At least according to Tom Coughlin’s narrow view, you can add “wreaking havoc with the Giants’ preparation” to the list of Hurricane Irene’s sins.
Coughlin said Tuesday he is considering sitting all 22 starters in Thursday night’s preseason finale at New England because of the incredibly short turnaround from Monday’s home loss to the Jets caused by the storm last weekend.
Asked if resting all of his starters was on Coughlin’s radar, the coach said: “Under these circumstances? Yeah.”
Doing so would snuff Coughlin’s plan to get his starters 60 plays in the final two preseason games combined because they appeared to get 45 snaps in the 17-3 loss to the Jets.
But the exceedingly brief timespan between games, which prompted a five-man NFL exemption for the Giants and Jets from Tuesday’s roster cutdown to 80 players, might not leave Coughlin much choice.
In the bigger picture, Coughlin also is worried the storm could affect his team’s readiness for the regular season, which opens Sept. 11 at Washington.
“Am I concerned about it? Of course,” Coughlin said. “You’re supposed to be in training camp to prepare, and that usually means practice. Just look at the practices we won’t have this week. Now who’s fault is that? You’re talking about a force of nature here. You’re not talking about someone making a decision that you’re unable to practice.
“We were all caught short. We got a practice in Saturday, but this week, quite honestly, you’re talking about jog-throughs. You’re into that mode [already]. So there’s a lot of forced learning, and you’ve got a lot of sore people. Are they complaining? Nobody is. Whatever we’re assigned to do, we’ll do it. But it’s just not an optimal situation.”
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The Giants got down to 85 players by waiving wide receiver Duke Calhoun injured, putting offensive lineman Adam Koets and wide receiver Ramses Barden on the reserve/PUP list (making them ineligible until Week 7) and putting defensive lineman Marvin Austin and cornerback Terrell Thomas on season-ending injured reserve.