There’s the new playbook and the new terminology and the new footwork and new reads and new places to look and new sounds to hear. It’s all so new and everyone is so intent on getting it right, Eli Manning said, those who play on offense for the Giants have forgotten one thing.
To, you know, actually play the game.
“We’re still … everybody’s trying to do everything perfect, do everything like it is in the book, do everything exactly how they’re being coached,’’ Manning said Friday, “Instead of, ‘Hey, we’ve got to play some football.’ We’ve got to run around and we’ve got to just get back to playing football and making plays.’’
There were not nearly enough plays made by the Giants, especially in the passing game, throughout the preseason, and all involved hope most of the problems were the result of the “growing pains’’ all expected but no one anticipated would be so all-encompassing whenever Manning put the ball in the air. It was a pipe-dream to believe the newly-installed West Coast offense brought in by first-year coordinator Ben McAdoo would be all-systems go for the Sept. 8 season-opener in Detroit. It was fair to demand more than what Eli and Company have shown.
“I think it’s still trying to get it exactly the way we want it,’’ Manning said. “It’s a work in progress. It’s not the final product right now. There’s definitely room for improvement and that will be a season-long situation, which is, I think, normal. That’s not a bad thing.
“Don’t get me wrong, we’re ready for Week 1. You don’t want to alarm people and say, ‘We’ve got to get better, we’ve got to keep getting better.’
“I think we can score points. I think we’ve done some things. We haven’t shown everything in the book. We haven’t thrown the ball down the field a whole lot, so I think there’s definitely room to score some points and to move the ball and be successful. It’s just a matter of doing it.’’
The Giants weren’t all bad on offense during the preseason. There were no interceptions thrown, although Manning tossed two that were nullified by penalties. They ran the ball well — Rashad Jennings averaged 6.1 yards per rushing attempt and rookie Andre Williams had a 5.1-yard average.
“I am very confident we are going to get the passing game straightened around,” coach Tom Coughlin said. “Have we sat back and flat-out thrown the ball in one game? No, we haven’t, because we are not going to get away from the run.
Because last year we were so poor in the run game that it ruined our balance and in result, we turned the ball over at ridiculous rates.
“So that is not going to happen and we wanted to make sure of that throughout the course of the preseason. Perhaps there should have been a time where we did nothing but throw the ball, but that really was not something that I wanted to entertain during this preseason.”
Manning said he’s looking forward to sitting down with McAdoo early next week to receive the game plan for the Lions “and kind of figure out what we’re thinking going into the game.’’
Here is yet another new element: McAdoo has been on the scene the entire offseason, but this is the first time Manning will see how the first-time coordinator — who at 37 is only four years older than Manning — operates in regular-season mode.
“I’m curious about the whole process with talking to him, getting his thoughts on the week, on what we want to try to do,’’ Manning said.
Coughlin agreed with Manning’s assertion that too much thinking has caused not enough playmaking action.
“There’s no question, particularly when young people are coming into a different circumstance or when veteran players have a new scheme to work with or to understand there’s no doubt the first thing you have to do is learn,’’ Coughlin said.
“The second thing you have to do is do it according to the way it is, and then the third thing be an athlete and a professional and react.
“Hopefully by the time you get to the reaction part of this, it’s been ingrained. It’s instinctive.’’
The Giants’ final cuts will be made Saturday. The team is off for the entire weekend and Manning will not make his way to the team facility.
“I’m taking off,’’ Manning said, knowing the intensive work for the regular season awaits him.