December 30, 2005
Giants defense
I've given up trying to figure when the Giants offense will come alive although Toomer said it would happen Saturday vs. the Raiders. Toomer is perhaps the best performing offensive player at the moment if you consider Tiki Barber's off game (which we can blame on play calling more than on Tiki).
Anyway, to the defense. Emmons is out. He's mad. Coughlin discussed the situation:
Q: We talked to Carlos Emmons yesterday. I'm sure as you saw, he was pretty upset and said he could've played this week and if necessary he would have definitely been back by the playoffs. Is that not the way you understood his injury to be?That sounds reasonable to me so moving on. Torbor is questionable and Coughlin's not saying whether he'll play or who will play if Torbor doesn't. So we speculate. I'd put Kevin Lewis in the middle where he has played an entire season, Nick Griesen stays on the wekside, and Pfifer or Alonzo Jackson on the strong side, perhaps rotating since Pfifer is better in coverage but may not be up to playing every down.According to the medical people, that was not the case. He was at high risk and was at risk of re-injuring. Carlos has been an outstanding player here and outstanding citizen. He's a guy who had an awful lot invested in this season. He's very disappointed, as I understand it. I didn't read any of the columns. All I did was hear he was very disappointed, as was I and anybody in this organization. The simple fact of the matter, as I tried to explain it to you yesterday, is the game has to be played. We needed to have some linebacker help. We needed to go in the direction of the players that were injured in taking the medical advice at hand. We did that. It was not an easy decision. We made the decision and we move on.
Lamont Jordan is out and the Raiders haven't been running much, but the front 7 of the Giants will still have their hands full with Zach Crockett's power running. We'll see what happens soon enough...
Posted by James Trotta at December 30, 2005 6:04 AM