When a team gets beaten handily twice to start a season, the head coach starts to ponder making early changes to give his squad a spark before fading too far into the darkness.
That's the scenario New York Giants coach Ben McAdoo is facing. Following Monday night's flop against the Detroit Lions, McAdoo said he's considering making significant changes across the board.
"We can't keep doing the same thing over and over again. That's insanity," he said on a conference call Tuesday, via the New York Daily News. "It's not working so we're going to look to make some more changes this week like we did last week. Maybe a little more drastic."
Perhaps the first change could be stepping away from play-calling duties. McAdoo has been calling plays since he took over as New York's offensive coordinator in 2014, and hung onto them after being promoted to head coach in 2016.
"That's something we'll look at and talk about," he said of possibly giving play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan.
The Giants' offense has been putrid for more than just the last two games -- in which they scored a combined 13 points. New York has scored fewer than 20 points in eight straight games, dating back to last year, including playoffs. It's the longest streak of ineptitude for Big Blue since Jimmy Carter sat in the White House and the Giants went 17 games with fewer than 20 points from 1978-79.
Perhaps a change in play-calling will kindle improvement, but the Giants have major personnel problems that aren't likely to get solved by changing who sends plays into Eli Manning's headset.
"Personnel jobs are won in this league," McAdoo said when asked about making changes. "They're not given away. Somebody's got to win a job to get a job."
Therein lies the problem. New York's backups aren't better than the current cast on the field.
The Giants' offensive line couldn't block a troll on Twitter right now. Ereck Flowers has become the epitome of poor offensive tackle play, but New York has no better option. Manning's lack of mobility makes him a sitting duck in the pocket. The Giants have zero running game. And when given a chance, receivers like Brandon Marshall have flopped.
Changing playcallers might be a wakeup call for the offense, but the Odell Beckham-or-bust operation is far from a one-change fix.