The New York Giants have lost nine of their last 10 games against their hated rivals the Philadelphia Eagles, including the last five.
On Friday, the Giants’ three coordinators updated the media on the happenings within their respective units as Big Blue prepares for another foray into enemy territory.
Offensive coordinator Mike Shula
Eli Manning will be under center for the Giants in Philadelphia on Monday night, a team he’s faced nearly three dozen times in his career. Shula discusses the seamless transition back to Manning this week after it was discovered that Daniel Jones will likely miss the game with an ankle injury.
“He looks good. He’s had a good week,” Shula said of Manning. “He always has a good look in his eye. He’s been great for me as a coach, to be around. I’ve learned a lot from him. I look forward to watching him on Monday night.”
As for the 11-week layoff, Shula was asked if sitting all that time affected Eli at all.
“I don’t really think so,” he said. “I just think it’s a matter of getting back out there, getting that first snap and going. It’s kind of like, probably the same question you would ask me if we had taken a break from the end of OTAs to training camp, that type of thing. But like I said earlier, probably being on the road, the communication, making sure we’re really, really detailed, loud and clear and things like that.”
Defensive coordinator James Bettcher
We all know the bad, so how about some good for once? The Giants have been stopping the run since acquiring Leonard Williams from the Jets at the trade deadline, holding their opponents to 2.68 yards per attempt on the ground the past three weeks.
Bettcher was asked what has changed recently and the reasons for the improvement from a defense that surrendered 127.8 yards per game on the ground the first nine games.
“I’m a yards per rush (guy) that’s what matter the most,” he said. “Through the course of the season, when we’ve been the number one run defense in the league before, that was the number. It wasn’t yards per game rushing.”
“If someone rushes it 20 times for 150 yards or run it 30 times for 150 yards that changes the number of times they are willing to throw the ball. Obviously, when people throw the ball yards per pass attempt is obviously a higher number. I’m excited that it’s gone in that direction that we have been getting better and better. I think some of that is we’ve been better with our gap leverage. We’ve been better with our eyes on pullers at the second level. Those are things that we’ve tried to identify and work in practice as much as we can.”
As for Williams, who still does not have a sack for the Giants, Bettcher had nothing but positives to say.
“I have seen great energy,” he said. “Today at practice he was flying around, he brought great juice. He has things in his game that he’s working on to get better at. I thought this past game, he was even more disruptive for us, I thought he did some really good stuff. This last month of the season he needs to keep trending in the direction he’s going. I’ve used the words as we’ve talked before, using his prescription to get better at those specific things that we talked about that needs to get better at. I do like the direction he’s in.”
Special Teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey
The Giants placed longtime long snapper Zak DeOssie (wrist) on injured reserve last week and promoted Colin Holba from the practice squad to replace him. But the 35-year old DeOssie, winner of two Super Bowls with the Giants, has meant a ton to this organization over his 13 years with the team.
McGaughey reflected on DeOssie’s career – which appears to be over – with the beat pool on Friday.
“So, me and Zak came in together in ’07, it was my first year as an assistant here. Basically, we kind of raised him as a rookie. He was the first long snapper I had that went to the Pro Bowl. He’s meant a ton to this organization. This guy, he’s been a constant pro, he’s been a great leader, a great teammate, and is just a selfless person. It’s kind of hard to describe, really, and give it true justice, the kind of guy that he is, the kind of teammate that he’s been. He’ll definitely be missed, definitely.”
from Giants Wire https://ift.tt/2s1OR9K
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