david dieHl - New York Giants

Giants bow to Ravens, human nature
By Ian O’Connor
ESPNNewYork.com
Dec. 24, 2012
BALTIMORE -- Tom Coughlin beat Bill Belichick not in one indelible Super Bowl, but in two. In a
feat nearly as impressive, Coughlin beat all the credentialed critics who wanted him run out of
town not once, but twice.
The head coach of the New York Giants beat the head coach of the New York Jets, Rex Ryan,
after Rex's roaring mouth turned Christmas Eve 2011 into an all-or-nothing struggle for control
of the market. Coughlin even beat the serious hamstring injury he suffered on a sideline hit in
that game, dragging his leg out to midfield to meet the vanquished Ryan and hobbling all the
way to another ticker-tape parade.
Coughlin has defeated a lot of opponents, most of them real rather than imagined, over his nine
years leading the Giants. But this season he's run into an immovable force that will almost
certainly cost him a chance to compete in the Super Bowl tournament, never mind win it.
Human nature. Coughlin tried to coach around it and through it and above it, and he never
stood a chance.
"They're looking to me for answers," Coughlin said of his players after a devastating 33-14 loss
to the Baltimore Ravens. "And the answers are not easy ones."
The Giants have been playing pro football for 88 years, and they've never won back-to-back
championships for this specific reason: It's awfully hard to do. Freshly crowned athletes are
forever saying they remain as motivated as ever in pursuit of a second straight ring, but what
are they supposed to say for public consumption?
I'm good, I've got mine?
Coughlin nearly beat human nature in 2008, too, a season that notarized his greatness as a
coach. Off his first upset victory over Belichick's Patriots in the biggest of big games, Coughlin
had the Giants rolling toward a two-peat. "We were 11-1," he would say, "and I thought we
were the best team in football. And then, all of a sudden, we're out in one playoff game."
They were out in one playoff game because Plaxico Burress had accidentally shot up his leg over
the long Thanksgiving weekend, and the Giants simply couldn't replace him. So 2012 was
supposed to be a mulligan for the core holdovers from that Plaxcident-waiting-to-happen
season, the Coughlins and Eli Mannings, the Osi Umenyioras and Justin Tucks, the Corey
Websters and Chris Snees.
"What I said to our team," Coughlin said in August, "and why it's so important that they believe
in team, is that all it took was one selfish act."