August 13, 2010 New York Giants Training Camp Report (Evening Practice)

August 13, 2010 New York Giants Training Camp Report (Evening Practice)

by BigBlueInteractive.com Contributor Marty in Albany

Giants Prepare for Monday Night Game with Jets

The further we go into training camp, the harder this team is to read. There are so many players who are riding bicycles that the team lacks cohesion. In war, if your military can reduce an enemy unit below a certain percentage (I think it is about 70 percent, but don’t hold me to it) that unit will lose most of its effectiveness as a fighting unit. I suspect that the same principle applies to football. The Giants have so many players who are not dressed for practice, that I wonder about the Giants’ effectiveness as a team. Hopefully, we will get healthy before the season starts.

The Giant spent a good portion of the practice running plays that they expect the Jets to run on Monday night. Some of the defensive players wore a white doublet over their shirts and played on the offensive scout team. With so many Giants not playing, the Jets game might be more useful as a way to evaluate individual players than to evaluate the Giants as a team.

On this cool evening, some of the Giants were hot and others were not. K Lawrence Tynes was hot. He was 4 of 4 on field goals. I was not in position to see the first one, which was the shortest, but the others were from 35, 43, and 49 yards. He had either 2 or 3 kickoffs from the 30. Two went to the goal line and the other went through the end zone. The goal line kicks were definitely from the 30 yard line. The one through the end zone may have been from the 40.

I expect that HB Andre Brown will be returning kicks. There were about a dozen kickoffs and Brown caught them all. Brown also looked good taking a tossed handoff from QB Jim Sorgi and running the ball down the field.

LB Adrian Tracy was hot. He intercepted a deep pass from QB Rhett Bomar in the 11 on 11s. I could not tell if it was a bad pass, or if the receiver ran the wrong route. Speaking of running, DT Linval Joseph is a huge rookie, but he surprised me with how fast he could run fifteen yards from his three point stance. OG Rich Seubert was hot under the collar. He got into a shoving match, but I could not see who the other player was.

HB D.J. Ware and HB Ahmad Bradshaw were hot. Both caught some passes and both looked strong rushing the ball although the defense often stopped the ball carrier for no gain. That defense included S Kenny Phillips on numerous occasions. It was good to see Kenny on the field. He participated in all the drills, although it is clear that he is being carefully watched and brought along.

On the not so hot side of the ledger, P Matt Dodge did not have a great practice. When he had to perform in punting drills with the rest of the team, his kicks were not nearly as deep, high, or consistent as when he was off by himself practicing. Consistency will come with practice, but I worry about his performance under game pressure. It will be interesting to see how he deals with the pressure of a Jets rush.

CB D.J. Johnson continues to be the go-to DB when the quarterback needs to make a completion.

The best pass of the day was a deep QB Eli Manning pass to WR Ramses Barden against CB Seth Williams. Barden was in perfect position and he made the catch look easy catching it in stride. It would probably have gone for a TD. Barden, Hakeem Nicks, and Derek Hagan all looked good making catches.

There was a two minute drill at the end of practice that was handled by QB Jim Sorgi. He got the ball from about his own 40 to the twenty.