Gilbride: O-Line 'Made It Impossible For Our Quarterback To Function'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It was a disastrous year for the Giants' offense in 2013.
New York, which finished 7-9 and missed the playoffs for the fourth time in five years, was 28th in the league in points with 294 and 28th in total yards with 4,920.
Last week, longtime offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride announced his retirement. He won two Super Bowls with Big Blue, serving as the quarterbacks coach from 2004-2006 and then the offensive coordinator from 2007-2013.
So what does he think went wrong this season?
In a nutshell, it came down to a lack of depth and injuries on the offensive line.
"It just made it impossible for our quarterback to function," the 62-year-old told SiriusXM NFL Radio. "(Eli Manning) is a guy where if you give him enough time, he's always going to be throwing the ball to the right person. He's going to know what you're doing defensively, he's going to see through your disguises, he's going to be an accurate passer.
"But he's not a scrambler and you've got to give him some help. And if you give him some help he's proven that he can win a championship for you."
Manning was terribly ineffective for the Giants in 2013. The two-time Super Bowl MVP threw 18 touchdowns to 27 interceptions -- he led the league in the latter category -- and completed 57.5 percent of his passes. He also fumbled the ball seven times and was sacked 39 times.
With the passing game not nearly as strong as it had been in past years, Gilbride tried his best to adjust and alter Big Blue's attack.
"I think philosophically, we modified substantially what we normally do," Gilbride said. "We've been kind of a dynamic, explosive, throw-the-ball-down-the-field (offense), let your guys do a lot of vertical read-type of stretch principles. And we had to abandon those. Those are the things that we've done very well that allowed us to be in the top 10 offensively for a long time.
"You can't do it because the quarterback would be on his back while you're waiting for those things to happen."
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