Practice Report: August 8, 2011

The new CBA has ushered in a whole new world of changes for NFL teams who have had to combine the reshaping of their roster and training camp into what’s been the most hectic summer ever on record in the league’s history.

Another one of the fallouts of the new CBA is that coaches can no longer run two-a-day practices in pads during training camp. So to compensate for that, head coach Tom Coughlin has had his players go through a morning walk through, or corrections practice and then after a series of meetings and film study, go through the longer, more physical practice in the evening.

Surprisingly, Coughlin, who’s in being a veteran coach goes back to the old days when training camps were longer and more intense, said there’s been a silver lining in the new format.

“I’ll give you an advantage. The correction thing is much greater than it’s ever been,” he said. “In two-a-days, you’re always in a hurry to get to the next one. Don’t think we did as good of a job as we possibly could with corrections. between the walk-throughs, the jog thrus, the separates in practice, we’re averaging offensive 104 snaps a day and defensively about 118, so we’re getting.

“For example on defense almost twice as many reps on the practice field so if u really understand what I am telling, the mental to the physical, so you can understand and apply yourself so you walk out to the jog thru and your mind isn’t a million miles away.”

So far Coughlin has been generally pleased with how camp has unfolded. And so far there have been several players, at least in my opinion, who have stood out, including DT Marvin Austin, S Tyler Sash, FB Henry Hynoski, and Travis Beckum.

There’s still a lot more obviously to go and with the first preseason game on the horizon, that will give a better picture of where things stand with the club but until that time, the training camp train continues to roll right along.

PRACTICE HIGHLIGHTS

• Corey Webster outjumped Hakeem Nicks to knock the pass from Eli Manning away. The defensive backs had a solid night and were all over the place making plays, breaking up passes, and getting home on their blitzes.
• After creating a minor scare when he came up favoring his leg early in the practice, OT Will Beatty rebounded with a pretty good showing. He lined up mostly against Jason Pierre-Paul and seemed to have very little trouble handling him this evening.
• I counted at least eight delay of game penalties spread among the first, second and third string offenses. At this stage of the game, you have to think that’s because they’re still trying to get their timing down, so it will be interesting to see how many they accumulate (if any) in the first preseason game.
• Strong practice for FB Henry Hynoski. He laid a couple of nice blocks on a linebacker, including one that sealed off the edge and allowed RB Charles Scott to squirt around the corner and into the second level. I didn’t see him have any passes thrown his way, which I was hoping for because in my forthcoming article (coming out later tonight) on the “Rhino,” you’re going to see that he has a lot of talents that can benefit a football team, including hte type of receiving routes he’s able to run. I think the days of being able to forecast a running play whenever the Giants trot the fullback onto the field are going to be over. 
• I thought TE Travis Beckum had a nice practice. He separated well from the defender, looked the ball in, and managed to pick up at least five yards after the catch on the receptions he hauled in, one of which came against S Kenny Phillips, who Beckum spun around.
• RB DJ Ware, going against the second-string defense, knifed through a pile of bodies, hitting what looked like a small crease to pick up some positive yardage. Good showing of vision by Ware on that play.
• In the punting drills, I don’t think I saw a single Matt Dodge punt aimed for outside of the numbers. Steve Weatherford, meanwhile, was showing off his directional kicking and looked so at ease doing it. He even managed to get good height and distance on these kicks.
• At one point early in the practice, after the first round of special teams drills, Weatherford was off on the side with Dodge giving him some sort of instruction, demonstrating some sort of technique to Dodge, who kept nodding his head.
• Mario Manningham showed a nice burst of speed coming across the middle – he just appeared out of nowhere and was a blur.
• Victor Cruz continues to have a case of the dropsies. If I’m not mistaken, he’s dropped at least one pass in each practice. Tonight he had a very catachable ball go right through his hands.
• DB Michael Coe clearly got away with defensive pass interference when he bumped into the receiver (couldn’t see who it was). The play probably wouldn’t have counted as Sage Rosenfels took far too long to snap the ball and the buzzer sounded, just one of several “delay of game” incidents this evening by my estimation.
• Terrell Thomas picked off an Eli Manning pass intended for Mario Manningham. I believe that was Thomas’ second pick of the  camp.
• Duke Calhoun was flagged for offensive pass interference against a receiver. Having come from the annual training camp presentation by the officials before practice, most of the media, including yours truly, called it before the flag hit the ground.
• Ryan Perrilloux has a nice strong arm, but his accuracy still leaves something to be desired. He overthrew a couple of receiver. Then on another play, Perrilloux must have heard footsteps or something because he quickly darted out of the pocket and rolled to his right, completely ignoring the fact that he had two receivers open on the left side.
• Antrel Rolle continued the defensive backfield’s strong night by picking off a pass intended for Bear Pascoe. Good job by Rolle to jump the route and get in front of the much taller Pascoe to make the play.
• Good cut to the outside by RB Charles Scott who picked up about four yards.
• Mathias Kiwanuka, lining up at SAM, broke through the lien cleanly and would have easily had a sack.; I don’t think an offensive lineman put a hand on Kiwi on that play.
• The first team offensive line also gave up another sack, this one on a  jailbreak. Hard to tell exactly where the pressure originated from, but there were an awful lot of blue shirts in the backfield in a hurry.

 INJURY REPORT
 Players missing practice this evening included DT Marvin Austin (hip flexor strain), DE Osi Umenyiora (knee), WR Devin Thomas (finger), C Jim Cordle (knee), LB Spencer Paysinger (groin), S Brian Jackson (back), CB Joe Burnett (hamstring) and WR Sam Giguere (groin). Rookie OT James Brewer left practice early with a lower leg injury. WR Domenik Hixon, who is sitting out about every other practice so his surgically-repaired knee, sat out. S Cary Harris (shoulder) returned to practice.

CHANGE IN PRACTICE SCHEDULE
The Giants are off on Tuesday, but for Wednesday and Thursday, the team has announced that it has moved its practice from the 6-8 PM slot to 2-4PM. Practice will still be open to the public on those days and there will be no charge to attend.

BLUE NOTES
* Coughlin said not to read into anything with S Kenny Phillips not taking reps with the first team defense in last night’s practice. Eyebrows were raised when Phillips was on the sideline and in his place while rookie Tyler Sash was taking the reps. The reason for that? The Giants decided to cut back on Phillips’ reps a bit as so he doesn’t overwork his surgically repaired knee from a couple of years ago.

*WR Michael Clayton switched back from 17 to his old 83, last worn by TE Ben Patrick. QB Ryan Perrilloux was given #17.

* Linebackers coach Jim Herrmann confirmed that Mathias Kiwanuka will be the starting SAM linebacker on first and second down. That is obviously bad news for third-year man Clint Sintim, the former second round draft pick who had hoped to show the team he ws ready for fulltime duty this year.

* WR Steve Smith arrived for his meeting with the Giants tonight. He was originally supposed to come in on Tuesday. Smith confirmed last evening on his Facebook page that he was headed east to meet with the Giants to presumably discuss a new contract.