Maybe if Tom Coughlin is quicker yanking the red challenge flag out of his sock, maybe if someone on the field actually isn’t mesmerized and has the wherewithal to actually, you know, act like a player, maybe if the Giants don’t react like some second-rate middle school team, maybe Andrew Luck simply shrugs and a minute or two later passes the Colts into the end zone anyway.
But that’s not the point.
No one can say the Giants’ gift-wrapped touchdown early in the second quarter — not getting lined up on defense to allow the Colts quarterback to spot a wide-open Coby Fleener for an uncontested 32-yard TD — didn’t matter much in a game Indianapolis dominated after halftime to win 40-24, after building a 40-10 lead. It was only 3-0 at the time of the mishap and to that point the Giants were bending but not breaking on defense. The way their offense was functioning — or not functioning — it was unfathomable the Giants could present Luck with the easiest throw for score he might ever have in his career.
The fault lies everywhere, and it was a disturbing thing to see. Getting beat physically is one thing. This was something else. One player (Jacquian Williams) described the scene on defense as “chaos’’ and another, Antrel Rolle, described it as undisciplined at best, mindless at worst. Fleener made a catch for 21 yards. Williams and other players on the field thought it should be ruled no catch and as the Colts hurried to get off another play, the Giants crumbled.
“When we looked to the sideline we saw the coaches scrambling, trying to get the flag out, to be honest with you it kinda fooled us a little bit because we figured he’s gonna challenge the call,’’ Rolle said. “There were some guys playing one coverage, there were some guys playing another coverage. It was busted altogether.’’
This cannot happen. That it did has to embarrass those responsible for paying the players and putting the team together. All Coughlin had to do, sensing things were awry on the field, was to call a timeout.
“Sure, I could have done a lot of things, yeah,’’ he said Tuesday with a day to reflect. “Sure, but if I could have got an official that way that’s fine. That wasn’t the thing that popped into my head at the time.’’
All any player, if he was thinking clearly, had to do, sensing the defense was not ready, was to call a timeout. But that’s not what Coughlin wanted.
“The sideline, I handle the timeouts,’’ he said. “The players were not wrong in that regard.’’
Instead, there was fumbling for a red flag from a coach who knew Fleener had taken three or four steps with the ball before fumbling it to himself. Coughlin was told by the official there was no challenge to be made on the play, but Coughlin was desperate to stop the game at that point. His too-slow response and a lack of poise and focus on the field cost the Giants seven points and, more damagingly, a great deal of credibility.
Incredibly, Coughlin said the Giants went over this exact situation — Colts make a big play, rush to get off another pass play before the defense is set — that very morning of game day. Why was there a disconnect?
“In the distraction of whether it was a catch or a non-catch, some of the players did not react to the practiced call,’’ Coughlin explained. “There was a verbal signal, which meant after a big play, they certainly always went for a hurry-up type of a play. They rushed up over the ball, there was some distraction over the previous play, people didn’t get lined up the way they were supposed to and they ended up with a very easy touchdown.
“We should have gotten ourselves lined up and we should have been able to play the next play better. We didn’t and put it on me. We didn’t get lined up, we should have got lined up, we practiced it all week, we knew how they reacted after the big play, we coached it, we had gone over it as late as the morning of the game. But in the moment of truth, believing the ball was not caught, a couple of our players did not react properly, didn’t get lined up and we got caught with it.
“It’s not an excuse. It should not have happened. It did happen. Blame it on me.’’
Other notables coming out of another one-sided Giants loss:
— So much for the breakout game for DE Damontre Moore. This was the week he was going to get a whole bunch more work, as GM Jerry Reese called for, with a passing team in the building. Well, not so much. Moore was on the field for 25 of the 75 defensive snaps and he had five tackles, one tackle for loss and one QB hit. Not bad, not great. Certainly not DaMonster.
— The best defensive player on the field for the Giants was DE Robert Ayers, who is shaping up to be one of their best free-agent signings. Ayers in 45 snaps rushed the passer 30 times and was credited with seven QB hits, which is outstanding, and he got the lone sack on Luck.
— You could have made a case that Prince Amukamara was having the best season of any player on defense and that he had evolved into the one player that unit could least afford to be without. Well, if that is the case, then the already-sinking Giants are about to capsize. Amukamara lasted only 17 snaps against the Colts before leaving with a torn right biceps muscle, an injury that will end his season after only eight games. Amukamara had been the only capable, durable, dependable cornerback on the roster and now he’s gone. If you’re keeping count, the Giants have now lost Walter Thurmond, Trumaine McBride and Amukamara and have been playing with a physically diminished Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. These are too many hits in one spot.
“I just got off the phone with Prince, and that’s a hard pill to swallow,’’ Antrel Rolle said Tuesday on WFAN. “I mean, that’s my guy. He’s been competing and playing at such a high level all season long. He’s been so consistent, he’s been making plays, he’s been catching interceptions. We’ve been on Prince tough, for all four years he’s been here we’ve been on him extremely tough and he’s finally becoming a man and even better than we’ve asked him to become. To lose him, it just seems like we can’t get ahead of the ball. It just seems like one after another after another after another, like, ‘What is it gonna take?’ It’s very unfortunate. You got to have a lot of luck in this game to stay healthy. We got to find a way, we can’t hang our heads, we have to find a way to play with what you have.’’
— What kind of night was it for LB Jacquian Williams? Hard to say, but it sure was busy. It seemed Luck wanted to throw in his direction on almost every play, targeting his tight ends covered by Williams as if Williams did something nasty to Luck in a previous life. Fleener was targeted 11 times, and he only caught four passes for 77 yards and one TD on the non-coverage by the entire Giants defense. The other tight end, Dwayne Allen, hauled in four passes in the five times the ball was thrown his way. Williams finished with 17 tackles — 13 of them solo tackles — but only one pass defense. He was around the ball, but often was taking down tight ends after they caught it.
— Of course the talent level with Odell Beckham Jr. is off the charts. He glides across the field and when the ball comes his way, it’s almost as if he inhales it. He put on his usual show in pregame, snatching passes out of the air with the flick of one hand, catching it almost as an afterthought. He was targeted 11 times and came away with eight receptions for 156 yards, including a zig-zag 59-yarder. The Giants need to roll him in bubble wrap to keep him safe.
— Preston Parker was terrible. Eli Manning threw at him six times and all Parker could come up with was one catch for seven yards. It was so bad, Parker took to Twitter to apologize to Giants fans and vowed to do better next time. Well, next time might not be coming anytime soon. Parker left the stadium wearing a walking boot on his left foot. Plus, rookie Corey Washington was dusted off in garbage time and he responded with the first four catches (for 48 yards) of his NFL career, including his first touchdown. Parker is not the future, but Washington might be.
— This might fall into the “too cautious’’ offensive game-planning Reese bemoaned, but here goes anyway: Eli Manning has not thrown an interception in 145 passes, the longest streak of his career. He hasn’t been picked off in four games.
— Stop throwing it! The Giants fell to 1-20 in their history when they throw 50 or more passes. Manning is 1-4 in those games in the regular season. The one big exception is the 2011 NFC Championship Game, when Manning threw 58 passes in a Giants overtime victory in San Francisco.