The New York Giants are sinking fast and going nowhere and the while the beginning of this terrible start can be dated back to last year when the Giants defense couldn't stop anyone, the 0-6 start to 2013 can be tied to one terrible decision that Tom Coughlin made by playing Andre Brown in the fourth preseason game of the season.
Back in the preseason, the Giants weren't being looked at as a Super Bowl favorite, but many saw them as a possible playoff team and one of their strengths was supposed to be an improved rushing attack with David Wilson and Andre Brown, with the veteran likely starting. Like the old saying goes, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. Well, god had the last laugh on this one.
Brown had an up and down preseason after coming back from a broken leg suffered in 2012 and when he had a fumble issue in the third preseason game, Coughlin decided that he would play his possible starter in 2013 in the final preseason game of the season. Coughlin obviously didn't know that Brown would break his leg, or that his team would be 0-6 this season, but that one move may have drastically changed the destiny of the 2013 Giants.
While no one can actually know if Brown would have gotten hurt early in the season anyway, one thing everyone DOES know is that he would not have been hurt if he did not play in that fourth preseason game on the schedule. If he was not on the field for that game, maybe he starts Week 1 against the Dallas Cowboys and maybe David Wilson doesn't fumble his life, the Giants season and his possible career away in that game. Maybe that doesn't balloon into six turnovers and a loss to the Cowboys. Maybe Brown is healthy and the Giants pull out that game and then somehow beat the Broncos in Week 2.
No one knows if that is how things would have turned out, but one thing everyone knows is that Brown would not have been hurt if he was not on the field for the fourth preseason game. The Giants currently rank 30th in the league in rushing yards per game and just recently got their first 100 yard game of the season and now they are so banged up with Brown, Wilson and now Brandon Jacobs out, they were forced to take a free agent off the pile in Peyton Hillis.
Now maybe having Brown on the field wouldn't have made the Giants 6-0 right now, but I think everyone can pretty confident that the team would not be 0-6.
