GOTTA RUN!
Giants look to wake up ground game vs. Jets
TOM COUGHLIN liked his team’s running game against Washington on the opening drive last week, but lamented the fact that the rushes went by the wayside when the Giants fell down 17-0 in the first half.
“Patience is not necessarily a virtue under those circumstances,” he said.
A delay of game penalty helped derail that first drive, and his team finished the game with a total of 33 rushing yards as none of his four tailbacks could sustain any push into the line. Coughlin and offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo preached pragmatism moving forward, allowing that the Jets defense has been stout in stopping the run this season. With linemen like Muhammad Wilkerson, Sheldon Richardson, Damon Harrison and Leonard Williams looking to break into the Giants backfield, center Weston Richburg noted that his offensive line looked forward to the task of taking them on. The Jets are ranked first in the league against the run, and teams have shied at times from testing the imposing front.
“I could care less what anybody says,” Richburg said. “It’s about what we do to make ourselves better. It’s definitely a great challenge for us. That’s how we see it.”
The Jets are one of only three teams to limit opponents to less than 1,000 yards on the ground this season, and the Giants won’t come near producing a 1,000-yard back. The Giants continued to rotate their tailbacks against Washington, and Coughlin maintained that they will employ Shane Vereen on third downs and on long yardage plays. Rashad Jennings is a capable blocker on pass plays, too, but he has gained no more than 63 yards in a game this season. Orleans Darkwa offered a flash with 48 yards against the Cowboys earlier in the season, but that was more than a month ago now. The sum of their skills has yet to produce yards.
“They all have different levels of skills and we try to take full advantage of them,” Coughlin said. “I would like to be able to say to you that in certain games we ran it 30 times and this guy carried it 20, but it has not happened that way. We’re a little bit a product of that as well.”
Coughlin talked about committing to December football this week, and McAdoo echoed the sentiment. He added that he knew Odell Beckham Jr. would grab plenty of attention from the Jets’ secondary and that the Giants need a viable option to open the passing game up, as well.
“We need to play with some balance,” McAdoo said. “We don’t want to be a throwing team. We have to get our run game going, we know that.”