when they really try to focus.

Yeah, I’d hang on to Sanchez.  I might look into getting him a new offensive coordinator though.

So I hope cooler heads prevail in both cases.  The lion’s share of the problems  for either team have nothing to do with coaching, at least not at the head, except for one notable game, or two if you count the Jets total meltdown in Foxboro. 

Get a couple of corners for the G-Men and maybe some help for that offensive line that only got worse when O’Hara returned.  Get a couple of defensive linemen for the boys in green.  Get rid of some of that high-priced help that in many cases hasn’t delivered. 

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to mimic the Belichick drafting strategy a bit, successively trading down for more lower picks, pretty much guaranteeing a whole lot of talent on the field at all times, if a little more distributed.

And, for both teams, try to decide what your team does best and then go out and do that.  It seems the Ground and Pound isn’t working.  And it’s hard to tell sometimes just what the Giants are trying to do. 

Maybe both teams could acquire a resident shrink.