WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. - John Harbaugh called this second week in West Virginia “the big week of camp” on Monday, and after four padded practices in five days, he sounds like a coach who believes the Giants got what they needed out of it.
“I do,” Harbaugh told Big Blue View. “One more day.
I want to finish strong. I told the guys at the beginning of the week that you’re going to look back after Saturday’s practice and you’re going to see how far you’ve come, how much better you are, how much different you are as a team.
“I’m hopeful that they’ll feel that way after tomorrow’s practice. I think they will.”
The Giants are set to practice from 10 a.m. ET to 12:30 p.m. before heading back to East Rutherford, N.J. They’ll get Sunday off, then return to work Monday at Quest Diagnostics Training Center.
Friday’s session had plenty to sort through, starting with a defense that kept hammering away against the run and a passing game that found a much smoother rhythm.
Abdul Carter kept making life miserable for blockers. The second-year edge defender picked up a sack and a pressure early while matched up with Andrew Thomas, then helped blow up a run for a loss while going against right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor. If he keeps stacking days like that, he’s going to be a problem.
The run defense, meanwhile, kept saying no. Again and again, the Giants tried to pound the ball, and the first, second and third units kept shutting it down. The offense has had trouble opening lanes all camp, which is exactly the kind of sign this defense needed after recent seasons spent getting pushed around on the ground.
Why has the run defense been so effective?
“I think it’s just because we want to,” rookie linebacker Arvell Reese said. “We’ve all got the ability to do it, it’s just a want to do it. Getting downhill, you’ve got to want to do that.”
The passing game looked much cleaner. Jaxson Dart opened with two incompletions in his first three throws, but after that he was sharp enough that I could chart only one more miss from him the rest of the day.
I also only tracked one incompletion from Jameis Winston, though I missed a handful of Winston reps. Harbaugh liked what he saw from Dart against a defense throwing heavy pressure and exotic blitzes at the quarterbacks.
“I would say so. He did.
I mean, and he made some good throws. He got us in some good plays,” Harbaugh said.
“All three quarterbacks got to some plays versus pressure, which was, that’s great. It’s good to see.”
Isaiah Likely, Dalen Cambre, Darnell Mooney and Calvin Austin all stayed busy in the passing game. Cambre had one of the day’s prettier catches, snagging a hitch route and spinning away from cornerback Colton Hood.
Austin showed off his quickness in 1-on-1 work, shaking both Hood and Paulson Adebo with ease. He did, though, drop a short in-cut after beating Adebo.
Odell Beckham Jr. also drew attention, even on a quiet day. That’s how it goes when the fans are locked in.
The kickers got a look too, and both Ben Sauls and Dominic Zvada had strong days. If memory serves correctly, it was the first time the two worked on the same day.
Sauls finished 6 of 7, with makes from 50, 51 and 55 yards; his lone miss came from 45 after a high snap from long-snapper Ben Mann. Zvada also went 6 of 7, hitting from 48 and 51 before missing wide right from 55.
Not every day was a clean one. Brandon Allen, the third-string quarterback, had six incompletions by my count and was picked off by linebacker Zaire Barnes. Undrafted free agent right tackle Ryan Schernecke also had a rough afternoon, committing one of the offense’s two false starts and then getting pulled from the lineup.
The practice ended with something a little different: a full-field drill that began at the offense’s 1-yard line and stretched 14 plays, with a water break mixed in. It was the longest first-unit sequence of camp, and the only time in two weeks the action stopped for water.
The script called for the offense to finish after 13 plays when it reached the defense’s 3-yard line, but the offense wasn’t ready to stop. They pushed to keep the drive alive and finish at the goal line.
“We wanted it. We wanted it, because Harbs was trying to save us,” rookie guard Sisi Mauigoa said.
“He didn’t want goal-line stuff, but we wanted it. That shows you how tough and what the mentality of the team is.
“We were right there by the goal line. We want to finish.
Coach [was] calling the twos in. We’re like, ‘What the hell’?”
Harbaugh eventually gave in.
“They lobbied. I wanted it to be done,” Harbaugh said. “That was supposed to be the last play before that, and they wanted the last play, so I cracked and gave them that last play.”
“I wasn’t going to do it,” Harbaugh said. “I was going to stand firm because we’re doing some goal line tomorrow and then I did kind of think, wow, they want to do it. Let’s do it.”
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