August 10, 2008 New York Giants Training Camp Report (Evening Practice)

August 10, 2008 New York Giants Training Camp Report (Evening Practice)

by BigBlueInteractive.com Contributor Marty in Albany

The practice was in full pads and started an hour early because of the threat of thunderstorms. I thought that the Giants offense played with a bit more intensity than on Saturday, although the defense is still dominant.

At one point, Coach Coughlin was screaming at the second team offensive line for failing to execute properly. On one play, QB Anthony Wright took the snap and although it only took him one second to deliver the ball to TE Eric Butler, the defense was on Wright within a half a second.

Toyota had set up some tents in the Dutch Quad parking lot. They were cooking hot dogs on a huge grill. Presumably, they were free for the fans. I would have stopped to sample their wares except that I wanted to get home quickly to write this report and because I knew that Mrs. Marty in Albany’s delicious meatball and sausage lasagne was waiting for me at home.

The first pass in the 11 on 11s was a simple pass and catch from QB Eli Manning to WR Sinorice Moss. It was the kind of pass that I like to see. Moss went down field about 12 yards and beat CB Terrell Thomas with a cut rather than by outrunning him. Moss had several more catches and one dropped pass. The drop was a hard throw from QB Anthony Wright that bounced off his hands. Moss and WR Domenik Hixon caught the most passes. Hixon has yet to look bad on any catch.

Wright continues to play with the second team and to get more reps than QB David Carr and QB André Woodson combined. Wright has a big booming voice that reminds me of Kerry Collins. I expect that he will draw a few people offside during the pre-season games. Wright and the other QBs have added some new audible calls to the snap count: East Taco! and West Elvis! It’s quite colorful, but I wonder how many of the players even know who Elvis was.

The best play of the practice was a Carr pass thrown to TE Darcy Johnson. Gritty little CB Kevin Dockery was side by side with the big TE. They both jumped to catch the ball and fought for possession while they were in the air, but Dockery wrenched the ball out of Johnson’s grasp, and landed on the turf with a stunning interception. I have been down on Kevin in the past, because he gives up so much height to taller receivers, but this was a real eye-opener for me.

CB Aaron Ross also had a nice pass defense of a Manning pass to WR Michael Jennings. Jennings also missed a pass that went through his hands untouched. Jennings made up for it with a 30 yard diving sideline catch from QB André Woodson.

WR Steve Smith played and caught a pass, but was not thrown to again. WR Brandon London ran what I thought was a very smart route keeping his big body between the QB and the defender. It made it a very easy throw and catch.

You could see that a number of passes were timing patterns that are thrown long before the receiver cuts or turns to look for the ball. It may be a little too soon to expect consistency on these types of passes to the younger receivers.

PK Lawrence Tynes kicked four field goals from 35 to about 45 yards. They were all down the middle so far as I could tell.

After running about 25 yards down field, HB Ahmad Bradshaw was sort of shouldered by DE Osi Umenyiora as they were both out of bounds and they both knew it. It was not hard enough to knock Ahmad down, but just enough to let him know “I can keep up with you.” Osi was smiling as the two of them trotted together, back to the rest of the players.

HB Reuben Droughns seemed to be playing with the third string a lot and did not have much success this evening.

HB Danny Ware may have some speed, but he is not going to run away from the likes of CB Geoffrey Pope who easily caught up to him on a running play.

HB Kay-Jay Harris had enough speed to turn the corner on DE Dave Tollefson and later in the goal line drill he ran one in for a TD.

WR D.J. Hall also had a TD in the goal line drill as did FB Madison Hedgecock on a pass from Eli Manning.