If you are inclined to have fun with information such as this — and remember, sports is supposed to be fun, when it’s not causing you acid indigestion — then maybe you can smile about it: The Giants, as it happens, are not yet eliminated from the playoffs. Their NFC wild-card hopes dissolved weeks ago, but they can still win the NFC East in three easy steps:

1. They win all five remaining games.

2. The Cowboys lose all five remaining games.

3. The Eagles lose the rest of their games with the exception of Dallas on Dec. 22, in Philly.

Extra-fun fact II: the Giants would get a home game if that happened, too.

But you aren’t much inclined to have fun with information such as this, or a fantastical scenario such as this, or really anything at all having to do with the New York football Giants, are you? If anything, this probably turns your sour mood downright dour, because it is merely a reminder that the NFC East is the home office for pedestrian, mediocre football, and even with the bar set that low the Giants, at 2-9, presently share last place with the Redskins, a team whose fans are in open rebellion. When you’re the lousiest team in the lousiest division in the sport, there aren’t a lot of laughs around that office.

Extra-fun fact III: The Jets — another team whose fans were acquiring lanterns and pitchforks not long ago — are 3-1 against the NFC East and would probably love a do-over right now of the one game they lost, at Philly in October.

No, in East Rutherford and every other precinct where the gospel is tinged blue, there is really only one talking point: Pat Shurmur, the Giants head coach, and whether he can do enough across the season’s final five weeks to earn a third season at the helm.

The short answer to this is: Yes. He can. “Can” being the key word.

For one, the Giants detest instability. The Maras and Tisches wrung their hands for weeks two years ago when it became clear Ben McAdoo needed to go. John Mara, an unapologetic fan first, will joke about his frustrations and his private impatience, and admitted a few years ago he impulsively wanted to fire everyone during a particularly rough spell under Tom Coughlin. But he didn’t. Because he wouldn’t. And the mere notion that he and Steve Tisch might need to even ponder having a third coach in four years is certainly enough to give him the bends.

But even if we break free of the Giants’ comfortable cocoon, there is still plenty of time for Shurmur to earn his way back here next year. Wins will be nice — and, at minimum, there ought to be two of them sitting in December, against the Dolphins and at Washington.

Extra-fun fact IV: If Shurmur actually enjoys his job and actually wants to keep it, he better not lose either of those — especially at D.C. three days before Christmas. Better to just shovel 30 pounds of coal in the boss’ stocking.

But even beyond the wins is a basic eye-test challenge for Shurmur and the Giants: Be better. Be better than this. Be better than 2-9. Be better than the costly turnovers and the porous defense, be better than the terrible penalties and the line play that has helped turn Saquon Barkley into a back-tracking basket case. Be better than the brain locks that regularly visit at the worst possible time of every game.

Be better. The talent is there — maybe not for a championship, but for better. Better than this.

Sometimes, a team gets to 2-9 and there are alternate voices at work, reminding about the play here, and the play there, where 2-9 could really be 5-6. That things aren’t that bad. Not here. The Giants are that bad. They can’t play that particular parlor game, because it means that Tampa Bay’s Matt Gay made that chip-shot 34-yard game-winner in Game 3. The Giants are that play away from being 1-10.

No: The Giants have been as bad as their record. Every ounce as bad. They can’t salvage the playoffs, but they can salvage the soul of this season. Shurmur, at this point, reminds me of a conversation I had with a St. John’s fan last winter. The heat was starting to get to Chris Mullin. The fan said, “You just don’t want him in the job.”

“No,” I said. “I want him to be BETTER at the job.”

It’s the same with Shurmur, and the fact is he’s now coached 60 games in the NFL, if you count his one-game interim stint with the Eagles in 2015. He has lost 43 of them. That’s a .283 winning pace that no man in any sport can survive for long. Still, it’s no accident that he’s twice been in demand for big NFL jobs. He is clearly smart, and when he’s asked only to coach offense, he has done some terrific work. He should be exactly the kind of coach the Giants entrust Daniel Jones to.

He hasn’t been yet. He hasn’t been close. So he gets December. He gets the last five games of the season to change the narrative around him and, more important, to change the opinion about him. He needs to be better at the job. Otherwise no amount of hand-wringing will keep the rotating door at 1925 Giants Drive still. And no amount should.

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