His history says Chris Snee will find a way to play on Sunday in Cincinnati. But the present is not as promising, as the durable right guard sustained a sprained ankle early in the loss to the Steelers and yesterday wasn’t able to practice.
This could prove problematic for the Giants, as they do not have a backup guard on their roster after Mitch Petrus was waived last week. If Snee is unavailable, the likely move would be to shift right tackle David Diehl to right guard and re-insert veteran Sean Locklear at right tackle.
Snee has been dealing with a hip injury, but the ankle problem is new.
“He’s got the ankle,’’ Tom Coughlin said. “He picked it up really early in the game. He played the whole game with it. He’s injured.’’
* The Giants are banged up, with 11 players on the injury report. In addition to Snee, not practicing were DT Chris Canty (groin), LB Jacquian Williams (knee), LB Chase Blackburn (hamstring), S Kenny Phillips (who has been shut down until after the bye with ongoing knee issues) RB Ahmad Bradshaw (foot), and WR Hakeem Nicks (knee).
“I’m thinking everything is very positive for Sunday,” Canty said. “I’m feeling good. I don’t feel like there’s too much limitation on it.’’
Blackburn said he thinks he’s ready to return to practice.
* TE Martellus Bennett, who said he hurt his “whatever’’ against the Steelers, was able to practice, so apparently his “whatever’’ is fine. He seemed to have a lower leg problem coming out of the game. “I always practice if I can practice,’’ Bennett said. “I think I only missed one practice since I’ve been here. There’s a difference between hurt and injured. I’m hurt, but everybody in the NFL is hurt.’’
* RB Andre Brown, who hurt his shoulder in the game, was able to practice fully. “I’m feeling good, just had a little ding,’’ Brown said. “I did the whole practice, didn’t feel anything but we didn’t have any contact. Just got to go out there and see come Sunday. I’ll probably find out Sunday around one o’clock when somebody hits me.’’
* C David Baas (ankle), TE Bear Pascoe (ankle) and LB Keith Rivers (calf) were limited. … When the Giants as Super Bowl champions visited the White House, Coughlin cracked to President Obama, “We both have a goal to get back here next year. We have a lot of work to do.’’ Now that Obama held up his end of the bargain, Coughlin yesterday said, “He’s there, we need to get there.’’