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Head Coach Tom Coughlin
September 4, 2013


Good morning. Here we go. Excited. It all begins now, in the division, in Dallas, on Sunday night. It doesn’t get much more exciting than this. We’re excited to practice today to get started, to get going. Our meeting was spirited. The players are really obviously focused and excited. They understand the competition, the ability level of the Dallas team, an outstanding football team when we go there. We have had a long and distinguished rivalry with the Cowboys and it continues Sunday night. The answer to your first two questions is: yes and yes. Is Cruz going to practice? Is JPP going to practice? Yes.

Q: Do you think they’ll be limited?
A: They’re out there.

Q: What’s the plan for them?
A: Call it what you like, but they’re out there and they’re going to practice. There will be some ability to withhold, perhaps, from the full practice but they are full speed ahead.

Q: Do you know what to expect from your team?
A: Trying to figure it out… We are a work in progress, as I said many times, and I think that continues to a certain extent, but we certainly do know what we have and we do know what our plan is, so let’s play.

Q: Do you have any sense of what you can reasonably expect from JPP after not playing in the preseason and coming off the back surgery?
A: I will at the end of the week.

Q: No expectations for what JPP can do right now?
A: Why should I say? He’s had a few practices and he’s done well with what we’ve asked him to do. He’d like more. We’re going to try to accommodate him.

Q: What do you expect from Justin Pugh this week? Matching up against DeMarcus Ware in your first NFL start is pretty tough.
A: DeMarcus is probably on the other side.

Q: You don’t think he’s going to switch?
A: I doubt it. He hasn’t switched in preseason, but we’ll see. Ware is an outstanding football player, a Pro Bowl player year in and year out. We have a young guy that’s going to get his first start in the National Football League and he’s more than willing and he’s talented. If it so happens that they do flip and do some things of that nature, then I think he’ll be ready to play.

Q: How has Will Beatty progressed from last year?
A: He’s our left tackle. We’ve made quite a statement to that effect. He’s had a good preseason. He’s fought through everything and not missed anything with regards to that. He’s going to be ready to go. It’s a great challenge, but he’ll be ready to go.

Q: With Andre Brown, do you increase the workload to David Wilson or do you bring someone else up to fill the role that Andre Brown had?
A: He’ll do it. You always have to have at least two and maybe three that participate and so we’ll continue that in some capacity.

Q: Who will be your number two running back?
A: We’ll see.

Q: Now that you only have three healthy safeties on the roster, do you put Terrell Thomas and Aaron Ross back there?
A: There will be other people that will be able to play back there. We won’t do it with any amount of snaps. It will be more of a classroom knowledge type thing and you may get a couple, but that will be the extent of it.

Q: Do you think you envision going forward with just the three safeties and then those guys?
A: We’ll see. We have a young kid on our practice squad who’s a good looking player. It never stops in terms of the search, so we’ll see where we are.

Q: You look at this matchup and it looks like the offenses on both sides have had great games against each other. The team with the ball last usually wins. Why do you think that is?
A: Well, I don’t know if it reflects necessarily on the defense as it does on the talent level of the offenses. If you look at our one point win last year in our game down there, we’re up 23 to nothing. Look at how close that game caught up. Talented people and National Football League.

Q: Your teams have often had that road warrior mentality. Given their success at the new building in Dallas, do you think they go down there with a pretty good level of confidence, knowing they have won there three times in a row?
A: I would hope so, but we would have to earn that right here on the practice field first and I do believe we will.

Q: Do you think that’s a point of pride for your team, to have that record in that stadium? Do you use that in a week like this?
A: I haven’t mentioned it. I haven’t mentioned it this morning. It’s a new year, a new start, new teams. Hopefully it’s going to give us a little bit of a psychological advantage going down there, but it’s going to have to happen on the field.

Q: Do you have any thoughts you can share about the change over from the 3-4 to the 4-3 under Monte Kiffin?
A: Well you’ve got a guy in Monte Kiffin whose been coaching that defense for a long, long time. He’s an exceptional football coach. They have, as I look at preseason, it looks like that team has bought into the new scheme. They seemed to have adjusted and executed very well. We know that they play hard, they play fast, they play downhill, they’re disciplined.

Q: The last time you played them, Witten had something like 18 catches. Did that have to do with them being behind 23-0? Or is he just that good?
A: He had an exceptional year all the way around. He did have a huge night against us and caught 110 balls for the season, which set the all-time record for tight ends. I think you have got a pretty good player.

Q: From the preseason it looks as if Dallas is trying to run the ball more…
A: Well, they’ve used the word ‘balance.’ They’ve tried to do that and they certainly have done that in preseason.

Q: How close is David Baas?
A: He’s a little bit better every day. We’ll see.

Q: Do you know what offensive line configuration you’re going to go with?
A: We have a couple of combinations we can use.

Q: There’s pressure opening any season and the Giants generally have opened with a notable opponent. Does that make starting the season that much more difficult?
A: It’s a tremendous challenge, but it’s an exciting challenge and we look forward to it. I just think the start of the new season is such an exciting time anyways. You’re right. We do play an exceptional opponent and many times it is a divisional foe.

Q: How has Damontre Moore been about keeping up with everything while being sidelined?
A: Well, it’s not easy. He’s been in every meeting, every jog-through, done all of these types of things, but there isn’t any question he’s missed a lot of time.

Q: The team’s development of tight ends has been pretty consistent over the last few years. What do you credit that to?
A: If you look at it, we’ve had to. That’s a pretty good start, and they’re well coached. You see the eventual development of that athletic ability as you move along during the course of the season. We have that same challenge this year.

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After being held to only 81 receiving yards against Dallas last year, Cruz added some muscle so he could handle the Cowboys' defense.

This season, Victor Cruz is ready to get past Dallas and down the field.

Congratulations to the 2012 Cowboy defense, which did such a good job shutting down Victor Cruz with physical bumping and jostling that he was motivated to come back bigger and stronger in 2013.

Dallas held Cruz to 81 receiving yards in two games last season, and Cruz said then that the physical ‘D’ bothered him. With that in mind, he bulked up to 206 pounds this season, and said he’s “definitely ready” for physical ‘D’ this year.

“That was the reason I kind of wanted to bulk up a couple pounds,” Cruz told the Daily News during an event for Gillette’s new NFL campaign. “To be ready to handle that physical pounding . . . I didn't want teams to think that that’s their staple against me.”



He added that the Cowboys “weren’t letting me get anything deep, essentially” last season. But that won’t be a problem on Sunday, he said, because a healthy Hakeem Nicks and Rueben Randle will draw the ‘D.’

“I think having both those guys out there, having all of us there healthy is a tremendous bonus,” he said.

Cruz also told The News that he passed a key secondary test in his rehab Tuesday morning. On Monday, after his first practice in two weeks, he said he needed to ensure there was no swelling the day after. Tuesday morning, he was fine.


“There was no swelling or anything the next day,” he said. “It feels really good. I’m excited.”

WHAT’S IN A NAME
Yes, the Giants are 4-0 at Cowboys Stadium (now AT&T Stadium) in Dallas. No, that doesn’t mean anything to safety Antrel Rolle.

“Us winning in that stadium I guess four or five times means absolutely nothing,” he said in his weekly paid WFAN spot. “We have to go out and put the hammer down on them again.” . . . Free agent running backs Beanie Wells and Jonathan Dwyer visited the Giants Tuesday.

Quote (MustangMan @ Sep 4 2013 08:53pm)

xnozx pls tell me more about how tracy is for sure making it over both trattou and ojomo

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Antrel Rolle vowed that Jason Witten will not torch the New York Giants defense for 18 receptions again.

The last time the Giants faced Witten, Tony Romo's favorite tight end had 18 catches for 167 yards -- an NFL record for a tight end -- during the Giants' 29-24 victory in Dallas on Oct. 28.

"Witten is definitely one of their key weapons," Rolle said. "But as far as focusing on Witten (defensively), he has done that one time since I have been here, had that miraculous game like that.

"He hurt us that game, that is not going to happen again," Rolle continued. "I can assure that he will not have 17, 18 catches, that is not going to happen."

In the Giants' season opening loss to Dallas last year, Witten only had two catches for 10 yards but was coming back from a lacerated spleen injury suffered during the preseason.

In 2011, Witten had a total of 10 receptions for 81 yards in two games against the Giants. In 2010, Witten had nine catches for 95 yards and one touchdown in one meeting against the Giants but just one reception for seven yards in a second meeting. But during one game in 2009, Witten had 14 catches for 156 yards against the Giants.

Needless to say, the Giants will have to try to take Witten and wide receiver Dez Bryant away from Romo on Sunday night. The Giants could try to put a linebacker like Jacquian Williams or use a defensive back like Rolle, Aaron Ross or Terrell Thomas on Witten.

Rolle said Thomas has been working on several different roles in practice. The veteran cornerback has seen snaps in the preseason against slot receivers and is a possible option for the Giants at safety if the team needs an extra safety.

"I made a joke about him the other day, I called him little 'Trel," Rolle said of Thomas. "He is playing so many positions and has so many roles he needs to learn. If anyone can handle it, it will be Terrell. We have depth at each and every position and we have the right guys here."

Quote (xnozx. @ Sep 4 2013 08:20pm)

What's with you lately? You've been going at me for no reason?

I stated a few pages back that I was wrong and you were right about Tracy, and why I thought he was going to make it. What more are you looking for?


I'm happy we have this much talent to make the decision tough on our coaching staff. Trattou was highly touted last season before his foot injury.
The coaches RAVED about Tracy constantly which is why I thought he was close to a lock. They called him "Yosi" meaning Young Osi.
They both were vied as talented prospects.


Ojomo was activated to the 53-man roster today and while we won't see him much during the season being that he's behind JPP, Tuck, Kiwi & Moore, I hope he can continue to impress like he has his entire pre season career.

We have a very deep D-line..... I haven't been this excited about our DT's since we had Cofield & Big Freddy Robbins.

I can honestly say I think I'm more exicted about our DT's than our DE's... when have we ever been able to say that?