Kevin Gilbride not only fears Clay Matthews, but he also finds himself wishing the Packers’ All-Pro linebacker was a Giant instead.
That’s how much respect Big Blue’s offensive coordinator has for Matthews and is a good indication of how much extra time Gilbride is devoting this week to making sure his unit accounts for the Green Bay star Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
Matthews never stops, even if the play is on the other side of the field, which means the Giants can never stop keeping their eyes out for him.
“He’s obviously a terrific football player, but the thing that impresses me as much as anything is his effort,” Gilbride said of Matthews on Thursday. “He puts forth a phenomenal effort on every play. What really jumps out at me is when the play goes away from him. He’s relentless. He thinks he’s going to make every play.
“As a football coach,” Gilbride added, “that’s what makes you wish he was on our team.”
Sunday will mark just the second game back for Matthews after he missed a month with a broken thumb, but the Giants said they don’t see anything different in him other than the massive cast on his hand that looked like a club in last week’s loss to the Eagles.
Matthews’ numbers in that 27-13 setback — one tackle and one assisted tackle — would indicate he is still rounding into shape after the lengthy layoff, but the Giants disagreed after watching the film.
“He looks the same to me, except that he had a club on his hand,” guard Kevin Boothe said. “He’s still energetic and very effective out there. He was probably getting used to things last week, but we expect him to be pretty much back to normal this week.”
That’s not good news for a Giants team that has struggled to protect Eli Manning much of this season and allowed three sacks last Sunday to the Raiders in a 24-20 victory at MetLife.
Sacking quarterbacks is a Green Bay specialty (they have a whopping 27 sacks in the first nine games), in part because veteran defensive coordinator Dom Capers likes to blitz so often.
Gilbride estimated the Packers blitz on 50 percent of their defensive snaps, and Matthews is one of Capers’ favorite blitzers. That means the Giants will have to be on high alert Sunday if they want to keep Manning upright.
“You’ve got to have a good plan how to protect your quarterback in general, but with their varied blitz packages, you’ve got to be sharp and play well the whole game to neutralize all the pressure they bring,” Gilbride said. “If you don’t protect, you’re going to be struggling and it’s going to be a long day.”
The good news for the Giants is that pass protection has improved during their current three-game winning streak, and the return of running back Andre Brown should help their blitz pickup.
But Matthews isn’t a matchup the Giants are relishing.
“You could see [from the Eagles game] that it didn’t take long for him to get back into the flow of things,” Boothe said. “He’s a guy you always have to watch and who can change the game.”