The New York Giants didn’t fire their head coach on Black Monday like three other teams did. Instead, they waited until Tuesday to let Joe Judge know that he’s roadkill after posting two ugly and losing seasons.
Judge, a former special teams coach with the New England Patriots and a vaunted Bill Belichick disciple, went 10-23 with the Giants in two seasons in his first-ever stint as a head coach. Head coaching is a different beast than being a coordinator or positions coach, and Judge clearly wasn’t ready to make the big leap even though the Giants took a flier on the untested 38-year-old wunderkind.
Under Judge, the Giants were the lowest-scoring team in the NFL for the past two seasons. Bad beats due to injuries aside, the Giants couldn’t get into the end zone while playing in the worst division in the league. The NFC East has been a dumpster fire for the past few seasons, but Judge’s Giants couldn’t even win a bum fight.
Ask any fantasy nerd about any stat and they’ll quickly inform you that Judge and the Giants were dead last. Yup, even below the dreaded LOL Jets. The Giants were last in the league in offensive efficiency, last in yards per play, last in points per drive, and last in touchdown drive percentage. This season, the Giants were also the worst team in the NFC in terms of points differential, getting outgunned by 158 points. No wonder the Giants only won four games in the 17-game season.
NFL memes: Giants/Goodfellas
If you’re a football fan in the New York City metropolitan area, then you’ve had a rough time for the past couple of years, especially if you support the Giants. As a self-hating Jets fan, I can attest to the misery and agony, but that’s become the norm. For Giants fans, it’s a much different trip. The G-Men are a winning franchise with multiple Super Bowl victories in two different eras. But, it’s been a long time since their last magical playoff run — almost too long because Giants fans forgot what it’s like to root for a winning team.
The last decade hasn’t been kind to the Giants with just one wild-card playoff appearance in the last 10 seasons. They could never find the right coach and, over the past four years, they had the wrong general manager. Once again, it’s time for a change and a new regime. But will it be the same as it ever was, like their brethren the Jets? Or, have the Giants finally hit rock bottom and are ready to rise up from the ashes?
Sometimes a clever meme cuts through the muck and delivers a direct hit. Kudos to the folks at The Ringer for their meme on Wednesday. It’s the scene from Goodfellas when Joe Pesci’s character Tommy thinks he’s getting “made” by the mafia higher ups, but it’s just a ruse because he gets whacked.
Joe Judge walking into the office today pic.twitter.com/hRGFv6wloI
— #RingerNFL (@ringernfl) January 11, 2022
The same thing happened to Judge this week before the Giants finally fired him. He thought he survived the bloodshed on Black Monday when the Giants forced general manager Dave Gettleman into retirement after a tumultuous four-year stint. Judge walked into work on Tuesday focused on the upcoming season, and then BAM!
