Tiki backtracks on comments about Coughlin
The two sat together yesterday morning, Tom Coughlin and Tiki Barber in a darkened room, the tape rolling of Sunday’s abominable 23-0 playoff loss to the Panthers. Just where, Coughlin wanted to know, did we get out-coached?
That was the accusation leveled by Barber immediately following one of the worst home-field post-season losses in franchise history, a defeat so wretched that Coughlin attempted to scour away the stain so as not to tarnish whatever luster remained from an 11-5 season and NFC East title. As disturbing as the shutout was, the incriminating words by the team’s mega-star running back added intrigue to the ugliness.
And so, Barber got called into the principal’s office, where no soap was administered to his mouth but a frank exchange took place, prompting Barber yesterday to soften his stance but not retract his comments.
“It’s not an indictment of our staff, it’s a credit to [Carolina’s] staff,” Barber said as the Giants cleaned out their lockers and parted ways. “We were outplayed more than anything. I didn’t play a great game, either.”
Barber gained a season-low 41 yards as the Giants shockingly ran merely 35 plays. Barber thrust some of the blame on the coaching staff – i.e. Coughlin and/or offensive coordinator John Hufnagel – for going with predictable calls and not adjusting when it was clear the Panthers were putting an extra safety in the box to stop the run, almost begging the Giants to have Eli Manning try to beat them with his arm.
Coughlin on Sunday night caught wind of Barber’s critique and spoke with him before he left Giants Stadium. They met again yesterday morning and the rather uncommon film session followed. “When I talked to him we just started looking at it and it was a lot of execution, a lot of them making plays and us not,” Barber said.
One team insider said Coughlin was more disappointed than angry with Barber.
“I was upset because in the true concept of team it’s not about pointing the finger,” Coughlin explained. “There’s one person who loses that game, I lose the game, OK? No one else loses the game. I don’t win it, but I lose it. We handle these stressful situations with class and distinction, or at least we try to. Occasionally out of frustration something happens where someone says something they haven’t thought out well or maybe they’re frustrated, maybe they’re angry.”
As for his talk with Barber, Coughlin said “It’s always a good conversation with Tiki. He said something that hopefully he regretted. I didn’t want to see it, I saw it, we talked, we looked at some tape together, we continued to talk and it ended up as it always does, it’s a unified situation. Tiki’s been a great, great player.”
Teammates Jeremy Shockey, Plaxico Burress and Amani Toomer to varying degrees echoed Barber’s comments but there was no public discord the day after the debacle.
“I don’t think we were outcoached … we were outplayed,” said Eli Manning, who threw three interceptions in his first playoff game.
“You know what, we got out-everything-ed,” added center Shaun O’Hara. “The only people who showed up yesterday with their ‘A’ game were the fans. We’re not gonna point fingers at anybody. The bottom line is the players play and we got to execute. It’s easy to pass the buck and say a whole lot of things. We got to be the first ones to step up and say we [stunk].”
Asked if he had any lingering problems with the coaching staff, Barber said “We’re going to have to talk about it. It shouldn’t be an issue. We have one of the hardest-working coaching staffs in the league. These guys never leave here. But yesterday we were all bad, collectively, players included.”
So, should he have said what he did?
“It probably was a mistake,” Barber said. “I was feeling that way after the game, whether it’s right or not. It’s probably not.”