T-Rock's Take on the Giants

That screeching you heard was the tires of the veteran players as they peeled out of the Giants Stadium parking lot this afternoon. Even Tom Coughlin seemed to be anxious to get vacation rolling, calling practice off about 25 minutes before it was scheduled to end.

A few notes from the field, even though, once again, the most intriguing stuff is happening off the field. More on that later.

Sinorice Moss had an up-and-down day. He dropped the first pass of 11-on-11s, then made two nice catches in 7-on-7s in the red zone. One was on a pass from Manning in the corner of the end zone in which he did a good job of dragging his feet to get them in bounds, the other a catch from Lorenzen on a hook pattern at the goal line. But then he reverted. There was a play where Manning clearly thought there should have been an opening, pumped the ball, pulled it back, and threw it high in the end zone to Moss who was covered tightly. As Moss returned to the line of scrimmage he was met by both Manning and O.C. Kevin Gilbride who did some explaining and pointing. It seemed pretty clear that Moss had run the wrong route.

D.C. Steve Spagnuolo said that yesterday’s play by Kenny Phillips (edited*), the one we ruled an incompletion, was in fact an interception upon further review. It was a remarkable grab, he said, especially considering how far Phillips had to run for it to make up ground. Spags joked that he was worried that after seeing that catch, they would take Phillips away from him and try to turn him into a receiver.

Phillips almost made another sizzler today. Wright threw a short pass intended for Boss on the right that was batted in the air by Renaldo Wynn. Phillips came up and dove to try to make the INT, but he only wound up tipping it in the air to … intended receiver Kevin Boss.

Sammy Knight made a nice interception on an end zone pass from Manning to Toomer, cutting underneath the receiver with really good position. He’s not very fast, but Knight has tremendous mechanics and smarts.

In the second series of 11-on-11s, the defense worked mostly on their sub packages. Ini their nickel they added Terrell Thomas to the DBs (Dockery and McQuarters were the starting CBs with Ross sidelined with an injury and M.Johnson and Butler were at the safeties). They also had Tuck rushing from the middle from an upright 2-point stance, Kiwanuka with a hand on the ground at an end, and Jay Alford in the middle.

Nothing new on the Shockey or Plaxico fronts regarding their participation in practice. Asked if there had been any progress with Shockey’s “mental state,” Coughlin was very candid. Or at least a little candid. “In my dealings with him there hasn’t been. I don’t sense it. There is an issue, but it is not something that would prevent him from working.”

I also made the mistake of asking Coughlin a question about whether he was comfortable with the amount of reps he’s seen from David Carr. He told he me he doesn’t like that word, “comfortable.” Later the guys told me that I shouldn’t ask him questions with that word. My bad. Rookie mistake. Maybe by the time training camp starts I’ll find a handbook or something that includes all acceptable words and phrases.

Click below for the 11-on-11 snaps. There weren't a lot of them today. In fact, the team was lined up for another series of them when Coughlin closed the practice.

* - Oops! In my haste I refered to Kenny Phillips as Kenny Harris. He works at the other place. Some habits are hard to break.