If you want to get a glance at what the Giants are going to look like when the games count for real, tune in tomorrow night when the twice-changed preseason game against the Jets finally kicks off at 7 p.m.
Coach Tom Coughlin is sticking to his original plan of using his starters the entire first half, but that will be the last tuneup for the regulars before the Sept. 11 regular-season opener at Washington. Yes, there is a fourth preseason game on the schedule, but its arrival on Thursday in New England — just three days after the game against the Jets — has Coughlin thinking full backup mode for the Patriots.
“That [Patriots] would be the game we would deviate from how we’ve done things in the past, simply because you are talking about only two days between games and no real practice time,” Coughlin said yesterday.
Translation: Coughlin has no interest putting his front-line players on the field with virtually no time to heal or rest. That means tomorrow night’s game is mostly about the veterans getting primed and Thursday will be the exclusive property of the youngsters and reserves trying to push for playing time and roster spots.
“That’s why this game is so important,” Eli Manning told Giants.com. “We’re going to get some looks and see how we stand against a 3-4 team, a team that does some exotic blitzes and a top-quality team.
“After that, we’ll see what the schedule is. Usually, in the last preseason game you don’t play much anyway.”
Though Hurricane Irene forced everyone to wait two extra days for the Giants to get to their third preseason game, when all the rain and wind is gone and Labor Day is here, the Giants will have played 16 quarters of exhibition football. The last eight quarters, though, will come in a four-day span.
“The coming week is going to be challenging, no question about it,” Coughlin said. “But we will adjust and adapt and make the best out of it.”
The annual Giants-Jets clash, originally scheduled for Saturday night, then moved up to Saturday afternoon before it was postponed to tomorrow night, is not ideal scheduling, but it is in keeping with what the Giants have confronted this summer.
Before training camp opened, two longtime, popular offensive linemen, Rich Seubert and Shaun O’Hara, were released. Camp opened without Osi Umenyiora and first-round pick Prince Amukamara. For different reasons, they arrived late and didn’t last very long, with both having undergone surgery.
The cursory courtship of Plaxico Burress ended with him eschewing blue for Jets green. Two big-time offensive contributors, Steve Smith and Kevin Boss, were expected back but both signed elsewhere. At least Boss (Raiders) had the decency to leave the division and the east coast. Smith (Eagles) did not.
A season-ending torn right knee ligament to rising-star Terrell Thomas was the worst of several significant injuries at the cornerback position. Rookie defensive tackle Marvin Austin, the second-round pick, tore his left pectoral muscle and is gone for the year.
It has been quite a month for the Giants, who faced stormy conditions well before any hurricane came ashore. The alteration of the schedule came after the Giants had already reported to their team hotel Friday night in anticipation of a game the next afternoon. With the game moved back two days, punter Steve Weatherford tweeted many players hit the city for an evening at SPiN New York for some ping-pong.
In advance of the hurricane, the players attended meetings yesterday morning and participated in a practice at the Timex Performance Center facility — Coughlin called it “beneficial” after a short work week. Players are off today and, unlike most nights before games, were not required to report to the team hotel.
“That will be a different routine that we haven’t had,” Manning said.
Coughlin suggested no one stray too far from home.
“That’s why he gave us the day off,” Manning said. “He said it’s supposed to hit tomorrow morning and it’s a big storm, a wide, long hurricane, so it’s going to last the majority of the day with high winds and heavy rain. So stay in the house and have enough food and water so you don’t have to leave and let this thing full clear before we have to go out and about.”