What Steve Spagnuolo built in his two years as New York Giants defensive coordinator was more than just a Super Bowl caliber defense. He built a culture that an entire football team fed off of. It was a feeling of being untouchable for the fans.

It was a mantra that was simple. On almost every play, someone that wasn’t a defensive lineman was coming on a blitz. The goal was to get someone, anyone turned loose to hit the quarterback. If it was the blitzer, that was fantastic. However, more often than not, the blitzer was a distraction. His job was to simply present a fifth body for the offensive line to block. That created one-on-one opportunities for the ultra-talented Giants defense line to rattle quarterbacks into submission.

Now, it wasn’t a perfect system. The defense was willing to present to opportunities for the offense they faced to make big plays. Blitzing meant a ton of man-to-man coverage that wasn’t always air tight. Long passes were made, but there was a feeling of invincibility. So, the other team scored. So what? The next time the defense went out there, they would bring the noise once again, and the opposing quarterback would be forced to move heaven and earth to get his team down the field again.

Now, that feeling is gone. In it’s place is a lot of what Giants fans felt during the Tim Lewis era. A feeling that the offense is going to convert every single third down, regardless of length. A feeling of pain every time a defensive linemen drops into coverage. A feeling of helplessness. A team with an offense completely capable of winning is destroyed by the unit that has mean the trademark of the team for nearly fifty years.

Here’s the worst part of it all: New coordinator Bill Sheridan promised the fans that nothing was going to change whatsoever. The blitzing would still be present. Pressure would be the key to the defenses success. That’s why everyone blamed the faulty knees of the three of the four linemen when things started going wrong. They said that they couldn’t win the one-on-one matchups because they were hurt.

In reality, the problem is that there is no one-on-one matchups anymore. That’s because there are no blitzes. At least, not nearly as frequently. What happened almost every play last year happened only roughly 20 percent of the time in both the second half of the Falcons game, and the embarrassing loss to Denver in Thanksgiving.

Sheridan has changed the defense completely. Gone is the risky, but physical man-to-man coverage. In it’s place is soft zones with receivers running through the secondary unimpeded. Gone is the creativity, and with it has gone all the success that the team has enjoyed throughout the Spags era.

While they are 6-5, and certainly still alive in the playoff race, there is a palpable feeling of disappointment in the air in Giant-land. While the whole team has taken a step backwards, there is no doubt that the defense is the source of most frustration. With all the same players, plus high priced additions like Chris Canty and Michael Boley, this defense should be amongst the league’s best.

If you tell yourself that coaching isn’t the problem, than you’re lying to yourself.