WE NEED A HERO
If not Odell, who will be
If Odell Beckham can’t be Odell Beckham, who will step up for Big Blue?
Odell Beckham Jr. has saved a Giants’ season before. The 0-2 Giants need a savior Sunday in Philadelphia, and Beckham said Thursday he believes he’s up to the task again. “My mind is on another level,” Beckham said after practice. “I feel like I could take over a game at any time, no matter my ankle or anything like that.” Belief and reality in this circumstance, however, feel far apart. While Beckham expects “to play a lot more” than he did in Monday night’s tepid season debut on a pitch count, he was honest about the limitations he is experiencing with his sprained left ankle and admitted he may deal with some discomfort all season.
“It’s not so much I think about it; it’s just actually when you make the cut,” said Beckham, who was limited again in practice. “I remember I tried to make a cut in the (Lions) game and I ended up having to jump over (the defender) because I couldn’t get up field. So it’s just little things like that, but it’s coming back.
“It’s not so much a mental thing, it’s when you actually go to make the cut and you turn out and put force on it, the same way that you created the injury, it’s a little different,” Beckham added. “I’m gonna get as good as I can get, and I know once I’m comfortable cutting off each and every way, I don’t see that there would be any problems with it, even if it’s not 100 percent.”
So if Superman is robbed of his cape, does the Giants’ offense have another game-breaker to rescue it?
Brandon Marshall was supposed to be the star who could take over opposite Odell. But as Marshall himself said Thursday, he just let that exact opportunity slip through his hands with Monday night’s big fourth-quarter drop against Detroit.
“That was an example last week,” Marshall said. “The team needed a big play, I had an opportunity to make a big play, and I didn’t. You need that type of play-making ability, you need that type of excitement, and things will change.”
Rookie tight end Evan Engram, meanwhile, is in the concussion protocol. So the Giants can’t rely on any of their big guns to put the offense on their backs. Nothing like Beckham’s eight-catch, 222-yard, two touchdown explosion in Week 6 against the Ravens last season — to snap a threegame losing streak for a 2-3 Giants team — is coming down I-95 for Big Blue.
What this means, even against a banged-up Philadelphia secondary, is that the Giants are going to need to run the ball well, avoid turnovers and get the ball out in a hurry on passing downs — in other words, do three things they haven’t done well through two losses to start the season.
Offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan, who may be taking over play-calling duties, would not commit to shortening Manning’s drop-backs to three steps rather than five to compensate for his lack of protection from the offensive line. But Sullivan did admit a pass-heavy attack is not suitable against this Eagles pass rush.
“We have to constantly try to find ways to keep the defense off balance, not be predictable and try to, at the same time, know who our playmakers are and put them in positions to be successful,” Sullivan said. “(But) I don’t think it’d be shocking to say that we don’t want to drop back 65 times against the Eagles down there. That wouldn’t be an earthshattering statement.”