New York Giants: Are the Giants crumbling from the inside-out?

For the fourth time in five games, and the 17th time in 21 games, the New York Giants have lost a football game. What seems to be the problem?

It’s no secret that the New York Giants have been exceptionally bad at football the past two years.

But, what is the problem?

We thought the problem resided in Ben McAdoo and Jerry Reese, but they were both replaced and for the second straight year the Giants have lost at least four of their first five games.

Well, we are now five games into the 2018 NFL season and the Giants are 1-4 after cleaning house and drafting a player in Saquon Barkley who was supposed to be a franchise changing talent.

So what seems to be the problem?

You could ask this question to ten Giants fans and you would likely get ten different answers. There is no right answer to this question, just a lot of accurate ones.

One answer you might get would be Pat Shurmur.

Many Giants fans believe he is making a lot of bad choices when it comes to smaller issues. Issues such as who to put on the field to return punts.

In Week 5 against the Panthers, the Giants went with Odell Beckham Jr. who made a critical mistake in the second quarter which led to a Panthers touchdown.

Odell decided to block someone instead of fielding the punt.

The ball then bounced off his leg to his left where Janoris Jenkins attempted to pick it up but then fumbled it immediately, following the fumble it bounced off Eli Apple‘s leg and into the end zone where the Panthers jumped on it leading to a touchdown.

A long explanation for a short answer, but it is situations like these where many Giants fans point their finger at Pat Shurmur for the 1-4 start.

It’s not only that Odell apparently doesn’t know how to field a punt, but it is the potential problems he could run into in being the punt returner.

What if OBJ were to get injured because he was serving as the punt returner?

Giants fans would be calling for Shurmur’s head, and Shurmur would have no answer other than he thought Odell was the best fit for the job.

However, if you ask me, that is not the problem.

On that particular situation, there is nothing you can do if Odell were to get injured fielding a punt.

Pat Shurmur is the head coach and if he believes Odell Beckham Jr. should be fielding punts, then he should be fielding punts.

So, the real problem is becoming more and more apparent, and more pressing.

That problem lies in the entire organization and the attitudes they have had for what seems to be a couple of weeks running now.

This past week in an interview with ESPN’s Josina Anderson, which can be seen below, Odell was asked a question which brought out the true colors of multiple Giants players and employees such as Pat Shurmur.

Odell asked “How come we can’t throw the ball for more than 20 yards?” Odell, clearly upset with Eli Manning and the play calling after not having a single touchdown reception until week five.

This comment angered Pat Shurmur as Jordan Ranaan talked about:

Clearly the entire locker room is in a bad state of mind as no one seems to be too thrilled about the start Big Blue is off to. We saw another outburst on the Giants bench, this time Sterling Shepard was the center of attention.

The entire Giants organization seems to be upset, and if they don’t get back to a clear state of mind then they won’t win a football game anytime soon.