The New York Giants had the busiest day in their search for a new coach
Jason Zucker Jersey , interviewing New England Patriots coordinators Josh McDaniels and Matt Patricia. McDaniels, the Patriots’ offensive coordinator, met with new general manager Dave Gettleman, Giants co-owner John Mara and assistant general manager Kevin Abrams on Friday afternoon in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Patricia, the defensive coordinator, talked with the trio in the morning. The Patriots have a first-round bye, allowing their coaching staff to be interviewed this week. McDaniels has been a member of New England’s coaching staff for all five of the Patriots’ Super Bowl championships, including two as offensive coordinator. He has coached under Bill Belichick for 14 of the last 17 seasons. This past season was his sixth in his second stint as New England’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. The Patriots led the NFL in total yards (394.2 per game) and were second in passing yards (276.1) and scoring (28.6 points). McDaniels first served as an assistant with the Patriots from 2001-08, and played a key role on a staff that won three Super Bowl titles and four AFC championships. McDaniels spent the 2009-10 seasons as coach of the Denver Broncos. He had an 8-8 record in his first season and was fired late in his second with a 3-9 record, finishing 11-17 overall. He rejoined the Patriots in 2012 after spending a year as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach of the St. Louis Rams, who coincidentally were then coached by Steve Spagnuolo
Womens Luke Kunin Jersey , who finished this season as the Giants interim coach after Ben McAdoo was fired on Dec. 4. Spagnuolo interviewed for the Giants job on Wednesday. A snowstorm forced the Giants to postpone a planned interview with recently fired Denver Broncos running backs coach Eric Studesville on Thursday. He will meet with the team next week. Coincidentally, he finished the 2010 season as the Broncos’ interim coach after McDaniels was fired. New York also plans to talk to Vikings offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur on Saturday. There were reports that Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz would meet with the team on Sunday, but that no longer is certain. Patricia has been a member of the Patriots’ coaching staff since 2004 and the defensive coordinator for the last six seasons. The 43-year-old has been a part of three of their five Super Bowl victories, as well as their losses to the Giants after the 2007 and ’11 seasons. The Patriots ranked 29th in yards allowed (366.0), but held opponents to an average of 18.5 points. Only one of the Patriots’ final 12 opponents scored more than 24 points. Patricia’s 2016 defense finished No. 1 in the NFL by allowing 15.6 points per game. Prior to joining the Patriots, Patricia spent six seasons coaching in college. He worked as an aeronautical engineer for two years before returning to coaching at Amherst in 1999. Patricia’s first coaching experience came in 1996, when he served as a graduate assistant at RPI, where he was a center and guard. — The words that threatened to define Ben Roethlisberger’s season were uttered almost as an afterthought and with more than a hint of frustrated sarcasm. It just didn’t read that way as it made the rounds on social media, or sound that way during a three-second sound bite played endlessly on a loop. ”Maybe I don’t have it anymore,” the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback said in a somber locker room three months ago after throwing five interceptions in a 30-9 loss to Jacksonville . Roethlisberger didn’t mean it. Call it a visceral reaction to having two of his 55 passes returned the other way for game-deciding touchdowns. Three days later the 35-year-old was back to calling himself one of the ”best in the world.” It wasn’t just idle talk. He followed it up by spending the better part of the next 10 weeks playing like it. The quarterback who will stride onto the field Sunday for a rematch against the Jaguars in the divisional round of the playoffs has his swagger back. Wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey jokingly gave credit to the beard Roethlisberger began growing in the aftermath of one of the most forgettable performances of his career. Of course, that’s not the reality. The guys who surround Roethlisberger in the huddle know the swagger never really left. ”Ben is the most talented guy I’ve ever been around,” Heyward-Bey said. ”I’m not talking quarterback. I’m talking about talent. He can do a lot of different things. He believes in his ability and he’s going to show people on Sunday that he believes in himself.” The player who openly pondered retirement last spring
http://www.officialwild.com/authentic-adidas-matt-dumba-jersey , the one who quarterbacks coach Randy Fichtner said in November will occasionally uncork a flutter ball while looking very much his age, heads to his 21st career playoff game at the height of his powers. Roethlisberger is averaging 298 yards passing since that forgettable three hours against the NFL’s top defense. Roethlisberger’s thrown multiple touchdown passes in seven straight games and the Steelers ended the season with a 9-1 sprint, the lone setback a loss to New England on Dec. 17 in which his only mistake came on a poorly executed fake spike that resulted in a game-ending pick. What’s working? Nearly everything. Having two of the top skill position players in the league in wide receiver Antonio Brown and running back Le’Veon Bell helps. So does the continued evolution of rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster and Martavis Bryant’s immersion into the offense following an ill-advised trade demand. Yet Pittsburgh’s offense will only go as far over the next month as Roethlisberger can take it. Though he downplayed looking for payback after the Jaguars shut him down in ways that few teams have in recent years, not everyone is buying it. ”I’m sure just as any competitor would, when you go and have a bad outing or a difficult, tough outing against a team, you want that revenge,” Jacksonville quarterback Blake Bortles said. ”You want to go prove that it was a fluke or whatever it might be. I’m sure that’s probably what he’s thinking.” Not that Roethlisberger would admit it even if he is. Never one to go into great detail about how he goes about his job, Roethlisberger insists he’s focused simply on playing well. The fact it’s against the Jaguars is coincidental. There is no looking ahead to a potential shot at New England in the AFC title game, or a third Super Bowl that would provide an exclamation point on a potential Hall of Fame career. ”I am not worried about what’s going on up there (with the Patriots),” Roethlisberger said. ”All I can think about and worry about is this defense that we are playing.” A defense that will likely need to find a way to replicate its October dominance to extend its season. The Steelers have been forced to revisit the loss this week, one that put their journey from that moment to this one in perspective. ”That game for our entire group was kind of a watershed moment
Zach Parise Jersey ,” offensive coordinator Todd Haley said Thursday. ”We stayed together, but there was a lot of pressure from the outside. A lot of outside factors that could have been divisive in some way for our group, but I take my hat off to the guys. They stuck together. They pulled together tighter. We knew that wasn’t our best football and we knew it probably really wasn’t as bad as it appeared.” Or, as Roethlisberger can attest, as bad as it sounded afterward. The sound bite was just that, a bite, one that in a way played a role in his resurgence. One that ended with his sixth Pro Bowl selection and a very real shot to become the fourth quarterback in NFL history with three Super Bowl titles. ”He’s confident in his ability and he’s confident in his receivers,” Heyward-Bey said. ”He knows that we’re going to go out there and try and make plays for him. That’s what a quarterback needs. He has to have confidence in his guys.” Roethlisberger’s confidence in himself was never an issue. NOTES: CB Artis Burns (hyperextended right knee) did not practice Thursday but is hoping to play Sunday. DE Stephon Tuitt (elbow) also did not practice but plans to play. … LB Ryan Shazier, recovering from spine stabilization surgery, attended practice again in a wheelchair and hung out in the locker room after practice. — AP NFL website: