T-Rock's Take on the Giants

Tom Rock answers your Giants questions in a live chat today at 2 p.m.

I was chatting with Barry Cofield yesterday about what the defense focused on during the bye. He said one of the things the staff pointed out was the correlation between penalties and scoring drives. Barry didn't remember the exact numbers, he said, but it was pretty glaring.

I put those numbers together and yes, they are glaring.

The Giants have allowed nine scoring drives so far this season. Six of them were helped out by a Giants penalty on defense. Three of those penalties were early in the drive and may or may not have had a direct influence on what happened. But three others were fairly significant: The facemask call against Jay Alford that set up Washington's only TD at the end of the first half, the facemask against Justin Tuck as he made a third-down sack against the Rams, and the pass interference call against Kevin Dockery on third down against the Rams.

If you take away the drives in which the Giants committed a penalty, they've allowed only one touchdown and two field goals this season. And that one touchdown was the ghastly 25-yard run by Perry in the second quarter of the Bengals game.

Just for comparison's sake, the Giants have 20 penalties for 179 yards in three games (that's on offense and defense). That's 6.67 penalties per game and 59.67 yards per game. Last year they averaged 4.8 penalties and gave up 40.75 yards per game.

Don't forget, live chat today at 2 p.m. See you then.

Just received this murky statement from NFLPA spokesman Carl Francis:

"We are in the process of completing a settlement relating to several issues involved in the Burress matter.”

Several issues? What does that mean? Does it include the domestic disturbance calls now and not just the missed Monday session?

Richard Berthelsen, the NFLPA's acting executive director, was at Giants Stadium today for a previously scheduled meeting and told reporters that the settlement was all but finalized. "Everything is pretty much put to bed," he said this morning, adding that since the union and league were working toward a settlement there would be no grievance and no arbitrator involved.

He didn't make it sound as if there were several issues that needed working out at the time.

First it was Bradshaw spending part of the summer in the slammer. Then Plaxico gets suspended and a few domestic disturbance calls come to the surface that could (could) catch the attention of the NFL's personal conduct policy enforcers.

And now this.

Apparently Danny Ware was arrested this weekend while visiting his alma mater, Georgia. According to the report from the Athens Banner-Herald: "Officers arrested the world champion New York Giants running back on an alcohol charge as he joined other Georgia Bulldog fans who wallowed in the aftermath of Saturday night’s defeat to the Crimson Tide of Alabama."

Ware had a blood-alcohol content of 0.152 and was charged with pedestrian under the influence and pedestrian in the roadway. He posted a $500 cash bond, the story says, and was released on Sunday morning.

I forgot Manningham! He wasn't at practice this morning. Coughlin said he's suffering from the flu and has been told to stay away from the other players so he doesn't spread his cooties. I couldn't figure out how I missed not counting him at practice, until I saw David Tyree and remembered that with him on PUP they have 62 heads, not 61.

Tough break for Mario, who always seems to be in the bat hwhen opportunity knocks. Look at training camp for Example A.

Coughlin said he'd consider dressing two kickers for the game on Sunday. He said he's done that before. They want to make sure Tynes is 100,000,000 percent healthy before they even think about letting Carney go.

As for the locker room, it was filled with those obligatory post-bye questions about why the team has struggled after its weeks off in the past. They are 1-3 under Coughlin in those situations. While there were no theories passed around, the players did point out that the Seahawks are coming off the bye as well, so maybe there won't be any advantage to anyone. They all said it was a crsip practice. In fact, just about everyone I spoke with used that word: Crisp. It was more like a cereal commercial than a football locker room.

The other big question was about them being in first place. Their collective reaction: Doesn't matter. "If this was December, we'd be ecstatic," Pierce said. But after only three games, the Giants aren't putting any stock in their first-place status. Especially considering that they were never in first place last season and wound up winning the Super Bowl.

Rock: Live on the blog Tuesday at 2 p.m.

That's right. The Boss might be performing at halftime of the big game in Tampa this February, but you don't have to wait that long to chat with me. After the bye, we'll return to our regular weekly live chats this week as part of Newsday's Football Tuesday. Boland has a live chat on the Jets at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, assuming he's done counting Brett's TDs and Warner's passing yardage by then.

That's right, this is post number 1,000!

The Stapler took care of the first 600 or so of them, and I've been here since April with a few handoffs to Boone and Strang.

Anyway, enough with the balloons and the marching bands. We had a football practice today.

Looked like everyone who is not suspended was at practice. The only guy on the injury bike was Jerome McDougle.

Some of the players had new adornments on their uniforms: red hand towels dangling from their shorts. Most of them had their initials and numbers printed on the towels, but a few had nicknames. The most glaring nickname: KIWEEZY.

The defense was certainly focused on turnovers for the first part of practice that we saw. They started out with strip drills where the first guy makes the hit and the second guy goes after the ball. Then the LBs were working on fumble recoveries and later interceptions. The DBs worked on INTs and returning them with laterals.

Meanwhile, Hixon took the place of Plax with the starting offense. No surprise there. The RBs worked extensively on catching passes. The best of the bunch might be Hedgecock, who showed some good hands. Jeff Feagles was throwing the passes to the RBs. Nice, tight spirals. I guess if Brett can do what he did at his age yesterday, maybe Jeff still has a chance.

We get Coughlin and locker room in a little while. Be back with some nuggets from there for post number 1,001. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this thought:

Don't act disappointed -- you never really had a chance.

That's where the Giants are right now.

All alone in first place in the NFC East.

All alone as the only unbeaten team in the conference.

And, with the Jets taking a bye week, baseball season over in NY (in terms of games being played at least; around here it's never really over), and hockey and hoops not yet in gear, well, the Giants are all alone as the only active major sports team in New York.

(I say major, but as a Cablevision employee I must remind you of the Liberty and Shock playing in the WNBA playoffs tonight.)

That means for the first time since, oh, probably the middle of February, the Giants should be front and center in the minds of NY sports fans.

Game 4 of the post-preseason (which is what we've taken to calling these first six regular season games before the REAL tests begin on Oct. 26) is Sunday against the Seahawks.

The team has its first practice coming off the bye in a few minutes. I'll be back to update you on any changes that have taken place since last we saw the team on the field as well as a headcount to make sure everyone made it back from their break.

In the meantime, Giants fans, enjoy your alone time.

My buddy and neighbor Joe just passed by and stopped for a front lawn chat. He wanted to know what's going on with Plaxico. I told him it looks like he'll be fined about $177 grand and he'll be suspended for the Seahawks game.

"Wow, they really brought the hammer down on him," Joe said.

I tried to put that in perspective and told him that the fine is "only" a one week salary for the player. Joe couldn't believe it. I think he still lives in a world where Willie Mays comes out to play stickball with the kids from the neighborhood and Whitey Ford hops on the subway to and from the ballpark.

Anyway, the point is that the one thing that has been pretty non-negotiable in this situation is the suspension for the game. The Giants want to make a point that if you miss practice or meetings, you don't play. It's the same rule I was under when I was a kid playing in Levittown West Little League. It's nice to know that those same rules still apply to the bigger stage of the NFL.

Even if, as Joe pointed out, that $177 thousand could pay off his mortgage and then some.

UPDATE: By the way, poster Adam made the point that it would be a nice gesture if instead of fighting the fine, Plaxico fought the suspension, gave up the two weeks' salary, and played in the Seattle game for free. Nice thought, Adam. You and Joe can go wait on the street to shag flies with Willie Mays!

Not as quiet of a bye week as I would have imagined, but the drama seems to be drawing to a close as we get ready to plop in front of the TV on Sunday and actually just watch a football game or two.

There are numerous reports that the suspension of Plaxico Burress is close to being settled by the NFLPA and the NFL (you should know this is not a negotiation between Burress and the Giants).

"Still in discussions," NFLPA spokesman Carl Francis told me a few ninutes ago.

Apparently the deal they're working on would cut the fine in half from its original $235 grand, still have Burress miss the Seattle game, and not allow the Giants to touch his signing bonus. The suits who are working on an agreement could still be at it during the weekend -- "Not sure" Francis said when I asked if they'd take a break until Monday -- but it doesn't sound like we'll have anything concrete until early next week.

In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made in Dick’s name to the New York Chapter of the NFL Alumni Association or the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). Written condolences can be made at www.mem.com