“When you play a team like this, they like to cut block you and that type of thing and they get your hands down, so they take your mind off of ‘I’ve got to stay in this gap or I’ve got to do this,’ because (the defensive players are) trying to protect themselves a lot. So, we’ve just got to get over that mental barrier of, ‘Hey, it’s going to happen man, but we’ve got to be where we need to be though.’”

Plus it’s just more manly to take your guy head on and push him around and football is supposed to be a manly sport. Anyway, here’s hoping that the Giants defensive line can protect their knees, stay in their gaps, and throw the Texans’ offensive lineman around on Sunday.

So where to start with training camp? Well I am a defense guy so when ESPN said “Fewell has been the story of camp” I can’t help but think we start there. Spagnuolo was good for the Giants and while credit the players, you can’t help but think the right coordinator can make a big difference. So far, Perry Fewell seems like the right coordinator.

Also on defense, Inside Football has a nice piece on Aaron Ross in camp. Easy guy to root for. As they talk about Ross fighting for the right CB spot (battling Terrell Davis) they mention this on Fewell’s philosophy:

What will also make the defense better than in previous years is the new philosophy installed by Perry Fewell in which the secondary is putting more focus on watching the quarterback rather than the receiver.

“I love it. That’s something we did at UT (University of Texas),” Ross said, his face breaking out in a huge grin. “I had a chance to really make plays on the ball, and it’s something I fell like is a strength for me when I get to watch the quarterback and react to him instead of playing man-to-man all the time with my back turned to the ball; it’s a nice change up. You get to both. The two years before it was basically just press coverage, back to the ball, so it’s more PBUs (pass breakups) than interceptions, so this year I think we’ll have a lot more turnovers.”

Sounds good to me.

If I’m reading this correctly, it seems players will be making more decisions: We’ll obviously give them some guidance and direction, but hopefully they’re going to be able to say, ‘Hey, this is how we’re going to play it.’

I find this a bit surprising – I thought it might be up to the MLB or a safety to make defensive calls but it sounds like each player in the secondary will have a coverage decision to make…