Run the damn ball. That is the plea to Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride with only a handful of days remaining before the start of the 2011 season, which kicks off with one of those you-better-not-lose games against the Redskins on Sunday at FedEx Field.
Yes, yes, we all know it’s a passing league and no one is going back in time to where Eli Manning can pull a Bob Griese or Bart Starr and chuck it 15 times a game. Eli’s going to chuck it around 500 times this year, but the best way to enhance his chances is to ease the burden on him by allowing him to hand it off to Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs.
Last year, the Giants ran it 480 times and passed it 539, the type of balance Tom Coughlin wants from his attack. Gilbride has long-since shed the pass-happy Run-and-Shoot operation he ran with the old Houston Oilers back in the early 1990s and, despite the heat he regularly receives from fans, knows how to set up an opposing defense. In previous years, Gilbride felt he had an advantage with the assembled talent at receiver and tight end and was eager to exploit those mismatches.
Gilbride has to see those advantages no longer exist or, at least, are no longer readily apparent. There’s no proven third receiver and the second receiver, Mario Manningham, although a dynamic weapon, is not polished in the Amani Toomer mold. There’s no semblance of a pass-catching tight end until Travis Beckum shows something other than Wisconsin highlights. Manning threw a career-worst 25 interceptions in 2010 despite an abundance of skill around him.
“I think the running game definitely can be better than it was last year,” Jacobs said. “I don’t think we ran the ball with conviction last year like we want to this year. We will be put in the right place and we are going to be ready to take it and run with it. It is just a matter of if they want to give it to us.”
Give it to them. Give it to Jacobs, who averaged a career-best 5.6 yards per rushing attempt but was underutilized with only 147 rushing attempts last season. Bradshaw’s ankles and feet have been cleaned up and he’s coming off a career-high 1,235-yard season. You might not find a better 1-2 punch in the league in terms of the differences these two backs present. They should be worn out, every game.
It will help Manning, who is at his best in the play-action game after the run has been established. It will help Will Beatty, for the first time starting a season at left tackle, not to be forced into a steady diet of pass-blocking against the league’s behemoths at right defensive end. It will help rookie fullback Henry Hynoski, who admits, “You have to be crazy to do what a fullback does, something has to be off . . . you have to have that right mentality and be ready to hit somebody every single play.” Hynoski, at 266 pounds, leading the way for the 264-pound Jacobs, should be a sight to see.
Let’s see it.
Joke’s on Grossman
THIS won’t be coming out of the mouths of any of the Giants defenders tomorrow when they start talking about the Redskins, but they couldn’t have ordered up a softer attack to face in the opener. Not sure what the joke is, but when the punch line is “Rex Grossman,” you know it’s got to be funny.
Grossman, 31, enters his ninth NFL season having beaten out John Beck for the Redskins starting quarterback job after a summer-long competition that excited no one outside of the Beltway and, most likely, not many within. Skins coach Mike Shanahan said he “thought Rex won by an edge,” but what is the hope for a team when a lackluster performer such as Grossman is deemed the best option?
Sure, he started 16 games in 2006 and the Bears made it to the Super Bowl, but Grossman (40 career touchdown passes, 40 career interceptions) should be a backup. He started three games last season after Shanahan benched Donovan McNabb, continuing a revolving door policy at quarterback that has spun the Redskins dizzy. They have used 20 different starting quarterbacks in the last 18 seasons. Not surprisingly, there have been only five winning seasons in that span. The Redskins are an overwhelming choice to finish last in the NFC East this season.
’Tis better to block than receive
HE caught 34 passes at Ohio State. That would be decent but certainly not overwhelming production in a season. But Jake Ballard did it in four years for the Buckeyes.
“I had five [receptions] my junior year, that was Terrelle Pryor’s junior year,” Ballard said. “Obviously we weren’t throwing the ball a whole lot.”
It did not seem fathomable the Giants would stick with Ballard, Travis Beckum and Bear Pascoe as their tight ends after losing Kevin Boss to the Raiders, but that’s the way it looks heading into the opener. Ballard, at 6-6 and 275 pounds, wasn’t drafted and was on the practice squad last year, but impressed the coaching staff in camp with his improved blocking. He caught two passes for 29 yards in the preseason and, until proven otherwise, can’t be considered a legitimate pass-catching option.
“I knew what I could do,” Ballard said. “Maybe the coaches thought I was a long-shot but I knew I could block and could surprise them in the receiving game, and I think that’s what I did.”