blew a fourth-quarter lead in a loss Sunday against the Lions<\/a> for the fifth time this season and for the third straight week. They are the only team eliminated from playoff contention.<\/p>\nThe Giants fired Shane Bowen. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
The Lions became the third opponent (Bears and Broncos) to erase a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit against the Giants, who fell to 2-5 in games that they have led by 10 or more points at any point. The Giants\u2019 five blown double-digit leads tied an NFL record.<\/p>\n
The change is a reversal from Kafka\u2019s postgame stance.<\/p>\n
Mike Kafka has made a number of changes since taking over as interim head coach. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a lot of confidence in Shane and his entire staff,\u201d Kafka said.<\/p>\n
Firing\u00a0Bowen\u00a0is the latest pound of flesh thrown to angry fans. The Giants also recently banished unpopular players Evan Neal and Graham Gano to injured reserve, re-acquired Isaiah Hodgins in a plug-and-play move that made sense and moved Jameis Winston ahead of Russell Wilson on the quarterback depth chart.<\/p>\n
Bowen\u00a0had sounded like a broken record in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cSame story right now,\u201d\u00a0Bowen\u00a0said last week. \u201cFighting to fix it, fighting to find solutions for these guys, and being able to make the plays when we need them most.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giants co-owner John Mara railed against\u00a0Bowen\u00a0at the end of last season, and fans never really embraced his honest scheme \u2013 light on blitzes and disguises.<\/p>\n
There was a situation in the offseason where\u00a0Bowen\u00a0could\u2019ve wound up with his old boss Mike Vrabel on the Patriots coaching staff, and the Giants would\u2019ve tried to lure Lou Anarumo before he went from fired by the Bengals to the Colts\u2019 defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n
Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs runs the ball for a touchdown in over time against the New York Giants at Ford Field. Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
But Daboll hung onto\u00a0Bowen\u00a0in the offseason and then stuck with him during a 2-8 start this season.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
Because Daboll\u2019s explosive departure with Wink Martindale after the 2023 season already had affected interest in the job before it went to\u00a0Bowen,\u00a0and parting ways with a second defensive coordinator would\u2019ve set Daboll up for a narrow field of replacements had he been retained.<\/p>\n
The Giants expected to have a top-10 defense built around its pass rush this season, but Abdul Carter, Dexter Lawrence and Kayvon Thibodeaux have combined for 3.5 sacks. Brian Burns is having a Pro Bowl-caliber season with 13 sacks.<\/p>\n
The high-investment secondary \u2013 with premium free agents Jevon Holland and Paulson Adebo as well as high draft picks Deonte Banks, Cor\u2019Dale Flott and Tyler Nubin \u2013 also has been a disappointment.<\/p>\n
A pair of two-year problems persist, too. The Giants rank last in rushing defense (after ranking No. 27 last season) and have 22 takeaways (10 interceptions) in 29 games since the start of 2024.<\/p>\n
Kafka is auditioning for the role of full-time head coach, and general manager Joe Schoen\u2019s job security would benefit from a couple of wins that show the roster is more talented than the record indicates and that coaching was to blame.<\/p>\n
Bowen\u00a0welcomed Kafka\u2019s promotion and said they had a \u201cgreat relationship.\u201d In his new role, Kafka spends time around the defensive huddle at practice, challenging the defensive line with light barbs, preaching communication and calling for do-overs when he isn\u2019t satisfied, players said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Kafka didn\u2019t show the same patience level with Shane Bowen that Brian Daboll demonstrated. The Kafka-led Giants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15252,9,2683,11,10,22,8387,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-50426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-mike-kafka","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-giants","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-shane-bowen","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}