BIG BLUe BULLIeS
Adefense that can terrify the passer.
A defense with playmakers in the secondary.
A defense that can close out the fourth quarter.
A defense that is feared again, honors its heritage as a Big Blue Bully and makes Lawrence Taylor, Harry Carson and Michael Strahan proud again.
It is no longer Mission: Impossible for Steve Spagnuolo.
Spagnuolo doesn’t have an Antonio Pierce at middle linebacker, but he has everything else he needs to unleash hell again and bring back memories of Super Bowl XLII (in Howard Cosell’s voice: “Down goes Brady. Down goes Brady. Down goes Brady.”).
Spagnuolo doesn’t want to put the cart before the horse, but Santa Reese has given him a stable of Secretariats, most recently veteran cornerback Leon Hall, and it is on Spagnuolo to remind us why he was as beloved by the 2007 Giants as the late Buddy Ryan was by the ’85 Bears, why he was hailed as the best Giants defensive coordinator since Bill Belichick.
“He’s a great man. Great integrity,” linebacker Jonathan Casillas told The Post. “What he brings to the game of football, the knowledge, the perspective that he brings, you can’t ask for more. We’re still defensively trying to get everything down, to make him look as good as he did when he was leading these teams to NFC championships, Super Bowls and stuff like that. And I feel like that’s more on us than anything else, you know what I mean?”
The haunting, taunting reminders about last season’s 32ndranked defense won’t go away, and they have stung the Giants’ pride, from Spagnuolo on down. It’s on him to restore the pride in a once-proud unit.
“All kinds of pressure on me now. I changed my job,” the affable Spagnuolo joked. “We’re piecing it together. The more talent you can get, with really good coaching, which I think we have in our coaches, the better chance you have of being good. There’s some things we can’t control. Hopefully we won’t suffer those things, but if the guys keep working like they have to this point, I anticipate us getting better and better.”
It’s on Spagnuolo to get Big Blue peaking by the Sept. 11 opener at Dallas.
“This game, defensively, has to jell,” he said. “There has to be a chemistry.”
You can have all the chemistry you want, but it won’t matter if the chemicals aren’t good enough. Spagnuolo had a onehanded Jason Pierre-Paul for eight games last season. He hopes to have a two-handed JPP for 16 games this season.
“I told him today, JPP is a natural knee-bender. God gifted him with the ability to do that as tall and as big as he is,” Spagnuolo said. “Not all guys have that, especially with his size. If you watch him, he looks like a rubbery Gumby man out there. He can move all over the place, and change of direction, long armed. I’m glad he’s here. This time last year, we didn’t have him.”
He likes the football intelligence in the linebackers room, but when asked who his middle linebacker is, Spagnuolo said: “I don’t think I can answer that right now.”
In his return last season to the Giants, Spagnuolo had many more questions than answers. Now, he has many more answers than questions.
“We want to do better, and we will do better,” Casillas said. “We’re just detailing everything, making sure we take the right approach to the game and bring that physical nature and be the bullies. That’s what we want to do.”
It’s on Spagnuolo to build that bully. And no excuses.
“I love it here, I’m blessed to be here,” Spagnuolo said, then smiled. “I’m just trying to make sure I stay here.”