Mario Manningham Returns to Practice
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Mario Manningham has returned to practice for the New York Giants after missing Wednesday with was reported as a mild concussion.
This is good news for the Giants mainly because guys who miss Thursday practice usually don’t play on Sunday. This isn’t good news for fellow Wednesday injury report teammate Rocky Bernard, who remained inactive today.
It appears Victor Cruz’s long waited shot to prove himself will have to wait for another time.
Eli Manning will be happy about Manningham’s return, as he has been a favorite target in third down situations and other tough spots. His speed and ability to make plays down field have been an X-factor for the Giants offense, so his presence on the field will be much needed when they take on the Chicago Bears this Sunday.
Tiki Barber Claims Tom Coughlin Is In a “Crisis” With the Giants
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Another former Giants player has come forward and expressed concerns about the lack of leadership and accountability on the current team. Tiki Barber did a Yahoo! video on Wednesday saying the team is slipping through Coughlin’s fingers and that his job is on the line.
In a conference call with the team on Thursday, he reiterated those statements.
“He is in a crisis because of the perception that he is losing his team,” Barber said. “We all know that especially in New York, once the media and the perception becomes a reality, you start fighting against it. And when you are fighting against something that is not necessarily real, you make it real. That is why he is in a crisis.”
Barber was in town for the Ring of Honor ceremony that is honoring former Giants legends. He has never been shy when talking about his former team. The year after he retired he made the statement about Eli Manning not being a great leader in the huddle. Eli responded by winning the Super Bowl MVP award.
Maybe the more Barber talks, the better the team plays.
“Whether it is playing better and not making mistakes or whether it is having a group of players like he did in previous years, stand up and take accountability for what is going on, not pushing the blame by saying we should’ve, we could’ve, we didn’t, saying we played poorly, we need to take responsibility for it.”
I tend to agree with Barber on the “should’ve, would’ve, could’ve” aspect, especially when Justin Tuck claimed the Giants outplayed the Titans on Sunday. With all of the mistakes, albeit mostly on offense and special teams, it would better serve the team for the leaders to take accountability for the loss.
The team leaders are just as important when it comes to dumb penalties, maybe even more so, than the coaching staff. When players get their heads taken off by a coach it’s just normal, but when they hear it from a peer sometimes it means more.
Not everyone responds to getting yelled at by a coach. Everyone responds to getting yelled at by the best player on your team.
Giants Place Michael Johnson on IR, Mario Manningham Sidelined With Concussion
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The New York Giants placed Michael Johnson on IR this week due to a back injury and now they have Mario Manningham on the injury report for this week due to a concussion he suffered in last week’s game.
Michael Johnson was an after thought when the team signed both Antrel Rolle and Deon Grant to shore up the safety position, but still provided the team with a good special teams player and backup that keeps the starters on their toes.
In response to the injury, they signed DB Michael Coe who was waived by the Jaguars on Monday. Coe was a member of the Giants practice squad in 2009.
Some troubling news also broke this week when the pre-practice injury report showed Mario Manningham with a concussion. The team does not know whether he will be able to play against the Chicago Bears this Sunday.
If he cannot go, it will be a huge blow to the offense as Manningham had once again show a solid chemistry that he showed with Eli Manning in the first couple weeks of the 2009 season. He leads the team in receiving yards with 238 and has been a favorite target of Eli’s when the offense gets in tough spots.
In a surprising turn, Victor Cruz worked as the team’s third wide receiver in practice ahead of Ramses Barden. Barden was expected to be more of a factor in the offense this year, but Manningham’s resurgence and Cruz’s fantastic preseason pushed him down the depth chart.
Cruz showed amazing speed and terrific hands in the preseason, which was highlighted by an unbelievable left handed grab on a down field throw with a defender all over him.
Maybe he can inspire the other receivers to hold on to the ball.
Giants Embarrassed 29-10 at Home by Titans; Is Coughlin Loosing Control?
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The New York Giants lost to the Tennessee Titans yesterday in what can only be called one of the worst displays of discipline I’ve ever seen.
Not only did the Giants turn the ball over inside the five yard line twice, but they committed six personal fouls, most of which couldn’t have come at a worse time.
The players were obviously losing their heads on the field in frustration, but isn’t this team coached by Tom Coughlin? The same coach who has often been referred to as a dictator? The same coach who fines players for not being five minutes EARLY to meetings?
Something has happened and he has completely lost control of this team. After going down 19-10, the team seem to lose focus and started committing dumb penalties.
After the fumble by Ahmad Bradshaw inside the five yard line, David Diehl began running his mouth and shoving guys so they hit him with a personal foul. The Titans got the ball on the 19 instead of the four-yard line; that was huge for the field position battle.
When the Giants were driving down by 12, they had a 2nd and 10 from the Titans 30-yard line. Eli Manning threw a pass over Steve Smith’s head, but after the play Kareem McKenzie got into it with a Titan defender and shoved him to the ground, right in front of the referee, who flagged him for his second personal foul of the game.
The penalty forced the Giants to try and convert a 3rd and 25 in two plays and did not succeed, costing them any hope of making a comeback.
Once again stupid mistakes cost the Giants a game, but this week they actually moved the ball around on offense. They were up and down the field on the Titans, but couldn’t connect.
Aside from the two turnovers aforementioned, Lawrence Tynes also missed a 53 and 42 yard field goal, adding up to a combined 20 points left on the field.
Bradshaw was killin’ the front seven after the first couple drives and if it weren’t for that costly fumble I would have said he had a great game.
Looking at the box score stats is almost as depressing as recalling all of these penalties. They out-gained the Titans 471-271 in yards, had eight more first downs, averaged 5.4 yards per carry, and had the ball for three minutes longer.
The only difference in the game is the 11 penalties and the three turnovers. Eli Manning said it best in the post game interview, I’m paraphrasing, but he basically said “sometimes teams make more plays, or a guy makes a big play, but when you beat yourself it’s frustrating.”
“We outplayed them,” said Justin Tuck. “I think we were more physical, I think we drove the ball on offense, I think our defense put them in a lot of situations they didn’t want to be in and stopped them for most of the game. But we didn’t take advantage of the opportunities and they did.”
He couldn’t be more right about the defense doing their job, but he also couldn’t be more right about not taking advantage of opportunities, and that’s what separates playoff teams from mediocre teams.
The Giants face a huge test next week when they take on Jay Cutler and the Bears. If the team shows any more lack of discipline as seen in yesterday’s game, Tom Coughlin’s head might explode.
Rant Sports TV: Week 2 Highlights
The top five games in Week 2 of the NFL season reviewed by Aaron and Brett. Enjoy!
Kevin Boss Practicing, Antrel Rolle Upset, Tom Coughlin Disbands Leadership Council
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Despite the good news that Kevin Boss is back practicing and Osi Umenyiora and Hakeem Nicks aren’t on this week’s injury list, questions arising about the team’s leadership, or lack thereof, have surfaced due to Antrel Rolle’s comments and Tom Coughlin disbanding the famous leadership council.
On Tuesday, Antrel Rolle made vocal his displeasure with the apparent lack of leadership in the locker room after Sunday’s embarrassing loss to the Colts.
“I saw some things I wasn’t too fond of in that locker room. I felt like there was no one that stepped up to the plate when the opportunity presented itself.” said Rolle.
The comments were not welcomed by the team in the way that they were said on the radio and not in a team meeting. or on the practice field. Rolle has definitely learned a few things about the New York media the past couple of days, and admits that he should not have taken his frustrations public.
He also went on to say that the team is too “controlled” and that the “dog” inside has not been unleashed yet. Whether or not that is true, the fact remains that no leader has taken control of this team and it has too happen fast.
Many have looked to Justin Tuck, who has admitted that Coughlin and some of his teammates have looked to him to be more vocal.
In a previous post I mentioned that I didn’t think one single person could step up and fill the Antonio Pierce role of emotional leader, it would have to be more of a multi-person effort.
Well, when Coughlin declined to form a leadership council for the first time since the Super Bowl season, the chances of that happening became slim.
That being said, the new faces in the locker room may have to be the ones that bring the team together. Rolle claims he had no intention of coming in and taking away from the chemistry by trying to be the leader, but he will if he has to.
Keith Bulluck, signed in July, was definitely the leader of the Tennessee Titans defense for ten years before joining the Giants. However, he has not stepped into a leadership role as of yet. It may be on the horizon.
Underneath all of this craziness is the fact that Kevin Boss returned to practice this week and expect to play on Sunday. This is great news for both Boss and Eli Manning, who obviously struggled on Sunday without his go-to guy over the middle.
Maybe with Boss back the running game can actually get back to abusing defenses. Travis Beckum is a horrible blocker and with Adam Koets in as a blocking TE (normally an offensive lineman) in the Giants basically project the fact that they are running the ball.
With Boss in, the offense won’t be so transparent and they can really open up the playbook. After the way they played on Sunday, anything helps.
Brandon Jacobs: Has He Played His Last Game in New York?
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In an interesting subplot of yesterday’s embarrassing loss to the Colts, Giants RB Brandon Jacobs made headlines when he accidentally sent his helmet soaring into the stands. Whether you believe it was an accident is up to you.
After the game Jacobs met with reporters and apologized for the incident, insisting that his helmet slipped in his fingers when he was trying to hurl his helmet at the bench in frustration. He hasn’t been very effective thus far and coach Tom Coughlin took him out of the game after trying to dance around on a bad running play in the third quarter.
He would not return to the game.
Reports began to surface this morning that the disgruntled back was going to demand a trade today, but several sources have said that rumor was just that, a rumor.
Ahmad Bradshaw, coach Coughlin, and ESPN’s Adam Schefter all confirmed that Jacobs had not said anything about a trade, and apparently there is a meeting that will take play between Jacobs and the Giants front office Tuesday afternoon.
Coughlin reiterated Monday that the Giants will need both Bradshaw and Jacobs to succeed this season, and the front office said they have no plans to trade Jacobs no matter how he feels at the moment.
This is a developing story and will definitely have updates later in the week, check back for the latest on this situation.
Manning Bowl II Provides No Excitement as Giants, Eli Lay an Egg
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I can’t remember a game where I felt so upset afterwords besides maybe the Carolina game last season. The New York Giants were severely outplayed by the Indianapolis Colts but most importantly, they were ridiculously out-coached.
The Giants coaching staff had no clue what to do offensively, which makes no sense considering the Houston Texans showed everyone in the NFL last Sunday how to beat Peyton Manning; keep the ball out of his hands and put Manning on the ground.
The only way to slow down the high powered Colts offense is not only to run it down their throats on offense, but also to make sure you punish big brother Peyton when he steps back to pass, even if you don’t sack him you have to rush his throws and put him on the ground.
The Giants did neither of those things on Sunday night and made Giants fans everywhere ashamed to call themselves such. Two things became extremely evident as a result of this embarrassing loss; Kevin Gilbride (and Tom Coughlin to an extent) does not know how to make adjustments when things go wrong, and the Giants offensive line has no answer for fast defensive ends.
As fans, we’ve always sort of known the first realization, but yesterday’s game was such a ridiculous game plan by Gilbride and Coughlin that I felt compelled to bring it up.
For some reason, the Giants felt like their running game wouldn’t have success and went away from it after going down by 14. To a certain extent I can understand why they would do it, but they didn’t do enough to neutralize the Colts pass rush.
Gilbride is almost stubborn with his game plan, where as most successful offensive coordinators know that when things aren’t going right you have to change things up and keep the defense on their toes. I felt like Coughlin should have known enough to scream into his headset to just keep calling run plays, but apparently he didn’t have the answer either.
The Giants shot themselves in the foot twice by passing it on short 3rd down plays in the first half. The first drive it happened, Bradshaw gained eight yards on 1st down and the Giants passed it twice in a row and did not complete either one. Maybe next time you’ll think about keeping the run game going?
The second one was a 3rd and 1 when the Giants were driving to get within 10 at halftime and they lined up in the Shotgun formation and Mathis sacked Eli, causing a fumble giving the Colts good field position to push the score to 24-0 just before halftime.
The dagger of the game, however, came after the Giants finally put points on the board with a long touchdown bomb to Mario Manningham and the Giants forced a punt by the Colts offense.
Once again Bradshaw gets a good gain on first down (six yards) and the Giants decide to lineup in passing formation and Dwight Freeney beats David Diehl for the umpteenth time and forces another fumble by Eli which is recovered in the end zone by the Colts.
The Colts defense had picked up on these second down passes and Mathis and Freeney had been shooting up field on nearly every second and third down play. I don’t get how Gilbride didn’t figure this out when I could see it watching it on TV. I must have tweeted four times for the Giants to run a draw play.
When they finally ran one later in the fourth quarter it went for a 14 yard gain, and not surprising to anyone, both Colts defensive ends shot up the field and took themselves out of the play.
Draw plays are the best medicine to slow down fast pass rushers, and the Giants didn’t run one until late in the fourth quarter (to the best of my knowledge, I missed some of the first quarter). It almost felt like Gilbride is a nervous play caller, because they used to run the ball out of the Shotgun all the time, and rarely did so last night if at all.
You’ve probably been picking up on the second thing I mentioned earlier about the offensive line, considering two of the biggest plays of the game were breakdowns by Diehl and Kareem McKenzie that resulted in turnovers.
The thing that is the most upsetting is that Freeney kept killing Diehl on every play, yet there were no adjustments made to give him any help.
The Giants offensive line is getting old, losing William Beatty was a much bigger injury than people want to admit, he could have been put in the game in lieu of Diehl because Beatty is much more athletic than anyone we currently have starting.
If they keep getting beat like that every week Eli is going to have a rough year to say the least.
One other thing that was somewhat apparent but can’t really be determined unless by another game like last nights is that the Giants sorely missed Kevin Boss.
Not having that security blanket across the middle seemed to affect Eli on third downs. Not only that, but Boss also sometimes stays in to help block in passing situations, which for some reason they didn’t feel like doing with Bear Pascoe yesterday.
Hopefully Boss can make it back for next week’s show down with the Titans at The Meadowlands, they definitely need him.
As much many problems as there were on offense, they were pretty much mirrored on defense. Bad game plan, terrible play calling, and having the wrong formations on the field.
In thinking the Colts were going to have a pass heavy attack, the Giants de-activated both backup defensive tackles and tried to stop Peyton at all costs.
Unfortunately, the Colts caught on to that very quickly and pounded the ball with Joseph Addai and Donald Brown. Addai had 80 yards by halftime and feasted on the Giants most commonly used package in the game: three defensive ends, one defensive tackle, one linebacker, and six defensive backs (Deon Grant basically played a linebacker spot).
I get that you don’t want to let Peyton beat you, but to go far enough to only have two defensive tackles is ridiculous. It was obvious that the Colts picked up on this and ran the no-huddle offense on the first drive of the game to prevent the Giants from keeping their lineman fresh.
The bottom line is both sides of the ball have plenty to work on in practice this week. Any more games called like that by Gilbride and he could be out the door.
New York Giants vs. Indianapolis Colts: Preview of Manning Bowl II
For just the second time since entering the league, the Indianapolis Colts and the New York Giants will face off in a regular season matchup that has been affectionately dubbed, “The Manning Bowl;” Peyton vs. Eli.
The first time around the Colts got the better of the Giants in 2006, 26-21. That was in Eli Manning’s second full season as a starter and he performed admirably but the defense couldn’t hold down that high powered Colts offense.
To be honest, the game could have easily gone to the Giants. The defense forced the Colts to kick four field goals in the game, but the offense made mistakes and couldn’t capitalize.
Trailing 23-21 late in the game, Eli threw a pick after a bogus offensive pass interference call that would have given the Giants a first down. The interception allowed the Colts to get another field goal and push the lead to five, and by then it was too late for a comeback.
This season has a much different look for both teams. For the Giants, it’s mainly on the defensive side of the ball that we have almost all new faces, but the biggest factor is probably going to be the person Eli will be handing off to.
Ahmad Bradshaw will have to be a major factor in the game; the best defense against Peyton is a steady run game that keeps him on the sideline.
The Houston Texans showed that last Sunday when they ran the ball 42 times for 257 yards. The Texans have always tried to implement that formula and it had been working the last five games they played, but only the last one were they able to prevent a fourth quarter comeback by Peyton Manning.
Austin Collie’s fumble inside the 10 yard line while down by just 10 proved to be the major difference in the game.
With Bob Sanders out with an injury, the Giants’ rushing attack needs to—and probably will—be dominant. The first half of Sunday’s game was a disgrace; having just 13 rushes for eight yards. It was only until the second half when the offensive line finally decided to open up holes to the tune of 23 rushed for 110 yards.
The biggest concern is Jonathan Goff and Kenny Phillips being able to stop Dallas Clark across the middle of the field. In the preseason game with the Ravens, Joe Flacco ate up the middle of the field against many of the Giants’ starters, and made Goff look like a school girl.
Goff played pretty well despite a mistake here and there in his first start of the season, but was protected by a dominant performance from the defensive line.
The key to defense will be the pass rush getting to big brother Peyton. The Texans showed that Peyton will struggle if you knock him around, even if you aren’t sacking him you have to pressure him and make him uncomfortable in the pocket.
This is a very winnable game for the Giants, they just have to execute and not shoot themselves in the foot. Teams that do that against Peyton typically don’t come away with victories.
Game on.
Rant Sports Week 2 Power Rankings: New York Giants No. 12
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Rant Sports has released their Week 2 Power Rankings, to see the full article, click the link below.
Drew Brees and the Saints round out the top spot, which should have been the case from the beginning. I’m a firm believer in letting the defending champs occupy the No. 1 spot so long as they didn’t have significant losses from the season before.
The Broncos being No. 1 in 1999 would be an example of something that I would NOT want to see happen (No. 7 retired).
The Giants sit at No. 12, which I can be happy about because every other media outlet that does Power Rankings for some reason keeps placing the Giants lower than they ought to be.
They are No. 16 in the ESPN power rankings. Some of the teams ahead of the Giants make no sense. The Chargers lost to the Chiefs, Miami struggled to beat Buffalo, and the Redskins didn’t score a touchdown on offense.
It seems like my fellow Rant Sports guys are the only ones who see the Redskins have to prove something before they can be crowned a success, starting them at No. 23 in their first Rankings.
ESPN currently has the ‘Skins at No. 14…Really?? That all I should have to say on the matter, they did not look like they were better than 18 other teams on Sunday night.
One thing that bothered me in the rankings I have seen is the Titans moving up so many spots for beating the Raiders. Did I miss something? Since when was a win over Oakland supposed to be a season changing affair?
Oh well, as far as I can tell the Rant Sports guys got it right, but that could be because they put the boys in blue higher than everyone else.
