The New York Giants have a very nice squad, but they are starting to collect the injuries. The offensive line in particular has been a huge mess and not many teams have Michael Vick to help solve that problem.
Here are some notes from Thursday’s practice that could affect Sunday night’s game:
-Kevin Boss has a sore back and didn’t practice today. I don’t know that it’s a huge deal because he did practice Wednesday. Something could have flared up, but he’s still expected to play. Losing Boss for some reason would be huge because you’ve seen how the Eagles cover tight ends.
-CB Corey Webster hurt his toe this week in practice and didn’t practice today. It’s not clear at this point if he’s going to play against the Eagles. With Maclin and DeSean running around out there, the G-Men can’t afford to be down a corner. Aaron Ross will start if Webster can’t go. This is definitely something to keep an eye on.
-You probably saw already that WR Ramses Barden was placed on injured reserve. That leaves them pretty thin at WR because Steve Smith is out too (Adam Schefter reported that he could be out until December). Did you see who was promoted to the No. 3 spot this week? Duke Calhoun. Yep, Duke Calhoun. No catches at the NFL level. You also may have noticed that the Giants worked out Kevin Curtis this week, but opted instead to bring back Derek Hagan.
-We keep hearing that Shawn Andrews’ back injury isn’t serious, but he didn’t practice today or yesterday. They keep saying he’ll play, so maybe they are just resting it. They are already without Shaun O’Hara and David Diehl (Coughlin says he doesn’t like what he’s hearing about those injuries) and Koets is out for the year. That’s why Rich Seubert was playing center last week. I thought the Eagles had o-line injuries? The Eagles line looks like a model of health and fitness when compared to the Giants.
If the Eagles can’t sack Eli Manning 6-8 times and force him into bad throws and Int’s with this
O/Line that the Giants will have playing, then they won’t deserve to win the game….
Right Now they are looking like this across their O/Line without Shawn Andrews
LT – W Beatty (a 3rd-year player, 2nd Rd Draft pick who has been a disappoitment so far)
LG- K Booth (gimpy leg,and out of shape) or Rookie M Petrus
Center – R Suebert (who normally plays LG)
RG – Chris Snee (having a sub-par season so far)
RT – Raleigh McKenzie (typically struggles with speed rushers)
Believe me, the Giants will running the ball to their right and Eli will be rolling out to his right quite often for their left side of their O/Line will have a hard time sustaining any blocks and should get run-over by Trent Cole,DIxon,Bunkley.
Eagles will need big games from Parker (who has had some very godo games against McKenzie) and Graham..Also it’s critical that the OLB (Fokou or Sims) be ready for lots of runs,screens plays coming your way on that side of the field
This may be the weakest O/Line situation that Giants have had in years, so the Eagles need to take advantage and beat them to the punch and stay fast and agreessive and they could have a huge game. the Outcome of the game will be directly tied to how well the Eagles Front 7 dominates this Hurting Giants O/Line, If they do, It should be a big win for the Eagles 31-16.
I do expect the Giants to run the ball a lot more this week for 2 reasons
#1) To prevent QB E Manning on getting killed back there and exposing a real weak spot on left side of the O/Line
#2) To keep the ball away from QB Vick and the Eagles Offense…
I would not be surprised if Giants Game plan is to rush the ball 50 times between Bradshaw/Jacobs and eat up as much clock as they can, see a lot of power sweeps to the right, lots of screens to the rought and Manning Rolling out to his right. McDermott must know this too and plan accordingly