August 3, 2005 New York Giants Training Camp Report (Afternoon Practice)

August 3, 2005 New York Giants Training Camp Report (Afternoon Practice)

by BigBlueInteractive.com Contributor Marty in Albany

It was sunny, hot and about 90 degrees. The Giants were in full pads. WRs Plaxico Burress and Jamaar Taylor did not dress. They stood next to each other and watched the proceedings on field. It may be my imagination, but it seems to me that 5’10” RB Tiki Barber makes a point of not standing next to 6’4″ rookie RB Brandon Jacobs. Jacobs used some nifty footwork while running the ball during the drills. It was good, but overshadowed by the twisting turning moves that Toomer displayed after he caught one pass.

There were really only two deep passes of note this afternoon. The first was a deep sideline pass from QB Jared Lorenzen. He hit WR Mark Jones, who caught the ball in stride, I believe to the cheers of the fans. The second was an almost identical pass from Jesse Palmer which Curry Burns intercepted smartly, also to the cheers of the fans. That interception ended the practice.

As usual, Coach Coughlin ended the practice 10 or 15 minutes early. After practice CB Corey Webster, QB Jared Lorenzen, and perhaps another player ran wind sprints from sideline-to-sideline. If Webster has any issues with his knee, it was not visible from watching him run. He runs fast and has an exceptionally smooth stride. He looks like he could run for miles without tiring.

Corey Webster had a pretty good day. In the 7-on-7 drills, he stripped a ball away from WR Brandon Smith and he returned some punts. Others running back punts were RB Derrick Ward, RB Mike Cloud, WR Willie Ponder, WR Mark Jones, and WR Michael Jennings. Also standing with that group was Amani Toomer, but he did not run any back. The fact that Jeff Feagles can punt the same way time after time, not only means that the Giants coverage team will know where to find the ball, but it makes the evaluation of potential punt returners much easier, because each punt is of equal difficulty.

Feagles was busy today as he was also practicing punting the ball inside the 20 yard-line. He did well. He was also throwing passes to the wide receivers in another drill. He has an accurate arm and it may come in handy on a botched field goal snap (Feagles is the holder).

As I reported earlier, fifth round pick, DE Eric Moore was injured and taken off the field. It appeared to be an ankle injury as they took off his shoe and sock and I did not see them playing with his knee. (Editor’s Note: Moore injured his ankle and knee and will undergo an MRI). I have no way of telling how serious it might be and I did not see the contact that caused it. He was helped to the sidelines by two assistants and they wanted him to get on the back of the golf cart. It appeared that Moore preferred to sit in the front seat next to the driver, a slightly more dignified way to leave the field. That impressed me.

Kickers Jay Feely and David Kimball kicked off. The kicks seemed high and deep for the most part. Since I was behind one endzone and the kickers were going in the opposite direction, I could not tell precisely how far they went, but I though that Feely’s sounded a little louder.

The offensive and the defensive teams spent a lot of time doing positional drills. They worked separately, but each was working on where players should be and where they should go in various offensive and defensive formations. I would guess that the aim of all this was to make sure that all the players know where they are supposed to go and eliminate the need for QB and MLB to redirect players who are out of position. These drills are very important, but they are not very interesting for fans to watch. To make up for this, the large BBI contingent in the bleachers, led by BB’56, amused themselves by poking fun at me. Hope J, our activities director has not arrived yet, but any BBIer coming to camp is sure to have a great time.

I am guessing that the lack of deep passes was because the offense was focusing on practicing quick passes over the middle. TE Chris Luzar made a smart play. He got about five yards down field when he saw that the QB had nobody open, he turned and took two quick steps back toward the QB who threw him the ball. TE Visanthe Shiancoe caught a bunch of passes and dropped at least two easy ones. Tim Carter had his share of drops too. Most of the play was at the other end of the field (thanks TC), so it was really hard to see how the linemen were doing. I did notice that on one play DT William Joseph ran after the offensive lineman instead of at the QB, who was totally unprotected. I suspect that the tape of this play will be shown several times before the next practice.