A pressure point this acute wasn’t supposed to arrive this soon for Pat Shurmur.
Not six weeks into his first season as Giants head coach.
But there’s no honeymoon period for an NFL coach who was hired by a team that used the second-overall pick to draft a potentially transcendent running back to be a final piece to a playoff puzzle, spent more than $75 million to fix an offensive line in shambles and another $95 million to appease and secure its star receiver.
So this is where Shurmur stands: in crisis with a 1-5 record after Thursday night’s sloppy and uninspired 34-13 loss to the NFC East rival Eagles at MetLife Stadium.
He stands before a team — his team — at a queasy crossroads just six games into a season that appears done and dusted before the leaves on the trees have even considered participating in fall foliage.
So, how does Shurmur handle this mess — the overpaid offensive line that might actually be performing worse than the one that had Ereck Flowers on it a year ago, the veteran quarterback who looks more rigid and timid in the pocket than ever, the temperamental diva receiver who’s on the precipice of melting down in the middle of almost every game, the overpriced and underperforming defense that can’t stop a nosebleed?
However he handles it from here will go a long way toward defining his tenure — however long it may last — as the 20th head coach in franchise history.
Because so far it hasn’t been nearly good enough.
The 1-5 record the Giants will carry with them until their next game, Oct. 22 at Atlanta, is the same 1-5 record the vilified and eventually fired Ben McAdoo carried with him at this time a year ago.
And McAdoo’s 1-5 came without Saquon Barkley running the ball, $62 million free agent left tackle Nate Solder supposedly protecting Eli Manning’s back side and Odell Beckham Jr. fat and happy with his $95 million contract.
The Giants’ average of 19.5-points per game is ranked 28th in the NFL and yet Shurmur’s specialty is his prowess as an offensive coach and his handling of quarterbacks. That was one of the primary reasons he was hired.
How long ago does Shurmur’s magic touch with journeyman quarterback Case Keenum and that spirited playoff run in Minnesota feel like?
Certainly not mere months ago, but years.
Which way is this thing going to go for Shurmur, who conducts himself as a classy, respectful good man for whom you root to be successful?
Despite being built by management to be a playoff team this season — with the drafting of Barkley instead of a future franchise quarterback (Sam Darnold), the massive amounts of cash spent to fix the leaky line, the exorbitant Beckham contract — the Giants are not going to the playoffs.
Since 1966, 175 NFL teams have started the season with a 1-5 record and exactly two of those have qualified for the playoffs.
So, with this season now having morphed into an early stage of garbage time, how (whether?) Shurmur keeps this team together and improving is his sternest test yet as a head coach and one that will define him and how long he stays in New York.
Because make no mistake: When things go this bad for a team that entered a season with the kinds of high expectations the Giants did, the players in the locker room either fracture or they become apathetic.
Neither of those options is acceptable.
And, if either of those things seeps into the Giants locker room, it’ll be damning evidence that perhaps Shurmur was not the man for this job.
“I know there’s reasons why there’s new coaches,’’ Shurmur said Friday. “I happen to be one of the new coaches in the league from last year, and you’ve got to do what you can to get your locker room right, get everybody playing the right way and coaching the right way and do it in a way where you can win games.
“We’re trying to grow away from 3-13,’’ Shurmur said of the 2017 record. “The record doesn’t speak to that right now. I get that. But you just keep playing and keep working.’’
Last week, Shurmur showed terrific, stern leadership when, in the wake of Beckham’s controversial ESPN interview during which he threw Manning (and the coach) under the bus, he ordered Beckham to address his teammates to clear any cloudy air.
Shurmur is going to need more of that disciplinary resolve as his teetering team moves forward in this lost season.
These are tough times for Shurmur, and they’ve come far sooner than anyone could have predicted.
For the sake of Giants fans and Shurmur, here’s hoping he’s able to navigate these turbulent waters and right this listing ship before he joins the likes of Tom Coughlin and McAdoo and goes down with it.
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