Every game is the Super Bowl now for Ben McAdoo.
It has taken him too long to figure out how to coach above the Xs and Os, above the loss of Odell Beckham Jr., to field a team New York can be proud of, a team that honors the tradition and the legacies of those who came before.
One stirring upset in front of Giants fans, the first victory they have witnessed this season, doesn’t get you a Gatorade bath, or a ride on anonymous players’ shoulders.
Feel-good stories for this proud franchise are shocking the perfect Patriots in the Super Bowl, not unexpectedly getting to 2-8 on a blustery November afternoon.
For McAdoo, this has been a trial-by-error Sophomore Jinx of a season, and he has no margin of error the rest of the way, starting Thursday night against the Redskins, the first of four games left against NFC East rivals.
After all the dysfunction on and off the field, all the dog-day afternoons and nights, McAdoo can still save his job, and this is how and why:
By getting off the deck with a vengeance, and staying off the deck, and giving New York a team that will fight for 60 minutes and beyond if necessary, every damn week, and beating the Redskins, Cowboys and Eagles along the way would be a good idea too.
Here’s what you must never forget about Mara: If his young coach enduring painful growing pains should have a growth spurt and regain his footing as a leader and get the pride restored, he would think twice about firing him, and then think some more with co-owner Steve Tisch.
This was Mara’s answer when I asked him before training camp when his very first inkling was that McAdoo, 11-5 as a rookie, was the right choice to follow Tom Coughlin:
“I liked the fact that we had a couple of rough spots during the season and then rebounded quite nicely, and that’s always one of the things that you look for, is can a guy pull your team out of a slump, keep them from free-falling?” Mara said. “He has just the right temperament, I think, to lead this team.”
And then 2017 happened.
McAdoo has had two rough spots already this season: 0-5, before he surrendered the playcalling to OC Mike Sullivan and upset the bealeagured Broncos in Denver, and that 51-17 disgrace against the Rams followed by the even bigger disgrace in San Francisco against the 0-9 49ers.
Three strikes and you’re out!
The Giants won’t beat too many teams scoring 12 points, but at least Sterling Shepard will be back to help Evan Engram, who had the worst game of his rookie season. They’ll need to play their best game of the season — make that the best game of the McAdoo Era — to even have a chance against Carson Wentz and the Eagles.
McAdoo has no interest in the media schmooze game, and that never does you any favors unless you have the pelts on the wall that Bill Belichick has. You better win, or you won’t be cut any slack.
McAdoo was lost trying to plug all the leaks that sprung on his ship. It doesn’t do anyone any good if you practice great and play lousy on game day. For whatever reason, his team had stopped responding to him.
He finally had enough last week, when he showed visual evidence of select players letting their teammates down. Along with everyone else.
It’s his job to keep the players believing. In themselves, in their teammates, in him and his coaches. It can’t be a once-a-month thing if he wants to keep this job.
Beginning Thursday night, and on through New Year’s Eve, it has to be an every-week thing.
It’s not enough for him to tell us that he’s built for this. That a calm doesn’t suit him, a storm does. Show us. Show the owners. Show the players. Show the fans. Because the storm hasn’t passed.
It’s McAdoo-or-die.