Mike Kafka is not going to be, cannot be, the next full-time head coach of the New York Giants.
That much became clear both during and after the Giants’ humiliating, non-competitive 33-15 loss to the New England Patriots on Monday night.
Kafka seems to be a nice guy. He is doing the best he can in adverse circumstances, which is what all interim gigs are.
In his first couple of weeks on the job after the firing of Brian Daboll, Kafka did some good things.
He got the team to play hard, and nearly beat playoff-bound teams in the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions. He and the Giants might have done that, except for the team’s defenseless defense.
Kafka handled an Abdul Carter situation Daboll had apparently been unwilling to handle as the No. 3 overall pick in the draft had apparently not been disciplined by Daboll for what have been said to be repeated transgressions. When Carter missed walk-through — whether he was sleeping or rehabbing is irrelevant. Carter wasn’t where we was supposed to be, and got benched for the first series of a Week 11 game against the Green Bay Packers.
After two “get to know you” weeks of watching Shane Bowen try to lead the Giants’ defense, Kafka fired Bowen and replaced him with Charlie Bullen. That led to a more aggressive defensive philosophy against the Patriots. It did not lead to better results.
Kafka had done enough good things prior to Monday that it seemed he could be a legitimate candidate to have “interim” removed from his title. Provided, of course, his team won some games. A signature victory Monday over a 10-2 Patriots team would have help.
Instead, Monday was a disaster for Kafka. Both during and after a 33-15 drubbing by the Patriots that looked a varsity team scrimmaging against the JV.
The Giants were not competitive right from the opening kickoff, when they surrendered a 39-yard return. The special teams were comically inept. The defensive calls with Charlie Bullen replacing Shane Bowen were more aggressive, but it wasn’t any better. The Giants still gave up 6.3 yards per play and could not get stops in the first half when there was still a chance the game could be competitive.
Kafka, who has said again and again that he wants the Giants to be in an aggressive mindset, did not appear to be in one. The two fourth downs he refused to go for made it look like he was coaching with an eye toward keeping the scoreboard at least semi-respectable rather risking an even bigger blowout in an effort get back into the game.
Down 27-7 with 1:13 left in the first half, Kafka chose to punt with fourth-and-1 at the Giants’ 40-yard line. New England, of course, turned that into three points. With fourth-and-8 at the Giants’ 27-yard line and 7:41 to play Kafka punted with the score 30-15 and the Giants still have the tiniest pulse. Again, New England turned that into a field goal.
At the end of Joe Judge’s tenure as Giants head coach, I thought there were times he played not to win but to minimize the embarrassment. At times this year, I thought Brian Daboll did the same thing. Now, in his third game, Kafka.
The fourth-and-1, Kafka said, was a “tossup for me,” but that he decided to play field position. Field position? Down 20? With a punt team having a disastrous night and a defense that was easy pickings for quarterback Drake Maye and the Patriots?
“We want to stay aggressive and when the opportunity comes up, we’ll try to be aggressive. At that time, I didn’t feel like that was the spot for it depending,” Kafka said. “We get it, great. If we don’t, now you’re basically making it a three-score game where now it’s a little bit more difficult. Just trying to play field position and just stay with it.”
Depending on what? Good grief.
In my view, that is a basic admission that the coach was more concerned about falling farther behind than trying to get back into the game.
There was more head-scratching stuff from a post-game presser in which the interim head coach seemed out of his depth.
In a 24-question post-game press conference, Kafka was asked 12 consecutive questions about the benching of Abdul Carter.
Kafka said it was “my decision” or a “coach’s decision” 11 times in his 12 answers. A handful of other times he said some variation of “that was the decision I decided to make.”
Not once did Kafka admit the obvious — that it was again disciplinary.
Carter admitted it. Other Giants players acknowledged it. Kafka deflected, then praised the way Carter played after entering the game in the second quarter.
“Listen, when he came back in the game you saw the kind of impact he had and the player this guy is,” Kafka said. “This is a kid that I, again, I back, I support this kid highly and for any young player that we have on the roster, whether it’s Abdul or any rookie or young player, we’re going to make sure we him under our wing and continue to develop these guys because they’re important to us. They’re important to me. Abdul is no different, just like Jaxson [Dart], just like young players like [Tyrone] Tracy and DA [Darius Alexander].
“All these guys that are stepping up in big-time, major roles, these are the guys that we’re continuing to develop, continuing to grow, continuing to be pros. The standard that we have in our program are sky high and everyone is upheld to hem. That was my decision, my decision only. Anything else outside of it is going to be kept in house.”
Dart, who just missed two games with a concussion and has been criticized for not protecting himself while carrying the ball, took a massive hit along the sideline early in Monday’s game. It came on a play where the quarterback had a clear opportunity to get out of bounds that he didn’t take.
Dart got up after being sent flying by New England’s Christian Elliss — the last thing the Giants needed to see. Kafka’s answer about the play basically amounted “all’s well that ends well.”
“Jaxson’s an aggressive football player. He’s on the sideline, trying to get himself out of bounds. Takes a hit. He bounced up. He’s a tough kid,” Kafka said. “Obviously don’t want him to take any hits that are unnecessary but he was work his way out of bounds.”
Was he, though?
The only thing I am sure of after Monday is that Kafka almost certainly worked himself out of consideration for the full-time head coaching job.
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