I did not see the last play of the Bucs/Giants game live. Luckily we live in the age of the Internet, though, and I watched the play multiple times in a clip from NFL.com and a gif I found in a Google image search for the play. After seeing the backlash on Twitter throughout the day and reading ESPN's Dan Graziano's blog about it, I was expecting it to be this crazy, uncalled for play in which a Buc defender somehow hits Eli before he kneels. But it wasn't anything like that. Eli was knocked over by his own offensive line who didn't block on the play. If the line did their job, then this wouldn't even be an issue. I don't care if it's the victory formation, you still have to block.
Everyone who is ripping Schiano says that he should have gracefully given up. They said that what he ordered to do was unnecessary and pointless. They said his explanation of playing to the final whistle was bull. They summed up the play as bush league. But why is it all these things? There was still five seconds left in a one possession game. Anything can happen in the NFL. If they get Eli to fumble, that'd have one play to try to get it into the end zone. Since Eli kneeled it at the Giants 30, a score after a fumble wouldn't be completely out of reach. This is not about a cheap play, being a sore loser, or anything like that. This is about football etiquette.
Nobody can give me a good reason why Schiano should have just lied down in that situation. The game wasn't a blowout, and so that final play mattered. Why is that once the offense goes into victory formation, the defense automatically has to give up? This is the National Football League, the toughest sports league in America. In no other league is a team forced to give up. I can understand if it's a blowout and it is impossible for a comeback, but as long as a comeback is in the realm of possibility coaches should do what they can to try and spark one. If bull-rushing an offense line to try and get to the quarterback is what you need to do, then do it. None of this bull of 'the game is over, accept the defeat.' This isn't pee-wee football, let them play to the final whistle. The reaction to this play is what's bush league.
People who are against this play also called it an injury risk. Really? Every play during an NFL game is an injury risk. Do you want the losing team to kneel the ball too then if there was five seconds left? No, you would have called for a Hail Mary. A Hail Mary is just as unlikely as inducing a fumble on a kneel down, and even more of an injury risk. When there it's the 4th quarter of a blowout, do you want the losing team to just run out the clock? No, you expect them to try and score. But why? The chances of them pulling ahead or tying it are slim, and so it becomes an injury risk to score in garbage time. Yet I've never heard either of these two situations questioned. If you're afraid of injuries, then you shouldn't be involved with the NFL, period.
The biggest fallacy about this situation is that the offensive line didn't block, which is what resulted in Eli getting knocked over. It wasn't like Schiano had his guys doing insane things to try and get to Eli, like jumping over the line. Schiano just told his guys to basically do what they normally do, which was to try and get past their blockers, and they did it. The result was that it caught this Giants line off guard and they fell back into Eli. If Eli had gotten injured, it would have been the line's fault for not doing what they are paid to do. Why didn't they block? Did Coughlin tell them not to? Does no team block while in victory formation? If so, does everyone accept that fact but me? I feel that victory formation in a one possession game is the most important time to block.
Schiano, albeit inadvertently, proved that the NFL is going soft. Since when do coaches cry when the opposite coach does something unusual to try to win the game? Did anyone hear Tony Dungy cry when Sean Payton broke normal NFL etiquette and onside-kicked to start the second half of the Super Bowl? If you want to get technical, the sole point of the coin toss is to see who gets it first in each half. But if the team who receives first onside-kicks to start the second and recovers, then what's the point of doing the coin toss? The coach who gets it first in the second half plans on getting the ball. So, technically, what Sean Payton did was unfair and bush league as well. If losing teams must allow the winning teams to kneel the ball without incident, then why wasn't Payton supposed to abide by the coin toss and kick the ball to the Colts? Payton was celebrated and Schiano is being criticized even though the both did the say thing--think outside the box. There is nothing in the rules that says that when a team is in the victory formation the defense must stand there and allow them to kneel the ball. Just like there is nothing in the rules that says the team who is going to receive the ball in the second half must actually receive the ball. Schiano went down fighting and Coughlin left crying, but the seemingly everyone sided with the crybaby. The fact of the matter is that the NFL is getting softer and softer and we need guys like Schiano to prevent the league from becoming a glorified flag football league. Schiano > Coughlin, period.
References
http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43240/greg-schiano-is-just-way-out-of-line
http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&biw=1280&bih=709&tbm=isch&tbnid=MdtdKQ5QLztMmM:&imgrefurl=http://www.businessinsider.com/video-was-this-hit-on-eli-manning-a-cheap-shot-2012-9&docid=bmbpXotDhnSLDM&imgurl=http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8311/7993699453_5ded032083_o.gif&w=560&h=315&ei=uYFXULiAM-i00QHbuICQCg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=396&vpy=430&dur=1050&hovh=168&hovw=300&tx=181&ty=100&sig=113664646156409173863&page=2&tbnh=119&tbnw=211&start=15&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:15,i:144
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