He approves and has a hand in the gameplan, yes. Gilbride has joked during a few interviews that Coughlin is in every offensive meeting and pushes to adjust the gameplan to run the ball more. He's also admitted that if he was left to his own devices, he would pass the ball 50 times.
I didn't mind throwing the ball either, but I questioned its aggressiveness. A simple route to the outside for 8 yards and get out of bounds. If it's not there, kick the 44-48 yarder. A run isn't a guarantee either.
They could just have easily gotten a holding call to put them 10 yards back.
Something that's lost in all of this, Barden dropped a perfectly thrown slant the play before that would have gained a first down and made the entire thing moot anyways.