Mia Missives: Giants/Rams Preview
As we embark upon week 2 of the season, the Giants are still playing football. SERIOUSLY!! Even though you wouldn't know it since the NFL spotlight here in town is still shining very brightly on the B-R-E-T-T-S.
Week 1 was all about the Favre and Pennington saga. Now the focus of week 2 is on the Favre and Brady-less Pats matchup. As for the defending Super Bowl Champs, they are just flying under the radar as they open up the road schedule against "The Greatest Show on Turf" in St. Louis. The Rams looked anemic last week giving up 522 yards to the Eagles and falling 38-3. But a team with Marc Bulger, Stephen Jackson and Tori Holt on offense can't possibly be this bad. And the Giants know that. They have watched a lot of film and hit the practice field hard this week as they get ready to try and win their 12th straight away from Giants Stadium.
Mathias Kiwanuka returned to practice on Thursday after injuring his ankle on the final play against the Redskins. He says he feels good, although not as good as he hoped he would feel, but ensured us all that once the ball is kicked on Sunday and the adrenaline gets pumping he will be just fine. Kiwi hasn't lost a step in his move back to Defensive End. The defense in the opener looked fierce...that being said, Coach Coughlin concentrated more on the offensive end of the field for Week 2.
Coach stressed all week that he wanted to work on balancing the offense. Obviously Plaxico Burress took advantage of his ability to get open, but other players need to get involved too. The goal is to get Eli to distribute the ball a bit better amongst the wide outs and to get the Tight End position in the game some more. Ahmad Bradshaw didn't touch the ball last week and Coach said that was his bad. So I'd imagine he will get some carries against the Rams. Madison Hedgecock, who was cut by the Rams last year before the Giants picked him up off waivers, will undoubtedly leave his mark on the turf in blocks, hits and maybe a grab or two out of the backfield.
I think this is another for the Giants in the win column. Granted the Rams are, historically, a sick team at home, winning about 60% of their home games all time, although they are coming off a 3-13 season. They haven't really made any major additions to improve. 31-13 Giants.
