Your Sunday Night NFL Football Open Thread

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CHICAGO — The first 12 minutes of Joe Judge’s postgame news conference were focused on topics like an inept passing game, a special-teams miscue and a questionable play call. It was the standard postgame fare.
But after Judge’s Giants got blown out 29-3 by the hapless Bears, a much more important question loomed: Why should fans have any faith that Judge can steer this franchise out of the abyss?
All indications have been that Judge will be granted a third year despite a 10-22 record in his first two seasons. But five straight losses by double digits could cause ownership to reconsider. With general manager Dave Gettleman and his 19-45 four-year record a week away from a pink slip, ownership certainly could decide to make a clean sweep after an unsightly stretch of non-competitive efforts.
So when Judge was asked why fans should believe that he can turn things around, he addressed the paying customers. But his epic, 11-minute closing soliloquy felt like it was mostly directed at his bosses.
The overriding message of Judge’s passionate monologue was that a culture is being put in place for success despite the utter lack of results on the field. Judge declined to identify specific “things moving in the right direction,” but he made it clear that he inherited a foundation with significant cracks.
Judge referenced “golf clubs in the locker room” (wide receiver Golden Tate’s golf bag resided in front of his locker late in the 2019 season) and said leaders failed to show up for captains’ meetings late in previous losing seasons.
“When I came here and I sat down with all the players, I wanted to know what it was like in here, what we had to change from their mouths,” Judge said. “To a man, every player looked me in the eye and said, ‘Joe, it’s not a team. They don’t play hard. We’re out of playoffs, everybody quit, everybody tapped out.’”
Judge emphasized the ways this year’s team is different. He spoke about how his players continue to fight, pointing out fourth-down defensive stops in the final minutes of their last two losses while trailing by more than 20 points.
Judge said impending free agents “are in my office every day begging to come back,” while players who left in the offseason call twice a week to say “how much they wish they were still here and they’re getting paid more somewhere else.”
Judge said the Giants “ain’t some clown-show organization.” He mentioned not having players fist-fighting on the sideline, which seemed like a clear reference to Washington Football Team defensive linemen Daron Payne and Jonathan Allen coming to blows during a recent blowout loss to the Cowboys (coincidentally, the Giants play Washington in the season finale).
“The toughest thing to change in a club is the way people think,” Judge said. “You can get new players … you got to change how people think. You got to change how they believe in what you’re doing. And then you got to trust the process. And that’s a lot easier said than done when they’re looking up right now and you got one game left and the most games you’re going to win is five this season.”
And that’s the rub. As Judge waxes poetically about how hard players practice and stay committed to the team, there’s no carryover to Sundays. The Giants have lost six games by 20 or more points in Judge’s two seasons. That matches the total from 2014 to 2019 under predecessors Pat Shurmur, Ben McAdoo and Tom Coughlin.
No one wants to hear injuries as an excuse, but five of those six 20-point losses came after quarterback Daniel Jones was lost for the season with a neck injury in Week 12. The offense was subpar with Jones and the team was 4-7 in his 11 starts, but there was at least a semblance of competency.
The offense has been completely hopeless in the five games without Jones. Quarterback Mike Glennon completed 4-of-11 passes for 24 yards with four turnovers and four sacks against the Bears. That came a week after Jake Fromm completed 6-of-17 passes for 25 yards with an interception in a 34-10 loss to the Eagles.
If Judge is back, his top objective this offseason will be totally rebuilding the offense. There will be a new offensive coordinator, additional staff changes and a devotion of resources to the offensive line. Odds are Jones will return as the starting quarterback, but the organization must at least explore potential upgrades.
Judge can point to the defense for hope that he can get the right pieces in place. Hiring Patrick Graham as defensive coordinator was Judge’s top priority after getting hired in 2020. There’s room for improvement, but the defense is almost solely responsible for all of the Giants’ wins and competitive showings over the past two seasons. A foundation is evident and with most key players returning, it’s reasonable to expect that unit to continue to grow.
Meanwhile, Judge was in an arranged marriage with offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, who had long been a favored son of ownership. Judge belatedly fired Garrett in Week 12, but Jones got hurt in the next game and the season went completely off the rails.
Just as Judge was saddled with Garrett, he also had to work with Gettleman. As Judge described the broken situation he inherited, it was impossible to ignore that Gettleman assembled that roster.
The Giants have been favored in one game this season. That they lost it, 17-14 to the Falcons in Week 3, doesn’t reflect well on the coaching staff. But being an underdog in the other 15 games speaks volumes about the roster Gettleman has constructed during his four years.
After surprisingly hiring Judge, then a 38-year-old special-teams coordinator, co-owner John Mara said, “It’s up to us to show a little more patience with this coach than perhaps we have over the last few years because he is a first-time head coach.”
Mara understood there would be growing pains, although Judge’s repeated game management miscues remain a major concern in Year 2. And maybe things will change with a more potent offense, but coaching ultra-conservatively seems to be part of Judge’s DNA.
Nonetheless, it’s entirely possible that Mara still believes in the vision Judge laid out during his job interview two years ago. Ownership could decide to give Judge a clean slate with a compatible general manager and a hand-picked offensive coordinator.
If Judge is retained, ownership must brace for the backlash from a fan base disgusted by a decade of losing.
“Fans have every right to boo,” Judge said. “If we don’t play well, every fan has the right to boo my ass out of the stadium.”
The few brave souls who show up at MetLife Stadium for next Sunday’s finale surely will take Judge up on that offer. But the people who will ultimately decide Judge’s fate will be sitting in the owner’s box.
“In terms of the next step to take, I can tell you right now: I know we’re a whole lot closer to where we’re going than further away,” Judge said late in his sermon.
We’ll find out soon enough if his bosses are convinced.