His offense certainly didn’t look like it in the preseason, but new Giants offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo is ready for his closeup.
Plucked out of obscurity by Tom Coughlin last winter to replace Kevin Gilbride as play-caller, McAdoo says he welcomes the scrutiny he knows will only intensify once the Giants’ season opener finally arrives Monday night in Detroit.
“It’s a team game, but I knew what I signed up for when I signed the contract,” McAdoo said after practice Friday. “I’ll never back down from that. I’m excited, and I look forward to it. I’m confident [personally], and I’m confident in the players and the coaches.”
McAdoo sounded by turns defensive and defiant during his brief weekly session with the media. That was understandable after a performance by the offense in the preseason so woeful that wide receiver Victor Cruz said “What preseason?” when asked about it Friday.
Running McAdoo’s version of the West Coast scheme, the Giants’ first-team offense mustered just two touchdowns in five preseason games. Even that was misleading, considering one score came on a 73-yard run by Rashad Jennings.
McAdoo, 37, wasn’t interested in looking back Friday and quickly tired of questions about the exhibition play.
“The preseason’s over,” McAdoo said. “Preseason is more about evaluation. Sure, you’d like to go out and be more productive. We realize that we weren’t as productive as we wanted to be with our first group, but we’re not looking in the rearview mirror.”
McAdoo also didn’t have much interest in responding to Coughlin’s ominous comment Thursday that he wouldn’t be afraid to say something about the play-calling during games if Coughlin feels the “need” to do so.
“I’m going to prepare to call the game, and that’s how we’ll move forward,” said McAdoo, who will work from the sideline instead of the press box.
When pressed about the preseason struggles, McAdoo and Coughlin preferred to look instead at the Giants’ performance in practice this week. McAdoo said the offense had “two good days of work” so far and he intends to build on that against the Lions.
“I feel we’ve made progress, we’re making progress, we’re starting to click in practice and we’re getting some chemistry going,” said McAdoo, who came to the Giants after eight years as the Packers’ tight ends coach and, later, quarterbacks coach. “We just need to carry it over to game day.”
Several of McAdoo’s players said they agree that practice recently has been a lot more encouraging than the five preseason games were.
And if there’s one positive they intend to build on, it was that the first-team offense committed just one turnover in the entire preseason. But the Giants realize the big picture — and the scoreboard — is the only thing that will get attention when it comes to the offense.
“We all saw the same thing,” Jennings said of the offense in the preseason. “Obviously, we want immediate gratification, but we also know it’s a never-ending process and we’re growing every single day. It’s a long season. This is only Week 1. The preseason doesn’t matter. It’s a clean slate, and we’re excited to get started.”
Sensing McAdoo is already wearing a bull’s-eye before he calls his first regular-season game, Coughlin tried to lessen his new aide’s burden.
“We’re all coaches, and we’re all going through [the scrutiny],” Coughlin said. “It’s not his offense; it’s our offense. Everyone wants to single Ben out, but he’s done an outstanding job of teaching the other coaches exactly what this offense is about.
“We’re all in this together,” Coughlin added. “It’s not just any one individual. It’s a team concept.”