With the Bills leading the NFL with 12 interceptions and 16 takeaways, Giants quarterback Eli Manning will have to make sure he holds onto the football when Buffalo visits MetLife Stadium on Sunday. (AP)
If Giants coach Tom Coughlin was in a hurry and needed to cut short his presentation regarding this week’s opponent he could have walked into the room, directed the following one-sentence message to his offense, turned around and walked out and everyone would have understood his point:
“[Tom] Brady had four interceptions against them.”
That was one of Coughlin’s lines yesterday and what else needs to be said about how the Bills go about their business? If an immortal such as Brady can get picked off four times in one game what chance does Eli Manning have Sunday of keeping the ball in the hands of his own receivers and not allowing it to spill over into trouble?
“We understand we have to take care of the ball and we’re going to do that this week,” receiver Victor Cruz said.
From Cruz’s mouth to Coughlin’s ears. The Bills lead the league with 12 interceptions and 16 takeaways because of a mixture of part luck, part design and all aggressiveness.
Veteran safety George Wilson has one interception in three straight games and leads this larcenous pack of defensive backs. Wilson, linebacker Nick Barnett and safety Bryan Scott have all returned interceptions for touchdowns.
“They do a good job of getting turnovers,” Manning said. “You can’t play any differently — run our offense, throw to the guy you think is open. They’ve done a great job so far of making big plays on defense so we got to make sure they don’t get many. You try to play smart. It’s not like balls are getting thrown right to ‘em, they’re getting pressure, they’re getting some tipped balls. They are very good. They are athletic and when the ball is in the air they are coming down with it.”
Coughlin, a former receivers coach, puts the onus on Manning and his targets to avoid any mental breakdowns and steer clear of obvious danger areas such as throwing into congestion.
“Just go out and play like we’ve been playing, catch the ball, catch it clean and they won’t have any interceptions,” Mario Manningham said.
“That’s definitely something we take notice of at our position,” Hakeem Nicks added. “We have to focus on our side of the ball, making sure we’re running our routes at the right depth, making sure we’re down with the timing with Eli, know we got to get our head around quick because they do feed off that.”
When there is a jump-ball situation or a pass is not exactly where it is supposed to be, Coughlin is adamant that the receiver must be able to, if necessary, turn into a defensive back and make sure the pass turns into a reception or an incompletion and not the third alternative, an interception.
“If it’s a high ball, you have to get your eyes up,” Coughlin said. “A lot of those things occur when the eyes are the last thing up and the hands are up there and you end up tipping the ball, the high ball. … Any time you tip the ball over the middle of the field it’s going the other way.”
Cruz knows all about this. He lost the ball on a fumble last week and later, in a key moment in the shadow of the Seattle end zone, he stumbled coming off the line of scrimmage, just enough to mess up the timing of the play as Manning’s pass was too far out in front, glanced off Cruz’s left hand and up into the air, where it was picked off and returned for the game-clinching touchdown in the closing seconds of a 36-25 loss to the Seahawks.
“The key is not turning the ball over,” Cruz said. “They’re being very aggressive, batting the ball down, ripping the ball out of peoples’ hands. Especially me, specifically, coming off the week I had with a fumble, I got to make more of a conscious effort to keep the ball high and tight and make sure once I can’t get any more yards to get down and move onto the next play.”
paul.schwartz@nypost.com