NYG inactives: Steve Smith, Robert Douglas, Brandon Jacobs, Craig Dahl, Adam Koets, Manny Wright, Kevin Boothe. Jared Lorenzen is the third QB again.
Aaron Ross starts at LCB. Derrick Ward is in, contrary to popular reports from this AM.
No Westbrook, no Dawkins, no Sheppard for Philly. Should be enough, right?
So, I watched some college football yesterday... Can someone explain to me why college officiating is so bad? Maybe I should as Abramson. He knows that game.
Latest example: Punt-returner's interference in the Auburn-Florida game. Luckily it didn't cost Auburn anything, but still. If the returner doesn't call for a fair catch, he's fair game once the ball gets into his arms, right? Right? Sheesh.
Anyway... On to the pros, where the refs don't normally make at least one bonehead call a game.
Giants-Eagles. What do we have here?
Eagles: Brian Westbrook isn't 100 percent healthy, but I suspect he'll play. Same for Brian Dawkins. But with Lito Sheppard out, the corners are vulnerable. So is the offensive line if Steve Spagnuolo can find room for all his pass rushers.
Giants: No Brandon Jacobs (not official, but when has TC ever just plugged someone in coming back early from an injury?), but Derrick Ward should be out there. Running game is huge tonight -- Philly will be making sure to have bodies in the secondary on Burress, Shockey and Toomer, so there should be room to run. We'll see if Omar Gaither reacts to Ward the same way Jeremiah Trotter used to react when Tiki ran near him. Methinks not.
Not saying the Giants have arrived, but the Eagles haven't either. They had one TD in the first two games after piling em up on the lousy Lions.
Giants, 23-21.
Inactives tonight.
First, the news of the day...
Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward are both questionable for Sunday. Jacobs practiced fully and Ward didn't practice at all thanks to soreness in his sprained left ankle. But if Ward can go, don't expect to see Jacobs out there -- even though he feels he can play, TC is not one to get players back early.
Steve Smith is out and Plaxico Burress is questionable. Which means he'll play.
For the Eagles, TE L.J. Smith is out, CB Lito Sheppard and T William Thomas are doubtful and S Brian Dawkins, RB Brian Westbrook and CB William James are questionable. Which means Dawkins and Westbrook will play. James? He materialized on the Philly injury report with a finger problem, so who knows with him. If both he and Sheppard are out, watch the Giants try to spread the field.
OK folks. On to the List... We've done some work for y'all and we're trying to bring it back to the NYG. So here are 13 players (and one assistant coach) and the tracks they listen to on game day to get themselves ready to go:
Antonio Pierce -- Hail Mary, 2Pac
Michael Strahan -- Stronger, Kanye West
Plaxico Burress -- Motivation, T.I.
Osi Umenyiora -- Under Pressure, Queen/David Bowie
Justin Tuck -- Dream On, Aerosmith
David Diehl -- The Last of the Mohicans soundtrack
Gibril Wilson -- Strictly For My ------, 2Pac
Sam Madison -- Anything by Trick Daddy
Aaron Ross -- Anything by Li'l Wayne
Shaun O'Hara -- Eye Of The Tiger, Survivor
Mathias Kiwanuka -- SpottieOttieDopaliscious, OutKast
Lawrence Tynes -- Doesn't own an IPod
Zak DeOssie -- Respect, Pantera
WRs coach Mike Sullivan -- Face The Pain, Stemm
Catch you tomorrow with a game preview.
A few injury updates from today's practice, including some news on Plaxico Burress:
Running backs Derrick Ward and Brandon Jacobs returned to practice, while injured wide receiver Steve Smith stood on the sidelines and fullback Robert Douglas pedaled a handbike nearby.
Burress returned today from his visit with orthopedist Robert Anderson in Charlotte, N.C. He was was on sidelines during the allotted time reporters are allowed to watch practice, doing agility work and catching over the shoulder passes.
The Giants issued the following statement on Burress' condition, from Vice President of Medical Services Ronnie Barnes:
"Plaxico and I visited with Dr. Robert Anderson in Charlotte yesterday. Dr Anderson reviewed Plaxico's MRI results and administered his own physical exam of Plaxico. Dr. Anderson confirmed our findings, which is that Plaxico has a serious sprain to his right ankle. The best prescription for this injury is rest, and as a result, Plaxico's practice time for the immediate future will be limited. For the time being, we will continue to evaluate Plaxico's injury on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis."
--Reporting by Katie Strang. Posted by Newsday.com
Down to Charlotte to see noted orthopedist Robert Anderson to see how to "best manage" his right ankle issues... This is on team physician Russ Warren's recommendation.
Sounds ominous, despite the Giants' injury report spin -- managing doesn't sound too bad, but who knows what Anderson will say?
More later.
A day late, all that, I know. Sometimes the blog must wait.
So here it is: Whose spot should Justin Tuck take on the starting D-line? I'm sure many of you agree with my Chalk Talk assessment in today's paper that Tuck needs to be on the field more; who steps aside?
I will be back later with stuff from the locker room and TC's press conference... No lineup changes, I'm sure -- well, if there are, he won't say -- but I'll be back with the news of the day.
Let's see some opinions, people. I know you've got 'em.
Guess I'll be making predictions from now on... Anyway, here's the next-day perspective on the first 'W'...
THE GOOD
Goal-line stands: Welcome to the Giants, Kawika Mitchell. He made the key plays on second and third downs, then Justin Tuck and Aaron Ross got in there on fourth down. Did anyone think the 'Skins weren't scoring there? Hands? Anyone? Thought so.
The kid DEs: Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka played superbly. Tuck has done that since the day he showed up for training camp; Kiwanuka finally shut his brain off and just rolled, and the results were eight tackles, 1 1/2 sacks and a lot more enthusiasm than he's shown in weeks. These guys need to be on the field, and if it means less time for Fred Robbins (a shame, because he's the most consistent D-lineman they have) or Barry Cofield, then so be it.
Sam Madison: Wow. Just, wow. Showing the kids in the secondary how it's done, from coverage to tackling to positioning. And he had a dark-green corduroy jacket on after the game... Again, wow. Just, wow. But not in a good way.
Everyone in the second half: Plax, Osi, Strahan, Aaron Ross, Eli (except for that heave to Sean Taylor), Reuben Droughns, Derrick Ward, the equipment guys and Jackie, the waitress at the Denny's in Perryville, Md. who served me and MG around midnight on the drive home.
THE BAD
Corey Webster: Guessing he'll get at least a week to clear his head... After that, it's up to him whether he can figure things out.
Plax (first half): Three drops and a generally distracted look... And back to the good for a second: How huge was his tackle of Taylor on Eli's second INT? Kept the Redskins back deep and gave the Giants good field position on the next possession. No shades of last season there.
Punt and kick coverage: Seams all over the place. Rock Cartwright found room on either sideline -- Ahmad Bradshaw and James Butler both failed to seal off the sideline on one run -- and Antwaan Randle-El's punt return to start the final Redskins drive was nearly a killer.
Among the other tidbits from a few media sessions today...
-- Giants adjusted in-game very, very well to both the Skins' offense and defense. Not just for the Giants' D putting the four DEs up front, but with their having both safeties play down on the LOS and leaving one CB back as a sort of free safety when the Skins went to two-TE, one-WR sets. Santana Moss burned the Giants in the second quarter on one of those, but that was Webster's bad.
-- Eli audibled well, so well that one of his better calls, opting out of a pass play on third-and-5 from the Redskins 11 and calling a draw to Derrick Ward that picked up 6, drew some funny reactions from his O-line. Eli saw two LBs ready to blitz, but saw the safeties were still back, telling him there was no blitz. "We just wanted to make sure he hadn't been sniffing glue or anything like that," Shaun O'Hara said.
Back tomorrow with another Q of the week.
Brandon Jacobs, Craig Dahl, Gerris Wilkinson, Adam Koets, Steve Smith, Kevin Boothe, and Kevin Boss.
Jared Lorenzen is the third QB.
Should be nice and toasty around game time, which may ensure that Aaron Ross stays on the field... Kid likes the warm weather.
No word yet on Plax, but safe to assume he'll play. He may not hate missing practice, but he does hate missing games.
And the minor roster move yesterday -- waiving DE Marquies Gunn and activating RB Robert Douglas -- might mean a couple things: Either that TC is happy with his other three DEs, or more likely that Mathias Kiwanuka will be lining up with his hand on the ground more often today.
As for some recent questions... Sid: I think Pierce, like a lot of LBs in this league, gets exposed when he gets caught in space trying to defend the pass. He'll never be a Ray Lewis, a guy who makes up for some scheme mistakes by being a superior athlete; Pierce's greatest strength is being the anchor of a sound defense. And, without trying to draw any air-horn fire, this has not been a sound defense for the majority of Pierce's time with the NYG.
He knows where to be when almost everyone else knows where to be -- if you think about some of his big plays, like his fumble return for a TD against the Cowboys a couple years ago, it came from Kendrick Clancy making the play and Pierce being in the right place.
I'm not too into making predictions this season, for the simple reason that I don't think you all much care about them. I picked the Giants as my best bet in the paper on Friday, though, because I don't think this team is as bad as they've shown.
Back with inactives in a few hours.
Except, in this case, it was two former players...
Oddly enough, Tiki Barber had something to say about Pierce's air-horn display. Can you believe Tiki speaking out like this? On Sirius last night:
"Now that things are struggling, first of all he runs away from it early in the week and now he’s refusing to answer questions by being completely disrespectful to a group of people who are just trying to do their job. That’s the job of media, ask the question. And you don’t have to answer it but don’t be rude."
And, on Sirius this morning, Shannon Sharpe:
"It’s childish. It’s childish and very trivial and totally uncalled for... Whether I caught 10 [passes] for 115 [yards] and two [touchdowns] or I caught one for five and we lost by 14, I was going to talk because if you’re going to talk when things are going good, I need you to talk when things are going bad. And that’s how it was. It never got too bad, it never got too good in order for me to talk. [If] we didn’t play well I’m going to be honest [and say], ‘We didn’t play well. I didn’t play well. Offensively we didn’t play well. Defensively we didn’t play well.’ There’s enough blame to go around for everybody. But don’t be childish. That is so ridiculous. It irks me when I see guys act like that. That’s ridiculous. Are you 14 [years old] or are you 28, 29 making millions of dollars to play a kid’s game? And you act like this?”
AP's response:
"Do they play for the New York Giants? Then I have nothing to say. I'm sorry I scared everybody (with the air horn)."
And... we're done with that.
Burress was limited (sorry for jumping the gun), he'll be a game time decision on Sunday.
That's about all I learned on the practice field today.
I also learned today that veteran commenter JD is from a different era than me... No worries, my good man. I have a wide variety of older musical tastes, from Bobby Womack to Them to CSNY to the MC5. We can talk about that if you like.
And excellent list, rnargi... The Replacements are really a favorite, just don't love any of their CDs enough from start to finish to pick one.
I'll leave the scrapping on BBI to the experts.
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