Win by New York Giants was More Important for Judge

Joe Judge's second season as head coach of the New York Giants didn't exactly start where last season ended. Big Blue won 5 of their last 8 contests to end the season, culminating with a 23-19 victory over the Cowboys to end the head coach's rookie year. This season has not been so kind to the Giants head coach.

Judge's team continues to deal with injuries. The Giants anemic offense has spent much of the season without a healthy running back Saquon Barkley or star free agent signing Kenny Golladay. Daniel Jones did not appear to have enough talent to carry the team alone. At the same time, personnel didn't seem to be the issue in 3 of New York's losses, where a simple field goal would have tied the game. The play calling was a target of Giants fans all season, until this week when Judge fired offensive coordinator Jason Garrett.

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Garrett was an interesting coach on the young Judge's staff. Garrett had just been fired after a decade as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Garrett's installment as the offensive coordinator seemed more like an insurance policy for general manager Dave Gettleman than a fit for the new coach's staff. The Cowboys offense sputtered under Jason Garrett, even with dynamic quarterback Dak Prescott and All-Pro running back Ezekiel Elliot. So why pick him?

With yesterday's New York Giants victory over division rival, the Philadelphia Eagles Judge securely took the wheel for this football team. Dave Gettleman's security blanket if Judge failed was gone. Was the Giants offense marketably better? No but they won. Yesterday was the type of game Big Blue had been losing this season.

Yes, new offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens is a former head coach but not with the tenure of Jason Garrett. Garrett was always lurking in case things went awry for Joe Judge. Now the second year head coach has his guys in place. The team is his and his alone. There are 6 games left on the Big Blue schedule.

A playoff spot would be a miracle but some big wins over the Cowboys, Eagles and the Washington Football Team could make for an interesting December. However, the Giants have to start with a win over Miami this week and go from there. Yesterday, Joe Judge took the keys to this team.