By Greg DeVries
Sports Writer
Greg Schiano, what have you done? The game was over. All the Giants were doing was making their win official, but you decided to be a sore loser.
Football is a game of possession. The Giants had the ball with a 7-point lead and five seconds to go. That means the Giants have earned the victory, barring a serious error in judgment.
Both teams lined up to watch Eli Manning take a knee. Both teams go into the locker room and that’s that. But Tampa Bay Buccaneer coach Greg Schiano told his defensive players to push as hard as they could.
The result was a pile of bodies at the line of scrimmage and an enraged New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin. And he had every right to be mad.
Schiano told the media that all of the teams he has coached have done the same thing.
Well, that just means he was wrong then too. If Schiano wants his players to give it their all, then telling them to push the line on a quarterback kneel isn’t the way to do it.
Maybe they should have played harder during the other 59 minutes, 55 seconds of the game where Manning passed for a career-best 510 yards. That’s when you send a message. Not on a quarterback kneel.
Football is a chess match. Tampa Bay was one move away from being checkmated. Instead of taking his loss with class, he flipped the board over.
It hasn’t worked in the past. The miracle in the meadowlands was a fumble on a handoff, so don’t even go there.
Take your loss like men, Tampa Bay. You deserved it.
And we’re supposed to think the Buccaneers were just playing hard? C’mon, man.
