By Norb Pendergast - InReeseWeTrust.com 8/18/11
A common theme has emerged throughout Giants training camp; the defense completely dominates the offense. As fans, we hope this is because we have a truly dominant defense that is going to win the team many games this year; however, the offense needs to begin to play better for this team to return to the Super Bowl. Today’s practice shows once again how much work the offense still has to do to reach the level of the defense. Today there were four interceptions by the defensive backs making it another superb day for that unit. Corey Webster, Antrel Rolle, Tyler Sash, and Joe Burnett each had an interception during practice today. Terrell Thomas has been a beast throughout training camp, breaking up and intercepting passes. He had at least two passes broken up and one should have been a pick six but it went through his hands. Antrel Rolle had a nice interception on one on one’s while covering Jernigan, which is impressive considering the drill favors the offense (David Carr was the QB).
Offensive highlights were few and far between. During one on one’s Eli hit Domenik Hixon on a go route for a touchdown over Aaron Ross. It was a great throw by Eli and great concentration by Hixon. Eli threw another go route to Victor Cruz, the ball was caught but it may have been out of bounds. Rookie fullback Henry Hynoski has shown good hands throughout training camp and could provide a nice outlet for Eli this season. Ahmad Bradshaw had a couple of nice runs on sweep plays breaking free. The most positive aspect of practice for the offense was the goal-line and third and short situations. Both aspects are areas the offense needs to excel in and they have failed to do so in the past. The first team offense completed both attempts at third and one, the first being a run by Bradshaw where he would have gotten a big gain, the second a play action pass caught by Nicks. The opening play of goal-line practice was a touchdown by Jacobs. Travis Beckum seemed to have a very inconsistent practice, he made a handful of catches but he was also taken out of by Kevin Gillbride who did not seem happy with his performance.
The Young Guys…..
· Jernigan is beginning to show why the Giants drafted him. After a slow start to camp he is beginning to make more plays during practice. Today he had a handful of catches, the nicest being a skinny post from Ryan Perrilloux in very tight coverage.
· Greg Jones looks like he could be a player for this team. Every time he is in with the third team he seems to sniff out running plays and make tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
· Tyler Sash continues his solid preseason with another interception off of David Carr. The ball sailed on him and landed in the hands of Sash.
· Spencer Paysinger the undrafted free agent out of Oregon must be impressing the coaching staff. With Boley out for another practice with back problems, Paysinger got reps with the first team defense for a second straight day. Each day he made plays, pressuring Eli and potentially sacking him on a blitz and tipping a pass that was eventually intercepted by Corey Webster.
Injuries
Justin Tuck sat out practice today with a sore Achilles. He was walking around practice and joking around with teammates so the injury does not appear to be serious. Boley and JPP once again missed practice with back trouble