T-Rock's Take on the Giants

No more Strahan news as of yet... Other than one veteran telling me privately, "Give the man his space. He'll be here." Oh goody.

On the field this A.M., we had a collection of good -- and bad:

THE GOOD

Jared Lorenzen continues to throw BBs all over the field. He had a deep ball to Marco Thomas that was as good a throw as any I've seen, in-season or out. Hard to imagine he's anything but the No. 2 QB, especially since he adds a wrinkle to the offense in short yardage, as Kevin Gilbride tried in the Redskins game last year.

Osi Umenyiora could have set the single-season sack record just this morning. Not sure whether it was all on Dave Diehl or there were other breakdowns, but Eli Manning had No. 72 in his face at least five times.

DT Marcus Bell stuffed the run a couple times and moved up to Fred Robbins' spot with the 1s at the end of team drills.

Overall, the defense was in command, from the individual drills -- watching the DBs work on jamming the WRs at the line was certainly something new and different -- up through team work.

As noted by one of the defensive starters: "First two weeks, the defense always wins. If not, you're in trouble."

THE BAD

Eli Manning wasn't bad, but his protection certainly was. Manning made some nice throws, including a seam route to Jeremy Shockey in team drills and another well-place seam throw to Darcy Johnson over Kawika Mitchell in 7-on-7s, but Manning wouldn't have gotten off a few of his throws because of blitzes.

Lawrence Tynes didn't get too many of his kickoffs deep.

THE REST

Zak DeOssie got noticed and was physical, but not quite in the right way. He sent TE Michael Matthews flying in pursuit of a loose ball and knocked FB Robert Douglas down after a catch. "As someone who's trying to show what they have, it can be hard to differentiate between going 100 percent and being cautious," DeOssie said.

He added that his dad, Steve, will be driving over from Boston on his Harley on Thursday. "He'd never admit it, but he's like a kid in a candy store with me being here," Zak said.

Will Demps had to face down reporters today to talk about being down with the 2s while James Butler holds down the starting strong safety spot. "My track record speaks for itself," Demps said. "It's real early. I'm not going to say, 'OK, he's the starter,' because we haven't played any games. I'm healthy and I'm in the best shape I've been in. This is the guy I felt I should've been last year."

More on the way this afternoon.