Giants 42, Eagles 7: Giants Rout Eagles but Miss Playoffs

“I really do want to discuss it,” Coughlin said late Sunday afternoon, before spelling out exactly what he wants to find out: “What in the world was the last two weeks all about?”

No one knows. There are theories, of course. Some have wondered whether the Giants’ collapse from first place in their division to elimination from playoff contention was rooted in overconfidence. Others have speculated that off-the-field distractions, including the damage from Hurricane Sandy and the tragic shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., hit the players especially hard. There are also the more mundane possibilities, like injuries or just bad luck.

In many ways, it does not matter; the playoffs will begin next weekend without the Giants, who continued their remarkable nine-year streak under Coughlin of winning postseason games only in the years they win a championship. Yet as much as those in professional sports are trained to look forward, Coughlin cannot help glancing back and wondering why his team — the defending Super Bowl winners, who were once 6-2 and a force in the N.F.C. — spiraled to the point that Sunday’s 42-7 victory over Philadelphia was quickly rendered meaningless.

“I don’t have any answers for you on that one,” Coughlin said. “Quite frankly, I’m anxious to find out if anybody has an opinion or an answer.”

He has plenty of time to inquire. If three other results had also gone their way, the Giants (9-7) would have slipped into the playoffs at the last breath, but that longest of long shots was extinguished early on. Just moments after the Giants returned to their locker room — as guard Chris Snee ripped off his athletic tape and linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka headed for the showers — word came that the Chicago Bears had beaten the Detroit Lions, ensuring for the Giants that their season will be remembered for two atrocious performances in December instead of another surge in January.

“There’s always tomorrow,” safety Antrel Rolle said. “It just won’t be this year.”

The mood in the Giants’ locker room was not especially dreary, and there were no hushed tones or players blinking back tears. The library atmosphere one often finds after teams are eliminated was replaced by a typical postgame buzz. Some players even joked and bantered with one another. If anything, the overriding sentiment seemed to be one of acceptance.

The Giants knew their disappointing plight was self-inflicted. They were blasted in Week 15 by Atlanta and again in Week 16 by Baltimore, two disastrous losses in which their efforts bordered on incomprehensible. The formula for their demise was particularly jarring: the big-play offense produced no big plays. The vaunted defense accelerated its once-slow slide to mediocrity. And the coach, who is known for his ability to motivate, helplessly pushed whatever buttons he could find because the familiar ones seemed only to be making things worse.

All of it left the Giants in the uncomfortable position of relying on little more than hope. In the days leading to Sunday’s game, some players, including Justin Tuck, took to posting Twitter messages that quoted from Scripture about overcoming adversity and having faith. Coughlin lectured the team on restoring its good name. And during the game Sunday, much of the team — and plenty of fans — could be seen with necks craned and eyes planted squarely on the video boards that showed the out-of-town scores.

Early on, there was optimism, too, as the Giants jumped all over the Eagles (4-12) and the Lions stayed close to the Bears. Eli Manning threw three of his career-high five touchdown passes in the first quarter, and the Eagles, who spent most of the game looking as bad their record might indicate, never had a chance. Rueben Randle caught two of Manning’s scoring passes, and David Wilson, Ahmad Bradshaw and Victor Cruz also scored. Even fullback Henry Hynoski added the first touchdown of his career.

In the end, though, there was only this: none of it mattered.

“We got outplayed in Atlanta and in Baltimore and didn’t give ourselves a chance to win either game,” Manning said. “It hurts.”

Snee said: “It’s frustrating, and it will be for quite some time. I believe that we’re a better team than 9-7, but there is no ground to stand on. That’s our record, and the way we played the last two weeks, we don’t deserve to be in the playoffs.”

The players know there will be changes. There always are in the N.F.L., Kiwanuka said, “and in a year like this, you expect more than usual.” A significant overhaul to the coaching staff is not expected, though the defense, which entered the final week ranked 31st in the league, will surely be scrutinized.

General Manager Jerry Reese is expected to address reporters Monday, and his off-season path is clear. Some players with expensive contracts, like Tuck, may be asked to take pay cuts to free up salary-cap money for reinforcements. Others will be released. Veteran players like Bradshaw and Corey Webster might not return, and defensive end Osi Umenyiora has already said he does not expect to be back. He reiterated that Sunday, saying: “I’m happy to have been part of it all. If it’s the end, it’s the end.”

A few moments after he finished speaking with reporters, Umenyiora slipped on his coat and headed for the door. All around him, his teammates — at least for now — did the same. They had wanted to play well one final time together, had wanted to show once more that they were not as bad as they looked two weeks earlier.

“We wanted to show we still had our pride,” Kiwanuka said, and they did that. It just was not nearly enough.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: December 30, 2012

An earlier version of a caption in this story misstated the outcome of the Giants and Eagles game. The Giants earned a win over the Eagles, not a loss.

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Eagles’ Andy Reid Among Seven N.F.L. Coaches Fired

The conclusion of the regular season always signals the start of a whirlwind of firings and job searches involving coaches and top executives, while only 12 teams prepare for the playoffs. This year, though, brought sweeping, swift change even to some of the most stable and patient — maybe too patient — teams in the N.F.L. Seven coaches and five general managers were fired before lunchtime in a day unequaled for its turmoil in recent memory.

The Philadelphia Eagles ended Andy Reid’s 14-year tenure, drawing the curtain on a tear-stained season that began with the death of Reid’s son during training camp and continued with a week-by-week watch of how the team’s won-lost ledger matched up with the owner Jeffrey Lurie’s preseason edict that Reid had to do better than 8-8 to keep his job. Philadelphia ended up 4-12. In Chicago, Lovie Smith was fired after nine seasons despite finishing 10-6.

In San Diego, Norv Turner, his dismissal expected almost from the day he got the job six years ago, was finally fired, along with General Manager A. J. Smith, who had held his post for almost 10 years. The same fate befell Coach Ken Whisenhunt in Arizona, who was fired after six seasons. Reid, Lovie Smith and Whisenhunt had taken their teams to the Super Bowl in the past; Turner led the Chargers to the A.F.C. Championship game.

All, though, had lost of late. And the reason for their ousters was summed up neatly by the league’s newest owner, Jimmy Haslam of the Cleveland Browns, who fired his coach, Pat Shurmur, and general manager, Tom Heckert.

“It might be a little unfair of me to put that pressure on that new head coach already, but the way the N.F.L. operates, there is relative parity,” Haslam said. “And you can turn things around quickly.”

Three teams that combined won only 10 games last year qualified for the playoffs this season: the Indianapolis Colts, the Washington Redskins and the Minnesota Vikings. Every owner wants that result. And they want it now.

Among others who were fired: Chan Gailey, after three seasons in Buffalo, and Romeo Crennel, after just one full season in Kansas City, which won two games and has the first pick in the spring draft. Scott Pioli, the Chiefs’ general manager, retained his job for now, the owner Clark Hunt said. But other general managers were not so lucky. Those fired, in addition to Smith and Heckert: Mike Tannenbaum of the Jets, Gene Smith of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Rod Graves of the Cardinals. The Carolina Panthers fired Marty Hurney during the season and have yet to replace him.

The speed with which so many top people were sent packing was breathtaking, but not surprising. Owners want to grab top candidates, like Chip Kelly of the University of Oregon, before anyone else, and give their new coaches time to assemble staffs of top assistants. The Browns, for instance, said they would hire a coach first and then a player personnel executive. That is an unorthodox arrangement but a signal that they are very likely pursuing a candidate others will want and that he will be invested with plenty of power on personnel.

The most hotly pursued candidates can afford to be choosy. The current openings all have some drawbacks and advantages, but the most careful coaches are likely to look at one important factor: which teams have good quarterback situations, an especially important consideration in a year without a strong quarterback class in free agency or the draft. Of the teams that fired coaches or general managers on Monday, only two, the Bears and the Chargers, have quarterbacks who are considered championship-caliber.

Whisenhunt might embody the problem more than most. When he had Kurt Warner, the Cardinals went to the Super Bowl. But after Warner retired, Whisenhunt and Graves were unable to identify and develop the next great Arizona quarterback — they used four starters this season — and they paid for that failure with their jobs.

This may not be the most active market ever for coaches though. There were 10 new coaches going into the 2009 season and several of the coaches fired Monday — especially Reid, who went to the N.F.C. Championship game five times with the Eagles and has indicated that he wants to coach again immediately — are expected to find new jobs quickly.

But once the coaches are in place, time quickly becomes their enemy. With Reid’s firing, the longest-tenured head coach in the N.F.L. is Bill Belichick, whom New England hired in 2000. His job security is rare, though. It has taken perhaps the best quarterback in history, five Super Bowl appearances and three championships to earn it.

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