New York Giants Notebook | Stressful Schedules, Receiving Reinforcements and More
As if things weren't stressful enough for the Giants, they now have to prepare to play two games in 11 days.
At 0-5, the Giants are set to host the Washington Football Team at home before making a quick turnaround to travel to Philadelphia to face the Eagles on Thursday Night Football.
Head coach Joe Judge is still looking for his first win with the Giants and, more importantly, looking to prevent the team's current skid from turning ugly.
While the division lead suddenly feels much further away than it did last week, the Giants' next two games are still critical in establishing some momentum. The Giants won't have any type to slouch with such a quick turnaround against two teams that still have a lot to play for.
Judge's approach to that quick turnaround is lightening his players' load rather than making it heavier.
"It's a heavy mental week and mental preparation week, so you have to make sure that you go ahead and you give your players time to recuperate and recover from the game this Sunday that we're going to play," Judge said.
"The toughest thing for the guys to understand is once that game against Washington is over, you're already middle of the way through the game week against Philly on a normal week's preparation. It's a very quick turnaround.
"The biggest emphasis on those weeks is, really physically, let the players recover as much as possible to get them as fresh as you can for the game."
Penalties Revisited
Two crushing penalties on would-be touchdown victimized the Giants plays on Sunday, and the calls ultimately went a long way in deciding the outcome of the game.
The penalties were of the ticky-tack variety, and there would probably be virtually no controversy around the plays if they hadn't been called.
The first penalty cost tight end Evan Engram his first receiving touchdown of the season. That penalty came on a fake field goal turned touchdown pass by punter Riley Dixon nullified by an illegal shift penalty called against offensive tackle Cameron Fleming.
"We just weren't set as a unit right there, and that's not one person," Judge said. "That ties into a couple of different things communication-wise and execution wise. We'll talk with the team and make sure they understand fully what it is.
"That was a situational play that came up. We had the opportunity to call it. It was something we prepared for that could come up at different times. We hit it. Evan did a really good job of executing on his part in terms of the substitution exchange and the execution down the field."
Later in the game, a no-call went against the Giants as defensive tackle B.J. Hill was very clearly held on a play that ended with a critical reception by Cowboys wide receiver Amari Cooper.
Fellow defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson doesn't believe that holding penalties are solely responsible for preventing defensive linemen from making plays. Whether holding is called or not, it doesn't fully impede a defender's responsibility to get penetration and make tackles.
"As a defensive interior lineman, I just feel like holding is a part of the game," Tomlinson said.
"You don't really focus on why they didn't call this holding or that because we get held all the time. You have to play with it. You don't want to depend on penalties, so you just try to make plays if they are holding or not."
"I haven't even noticed it because I don't look at penalties and stuff like that. I just try to execute what we have to do up front."
Receiving Reinforcements
Veteran wide receiver Sterling Shepard has been sidelined since Week 2 with turf toe but is eligible to come off of I.R. on Wednesday.
Whether Judge decides to get Shepard back in the mix this week has yet to be seen, but it would be a massive boost to the Giants' offense if they can get their longes-tenured player back into the receiving core.
"I need to take a look at him at practice, obviously," Judge said. "He stayed behind this week to do some extra work with the trainers. I know he's made a lot of progress on a weekly basis.
"We'll get him moving around a little bit this week with the trainers early on and see where that's going to lead as far as him going into practice. We're kind of in the same spot right now with (David) Mayo as well. We'll have to see how he moves around in practice again this week to see where he'll be for this weekend."
Until Shepard is back, Jones will have to make do with the remainder of the receiving core in Engram, Darius Slayton, Golden Tate, and backups C.J. Board and Damion Ratley.
