Vertical Passing Game on DisplayQuote
Thus far in OTAs, the focus of the Giants offense has been the vertical passing game. Even without Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz, last year’s big play receivers, Eli Manning and company have looked to stretch the field with their young pass-catchers.
Obviously, this means that the secondary has been tested early and often this spring, and so far they have been able to trade blows with their counterparts.
In the first 7-on-7, the vertical attack started early, with Manning hitting second year receiver Rueben Randle deep down the left side for a big gain. Randle was able to get enough separation from cornerback Prince Amukamara and Manning dropped a perfect deep ball right into his arms. However, Amukamara would exact some revenge later in the drills, as he was able to break up another deep ball from Manning, this time intended for Jerrel Jernigan.
Jernigan had his number called often throughout the day, being one of the Giants quarterbacks’ favorite targets when looking deep.
Later in the 7-on-7, David Carr connected with the speedy receiver down the right sideline for another big gain. This time, Jernigan was lined up with cornerback Jayron Hosley, whom he gained a few steps on and was able to haul in the nice throw from Carr. Hosley had a rough stretch of consecutive plays, as Jeremy Horne beat him on a quick slant on the very next play.
Even the third team offense tried their hand at creating a big play. On the final play of the 7-on-7, rookie quarterback Ryan Nassib looked for Horne streaking down the left sideline, but the pass was underthrown, allowing Trumaine McBride to gain some ground and break up the pass.
All in all, the Giants defense played the offense to a draw in the 7-on-7. Both the receivers and the defensive backs seemed to be up to the task, maybe even taking the challenge personally.
In the 11-on-11 scrimmage, the defense flexed its muscles and was able to create big plays of their own, while limiting the big plays for the offense.
The segment started well for the offense. Carr completed a deep pass to Brandon Collins, who outmuscled Aaron Ross down the left sideline. There was not much separation between the two, but the veteran quarterback placed the ball perfectly into Collins’ lap.
After that completion, however, the offense struggled to complete anything vertical.
A few plays after the Collins catch, Carr tried to connect with Jernigan again but was unsuccessful. Rookie cornerback Charles James was running stride for stride with Jernigan and got himself into position to make an interception, but the receiver came back to the ball and broke up the pass nicely. Hosley would follow that with a pass breakup of his own a few plays later, this time from Carr to wideout Kris Adams.
The secondary would add an exclamation point to the end of practice, as they created several explosive plays off of mistakes by the offense.
It started when Charles James jumped his receiver’s route and intercepted the Curtis Painter pass. James went untouched down right sideline into the endzone. Safety Will Hill followed suit a few players later. This time, Ryan Nassib had his pass tipped over the middle and into the waiting arms of Hill, who also went untouched and into the endzone.
Overall, defense finished with two would-be touchdowns, while the offense was only able to muster one definite would-be touchdown.
This week’s vertical passing trend is on par with what we have seen so far this spring.
Last week, Manning connected with Louis Murphy several times deep down the field and targeted Jernigan several more times, though not as successful as he was with Murphy. It is obvious that the Giants secondary struggled last year, so it makes sense that the coaches would like to see how the secondary has improved since last season’s disappointing performance.