Former Rutgers coach Greg Schiano got a welcome to the NFL by Tom Coughlin after the Buccaneers’ 41-34 loss to the Giants. And it probably included a few swears.
On the last play of the game, Eli Manning took a knee to run out the clock on the Giants’ win and Schiano told his team to drive into the offensive line and try to create a fumble. Of course they didn’t, but when Manning was knocked on his butt Coughlin invoked the “you don’t do that” mantra and ripped into Schiano at the end-game handshake.
“I don’t think you do that at this level. You don’t do that in this league. You just don’t,” Coughlin said. “You jeopardize the offensive line; you jeopardize the quarterback. Thank goodness we didn’t get anyone hurt — that I know of. A couple of the linemen were late coming in.”
I was with Coughlin at first, even with his guilt-trip line at the end. (No one was hurt and no one even appeared hurt.) But crazy stuff happens in the NFL. Just look at the Patriots-Cardinals game from yesterday. Sure, Ryan Williams fumbled on an actual running play (same goes for the legendary “Miracle in the Meadowlands”), but you just never know. The Bucs were only down by a touchdown.
“That was a first,” Eli Manning said. “Obviously I think it’s a little bit of a cheap shot. We’re taking a knee, we’re in a friendly way and they’re firing off and that’s a way to get someone hurt.”
Schiano wouldn’t back down in his press conference after the game, even after Coughlin chewed him out.
I don’t know if that’s not something that’s done in the National Football League, but what I do with our football team is we fight until they tell us the game is over. There’s nothing dirty about it. There’s nothing illegal about it. We crowd the ball. It’s like a sneak defense and we try to knock it loose. If they watch Rutgers, they would know, that’s what we do at the end of the game. We’re not going to quit. That’s just the way I coach and teach our players. Some people were upset about it. I don’t have any hesitation. That’s the way we play: clean, hard football until they tell us the game is over.
You can take a look at the play yourself and decide.
The one thing it did do is piss off the Giants though. We know that.
“Well, it won’t be forgotten, I’ll just say that,” Justin Tuck said.
Worst. Penalty. Ever.
Wanna see the worst pass interference call ever? Of course you do.
This is from yesterday’s Jets-Steelers game. Ike Taylor (No. 24) was called for pass interference on Santonio Holmes on the play:
Yep. Apparently, according to the replacement refs, you don’t even need to touch a guy to get called for pass interference.
Josh Morgan is a fool
You can be forgiven for not watching Redskins-Rams on a Sunday afternoon even though it included RGIII and one of the stupid decisions by a player ever. (I’m going all in on the EVER statements this post.)
The Redskins were in position to kick a game-tying field goal after a catch by Josh Morgan with a little over a minute left in the game. Morgan came up just shy of a first down and after the Rams’ Cortland Finnegan — a famous jerk in his own right — shoved Morgan, the receiver threw the ball at Finnegan. Personal foul, 15 yards, no more field goal range. Ouch.
The Redskins lost by 3.
Follow Metro New York Sports Editor Mark Osborne on Twitter @MetroNYSports. He won’t take any cheap shots at you. Not in person anyway. Maybe a Twitter.
