Hernandez stares down challenge of facing Bears
Do you think the last thing the Giants offensive line needs, after a disastrous season-opening performance, is to face another one of the NFL’s best defensive fronts?
Then Will Hernandez has three words for you.
“Bring it on,” Hernandez said. The hog mollies are eager to flip the narrative Sunday against the Bears after quarterback Daniel Jones faced a NFL-high 22 pass pressures and running back Saquon Barkley was hit behind the line of scrimmage on 11 of his 15 carries against the Steelers.
Giants coaches didn’t pull any punches with criticisms behind closed doors, and Hernandez’s public approach suggests unshaken confidence. “Anybody who put that on tape deserves to be called out,” Hernandez said. “We definitely learned from it. We had an attitude of, we’re going to practice hard, and we’re going to show it the next opportunity we get.” It’s the third straight year Hernandez is starting at left guard against the Bears, so he knows the challenge presented by Akiem Hicks and Bilal Nichols in the middle and Khalil Mack off the edge.
“Give us the best,” Hernandez said. “We want to be challenged. We didn’t come out here to pick and choose our teams. We want to play the best guys, go out there, match up and kill it as an offensive line all together. We’re not ducking anybody. We’re not watching who we’re playing this week and not next week.”
As a quarterback, Jones is used to getting too much credit and too much blame. But, thanks in part to Tiki Barber’s criticisms of his pass blocking, Barkley is under fire this week for the first time since he entered the NFL in the same draft class as Hernandez. “Everybody is always going to have something to say,” Hernandez said. “I’m not worried about Saquon because he’s mentally tough. He doesn’t let that kind of stuff get to him. All I know is he is going to use it as motivation, and it’s just going to help him in his game. So bring it on.”
The Giants debuted three new starters on the line against the Steelers, including the players to each side of Hernandez — rookie left tackle Andrew Thomas and center Nick Gates. But communication wasn’t the problem. Execution was.
“The three practices that we’ve had since our last game, it differs in energy,” Hernandez said. “Guys doing specifically what they need to do. Paying attention to the smallest details. Coming out with all this purpose, all that’s going to happen is you play how you practice.”
The numbers (probably) can’t go anywhere but up in Week 2.
“You’re always motivated by a loss,” Hernandez said. “You get something like that, that happens, of course we’re going to come out with even more of a chip on our shoulder. That’s not us. That’s not what we want to do,. That’s not what we want to put out there. We’re more motivated than ever now.”