Big Blue Kickoff Live 10/27 | Scouting the Chiefs Offense

Paul Dottino and Howard Cross break down what makes the Chiefs offense so dangerous, and take calls. SUBSCRIBE NOW: AppleSpotifyGoogleStitcheriHeart Radio 1:14 - Peppers Injury 4:30 - Chiefs offensive weapons 15:30 - Calls 25:35 - Getting the run game going 41:25 - O line run-blocking

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
It's time for a Big Blue Kickoff line. Nobody can
ever tell you that you couldn't do it because you're
on Giants dot Com, New York Giant Tray and the
Giants Mobile App will put you in a nose for
sixty minutes where they relentless competitive attitude, part of the
Giants podcast Network. Welcome to Wednesday's edition of Big Blue

(00:27):
Kickoff live here on Giants dot Com. I'm Paula Tino.
He is Super Bowl champion tight end Howard Cross. So
glad you could be with us for the next hour
to talk New York Giants football. Our phone numbers two one, five,
one three. You can find us on Twitter at hashtag
Giants Chat. And you can always find an archive of
this show in our entire podcast network, on the Giants

(00:49):
Mobile app, podcast platforms everywhere, and at giants dot Com
slash podcasts. Uh. The wind is kicking up here today
is the Giants were out to practice about an hour
or so ago. Howard. It's a gray, cloudy, windy Chili
But nonetheless, the Giants are preparing to take on the

(01:09):
Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night football on the road
following their win over Carolina The one Giant who besides
the injured players who are still working their way back,
who is not out there is Jabrill Peppers. We know
that yesterday the Giants had to put him on injured reserve.
He's out for the season because of a ruptured a
c L and an ankle sprain. That, as Joe Judge said,

(01:32):
really hurts because of the emotion and the leadership skills
that he brings. He's a good player, but he has
a lot of intangibles that he brings to this locker room.
And Joe Judge says, it really hurts to see a
guy like that who gives everything of himself to the
team and does everything the coaches asked him to do,
to see him go down. Yeah, I mean it's it's tough,

(01:54):
you know, when you have your emotional leader go down.
But they still had a lot of guys, you know,
Blake Martinez has gone down. He was one of those guys.
He has a sea on his chest. Another guy to see.
It's like, don't put the sea on my chest. Let
me just go ahead and play like the guys. All
the guys with the season except for you know, for
Daniel and have gotten a little dinged up. I don't

(02:15):
know about the jinx, but you know that see it's
he's not looking good this year. The sea is not
looking good. Keep it off the chest of the Giants,
all right. Now. The Giants are fortunate in that Julian
Love has you know, came into the league as a corner,
but has played a lot of safety since he got
to the Giants. So between Logan Ryan, Xavier McKinney, and
Julian Love, they've got three accomplished safeties that they can

(02:38):
still put on the field. And they've got three safeties
have had a lot of playing time. You know, They've
got they've got two guys that they did feel like
are really getting it done, and they got Love that's
coming in now. They's gonna get an opportunity because Love
plays on the slot. He plays a little bit of everywhere,
so he hits us all the right all the right notes,
so to speak. That thing's gonna be interesting to me
is that, you know, when they played a package where
he's kind of like the will backer, will they will

(02:58):
they let him do that or whatever? Coming the mcginning spot.
It's gonna be very interesting to see who moves down,
you know, kind of in the box to kind of
rattle the cage of the offense. Now there will be
some help probably coming along in a couple of weeks
because Aaron Robinson, the rookie third round pick, is not
ready yet. They just brought him off the i R
to start practicing only a little over a week ago.

(03:21):
But the Giants do believe, and they've said this since
they drafted him, that he's got, because of his size,
the potential to play some safety. So once he gets ready,
maybe in another two or three weeks, I don't know
exactly how long it's going to take before they can
give him some snaps, he might also be able to
help out something. Well, you're gonna need You're gonna get
the next the body because when you play in the

(03:41):
box and your safety, you you tend to get in
in the middle of some hits and some blocks that
are a little tough on you. So you know, hopefully
you get a guy coming in, like said bringing Robinson,
that he can come in and just pick up where
some of these other guys are left off and be
the next man up. For real. Now, let me ask
you something, Howard, because you played tight end so many
years in the league, and Travis Kelsey has certainly become

(04:02):
one of the more prolific tight ends that we've seen
in the National Football League. There are teams that will
still occasionally put a lineback around him, but a lot
of times you'll see his safety on him. I remember
coach parcels Um when the Giants had Jeremy Shocky and
he was in Dallas. He took the Cowboys secondary and said,

(04:22):
I'm going to put a corner on Shocky and that
was the first time I remember a coach lining up
a corner man and man on a tight end. How
would you expect the Giants secondary to deal with Kelsey?
I have no idea, and it has to be honest
with you. I mean, they gotta put some money in.
If it were me, I put some money in front
of him, no matter where he was on the field

(04:43):
and make them bump him off the ball, kind of
get him outfits rhythm, out of his route. Uh, you know,
disrupt the time in a little bit. You know, their
their offensive line has been you know, uh, they spent
a lot of money on them, but they have been
struggling and hopefully they don't get that fixed anytime soon.
But you know they've just been struggling. So what you
do is you you bump the receivers, especially tight ends

(05:04):
like Kelsey because he's usually the closest guy running the
route to the quarterback, and try to get him out
of his rhythm of the play. And if you can
do that, and maybe you'll you'll, you know, you can
slow him down a little bit. But the things are
gonna be all predicated on them, like how long Patrick
can hold onto the ball. If Patrick can run around
a little bit and buy himself sometime, it doesn't matter
if you bump the tight end or bump any of

(05:25):
the receivers, and they'll get open eventually. But the idea
is to put somebody over this head and bump him
right off the ball. Now, to do that, you've got
to be able to have the physicality necessary to hold
up against him, because he's a pretty big guy. Would
it be better? And this is why some teams still
will use a linebacker on him, someone like Lorenzo Carter,

(05:46):
who was certainly big, strong and physical. Now he may
not have the kind of cover skills that you'd want,
but to be able to execute the jam off the
line of scrimmage is that maybe a better idea. Now,
the jam out the line of scrimmage has nothing to
do with coverage, no no, but I'm saying in other words,
to stop him from getting off at the very beginning
of it depends if Lorenzo is is really bringing heat

(06:07):
on the quarterback, then you know, bumping him it's like
giving Kelsey a chance to chip him. So you know,
at six and one half doesn't the other, it's going
to be somebody's going to be over and bump him.
Make him step out, don't le him step inside, make
him step inside when he wants to get on the outside,
and make him shuffle a little bit. You don't have
to be big and physical to bump him to stop
him out of the route. You just need to take

(06:28):
a couple more steps before we get started. Now, on
the other side, we talk about the great tight end
that they have. They also got a great wide receiver
and Tyreek kill uh even uh you know some of
the Giants players talking about he's just very special on
how he gets open and then gets the yacht yardage
the yards after the catch. We have seen the Giants

(06:48):
pretty much go straight up. There have been they haven't
been shadowing James Bradbury this year on the best receiver
on the other team. Would you shadow Bradbery on Hill
or just play it the way the Giants have played
it so far on Hill? If the problem with teams
are having with Hill is that they're they're trying to
shadow him right and then trying to chase him around,

(07:09):
and he's really fast, so he'll just waiting. If the
play breaks down, he's able to quote unquote get outside
the play and then move on and catch the ball
and get down field. That's where the eyaculate everything happens.
So the best way to do is kind of keep
him in the shell and keep him underneath so when
he catches the ball, you rally to make the tackle.
If you try to play him one on one or
try to put somebody shadow on him, that you just

(07:29):
opening in the Pandora's box and giving him a chance
to get open down the field because he's gonna run
his route and after he runs it, he's gonna just
go deep and then he doesn't chase position. And the
problem is you don't know when he's gonna decide to
do it. And that's what if you watch games, that's
what's been the big issue with him people trying to
come here, run his route here, run and stop. He'll

(07:49):
hitch an out, He'll run across a deep cross or whatever.
But if if the play breaks down a little bit,
he takes off for the end zone, we'll see. And
that's why primarily he's been able to make his living now.
At the same time, in recent games, I've seen teams
play the too deep Tampa two, and I've seen teams
play a lot of quarters saying, like what you said,

(08:12):
we're going to keep those guys Hill and Kelsey in
front of us. We're not going to give him the
chance for yak yardage. I've also seen teams use a
lot of six and seven defensive backs Howard where they
have actually gone not just with nickel but they've gone
dime and quarter coverage to go with as many as
seven defensive backs, figuring that their offensive line in Kansas

(08:33):
City hasn't been able to do much anyway to keep
out the heat. So you can get there with four
and then just play seven dbs, which gives you more
speed and athleticism in a zone to contain the yak yardage.
How dangerous is that? Or because it has been somewhat effective.
The thinkt Kansas City can counter that, Yeah they can

(08:55):
if they You know, what's what's going on with kan
City right now that they have they've lost the building
to run the ball, Yes they have. The Redwoods is
out with a knee injury. Yeah, well you lose, you
lose ability run the ball. It kind of puts pressure
on your quarterback. Unfortunately. You know, Kana City has been
a great team and everybody's been excited about him for
a long time. But the problem is that that people
don't actually recognize what's going on. All all the games

(09:18):
are not all agains. A lot of the games were
like Kansas City is down by two touchdowns going into
the fourth quarters and they come back. Tannas City is
down by seventeen points going into into the third quarter
and then they come back. You those comebacks are great,
but you don't get to come back every time. And
now that the offensive line is a little lacking and

(09:38):
Patrick's running around for his life back there, he can't
make the same thrills because he doesn't have the same
angles to get rid of the ball where things were,
Oh that this will work. Now, guys are kind of
like holding back and I said, it's they're playing the
shell and he's throwing the ball and there are people there.
They're kind of intercepted and knock it down when before
he was throwing the ball and like there was no
one never because guys will go deep and you just

(09:59):
know what to deal with it. So with with pressure,
and I mean a lot of pressure, he becomes a
bit ordinary. And he's still a super talented kid, but
he becomes a bit ordinary with a lot of pressure
because he's running for his life. You mentioned how they're
getting behind Howard. Through the first half this year, they
are combined minus fifty two in points to the opposition.

(10:23):
They have been playing from behind. That would be every
year that Patrick has been You know, I still don't
know why that is, but that like that's been their
big thing is they can't remember the super Bowl they
won They came from behind. Yes, yeah, that's the um
very interesting notation. And I know you're gonna tell me
now that that I'm the cooler, but I'm not. I'm

(10:44):
not going to go that far. I'm not going to
go that far. But I will give you, I will
give you. I will give you a very interesting fact.
Um Andy Reid is now in his ninth season, I said,
coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. And when they lost
last to Tennessee twenty seven or three, um, it was
the first time, uh that they've been held without a

(11:06):
touchdown and that and and that's a long time. That's
a long time. But that has nothing. I love stats
because stats are what they are. But you can only
look at the players. All that does is fired up
everybody on the offense. So those guys, that's why I
thought you might you might. Those guys are so fired
up right now to prove Andy Reid the enemy, Patrick,

(11:31):
all those guys, Kelsey, they're all like fired up. Everybody's
being challenged today, like how can this happen? Challenging the
offensive line? You know you paid you all this money.
People are whispering, they're reading their own press clippings. So
you know, clippings are great when they're positive. When they're bad,
you read them too. So like they're gonna be fired
up when we see them in Kansas City. Crowd is

(11:52):
gonna be crazy, and if the Giants have any shot
in the game, they're gonna be You gotta play a
flawless game, and that's you know something that we've been
destruct one with. Well, let me ask you about the
Giants before we get to our phone calls at two
one three. We do have one person on hold. I'll
get the in just a minute, Howard. We saw the
Giants defense show up big time last week against a

(12:13):
weekend Carolina offense. They didn't have much of a running game,
offensive line wasn't very good. Sam Donald was being Sam Donald. Okay,
I understand all of that. They lost their most important player.
But having said those things, this Giant's defense was clicking
on all cylinders last week for four quarters, first time

(12:33):
they've done that all year. How likely is it that
that was the turning point for this defense and that
moving forward they could well, we should expect more of
that as opposed to what we saw the first month
and a half. You do it one time in a row,
it's an accident. You do it two times row, it

(12:54):
becomes a tendency. That's what everybody usually says. And what
they gotta do this week coming up is that they
got to pressure on Patrick like that crazy pressure that
he's been feeling all year long. If they can do
that and you know, and the dbs catch the ball
on the throwing to them. They could they could have
a chance, and they can't go with the whole Oh,
Patrick threw us an interception. Now he's gonna throw a

(13:14):
lot of interception. So we're gonna start creeping up and
trying to make plays on the ball. Clear thet's throw
it over their heads. So you gotta you gotta be
disciplined to the bitter end, because remember that seventeen down
is not a lot down to this guy. Yeah, so
in twenty down is not a lot down to this guy.
And you gotta score on this guy, and you gotta
figure out a way to you know, stop him. I

(13:34):
mean they I wish him luck in the world. I
just don't wish him any luck this week. Yeah, I'll
give you a number. You mentioned the pressure Howard this
year between hurries, quarterback hits, and sacks, that combined number
is seventy two on Patrick Mahomes, tied for the second
most of any quarterback in the league, and by comparison,

(13:57):
Daniel Jones number is only fifty five. So that shows
you how much trouble the Kansas City offensive line has had.
Just think about that for a minute. And this is
a guy who, by the way, has a lot of mobility,
and he's still getting hit and pressure that much. It
means they're getting instant pressure. That when you get instant pressure,
it's really hard to get away from. And that's what
you want to do for a guy. Those guys in

(14:19):
the middle when they're coming off the ball and getting
right up on the quarterback's face that you know, big
Dexter when he gets off to Paul right up in
your face. It's hard to get away from somebody that
big with long arms, and you gotta go to the edge.
You're going to the edge and zoo and which color
on the both sides coming in on you. It's really tough.
And right now against the last offensive line that struggled,

(14:43):
the defensive line played very well this week. This week
they got another offensive line that's struggling. Orlando Brown has
been struggling left tackle all year and now Loil dang
Was was replaced at right tackle last week by Mike Remmers,
who used to here with the Giants. Remember him, Yeah,
so he'll be a little excited to play against us.

(15:04):
So we don't, like I said, we don't want to
give any fuel to the fire out there. But I
think that you gotta get on them early. You gotta
get them often, and you've got to be prepared for
like those those flute plates where he flips it underhand
fifty yards or someone. You just got to be prepared
for anything. He's a magician when he throws the ball.
He's got a great arm. Yeah. We go to the
phones at two O four five one three Lee and

(15:28):
Atlanta your first ump, big blue kick off line. Hello, Hello, Paul, Hey,
I'm very good. Are you doing I'm all right. I
wanted to respond because I was listening to you guys.
I don't think you put Bradbury on Kyrie Kill because
he struggles against speedy receivers who are kind of twitchy,

(15:50):
uh scary. Terry got to him and Ceedee Lamb got
to him pretty good. So I think you play the
zones and show and rally to the ball, like Howard said.
But I wanted to Yeah, I think that's the best.
We actually agree. I raised the question only because it
needs to be raised, but I happen to agree with you. Yeah.
So Kansas City, this game, um, I said, we had

(16:11):
three winnable games coming up. We got the first one,
and I think this game the key to it is confidence.
I always looked at this team and was shocked at
how it seems so talented when you look at it,
and then we just could not put it all together,
and we make mistakes randomly, and one unit steps up

(16:32):
and another unit falls back, and so on. I think
this team can get a lot of confidence Monday night
if they go in there and do what they should do,
which is when this football game um. Talent wise, except
for a few mainstream players, I think we are right
there with Kansas City right now as they are currently constituted,
and I think the key to the game would be

(16:54):
UM this Monday night, Tampa Tampa Bay. Kansas City is
gonna be really amped up. The fan and the team
itself is gonna want to make a statement that they're
still good and that they can pound on anybody. And
they see us coming in and mainstream thinks that we're
a bad football team. I think if the Giants can
withstand that first initial two or three drive barade that

(17:16):
they're probably gonna put and try to go up big,
I think the Drives can pull that out, and I
think they will. I really think we're gonna win this
game day night, and I think it'll probably be a shootout. Okay, Lee,
you are now giving us an example of what Howard
Cross calls the cooler the cooler. So here's what I
think about about what you're saying. I think that you've

(17:36):
got a lot of great points. But you also have
to realize that we're playing shorthanded ourselves, and we've been
playing shorthanded. Uh. The offensive line comes is the is
the third or fourth offensive line that we've kind of
put together, actually like the seventh we put together. And
you've gotta like confidence and all that is great, but
you've got to figure out a way to get kind

(17:57):
of get some guys back healthy. Every guy that gets
back health, it gives us a better chance to win
weekend a week out. And this week we need one
or two guys to show up and and do that.
And what we're gonna get is you're gonna get a
bunch of guys out there that are coming off practice
squad to be their second week off practice squad, and
they're gonna get opportunities to play. You just gotta hope
that they can, you know, live up to the challenge.

(18:19):
Coach said, by the way, just so you know this
morning that tomorrow is going to be a better indicator.
They didn't have Shephard and Barkley and Goliday and Tony
out there today. He did say Shepherd was the furthest
along of any of them. In fact, Shepherd wanted to
play last weekend against Carolina and they had them out
on the field as a game time decision, and the

(18:40):
trainers shut them down and would not let him play.
But he was the closest he's got the hemmy, Yeah,
so you got you get these guys that are important
guys in the skill position for your team that aren't
gonna be around. So you know, we're asking a lot
of of of our guys were and we're we're pulling
for him. So they're gonna have to play pretty much
a flawless game. Uh spec See the thing, they're gonna

(19:01):
have to figure out how to clean up these penalties,
Like that's the one thing that's kind of kind of
being a stickler to them. And I don't know why.
They they're usually pretty pretty sound, but of late they
just had a lot of penalties and coach you can
see Coach Judge losing his mind on the sideline. Agreed.
I still think we can do it, but of course
we need some guys back, but I think we can
pull it out. Actually appreciated two O one four five

(19:24):
one three. We should mention that. To this point, Patrick
Mahomes has nine interceptions that ties for the most of
the NFL with Zack Wilson of the Jets. The Giants
have been able to get it takeaway or at least
one in every game so far this year. Bradbury, of course,
had the interception against US Sam Donald in Carolina against

(19:45):
Carolina on Sunday. Um. Look, they say they come in bunches.
Sometimes they're lucky. Sometimes it's just the product of talent
and instinct and making a good play. But one thing
is for sure, Howard, that's a trend the Giants would like,
who continue if they're going to win, Yeah, they like
to get more takeaways and continue to get takeaways. With

(20:06):
takeaways don't make victories. You know, you got to score,
and that's what's gonna be the big thing. I didn't
get one pick six somewhere in the line that that
would help out the team a lot. But you know,
getting takeaways is great. But we're two and whatever and
didn't do a lot so far. I hear you. Okay,
hey fans, remember there's still another half season at Giants
Football left, and you can secure season tickets and root

(20:29):
on your Giants here and met Life Stadium. In fact, boy,
the crowd was electric during the fourth quarter of that
game against Carolina. Excited. They were very excited, and so
were the players. They were feeding off of that. That
was a lot of fun their first home win with
fans in the building. Since that's a big, big moment. Anyway,
you can speak to a Giant's ticket representative now and

(20:49):
become a season ticket holder by calling eight NYG. You
can also take advantage of trying to get your own
private suite here at MetLife Stadium. Giant sweets are a
great way to entertain the family and friends while rooting
on your Giants. You can also again call a representative
at eight NYG and remember the Delta variant is spreading

(21:11):
quickly in all areas of New York State. People who
are not fully vaccinated or at greater risk for COVID
nineteen protect yourself, get vaccinated, visit n Y dot gov
slash get vaccinated, or talk to your healthcare provider. I
gotta ask you about the gadget play Howard before we
get back to the phones at two oh one four,

(21:33):
five one three. The Giants wound up using a gadget
last week where Davante Booker took the handoff, gave it
off the Dante Pettis who was coming on the reverse,
and had the wide receiver option to throw the ball
to Daniel Jones leaking out on the right side. Uh.
Same as the Philadelphia special that we used in the
in the Super Bowl a couple of years back. I

(21:55):
believe Tom Brady has also run the same play, so
this was like a newly created play. In fact, Jerry Sloplinsky,
the quarterbacks coach, for what I heard Joe Judge say,
was the one who suggested earlier in the week that
they put it in the game plan. There are a
number of fans who have said, oh my god, putting

(22:16):
Jones in that position is really, really dangerous, and I
understand that. But when you're the Giants and you're trying
to create a spark, and you're trying to move the
ball down the field and you're trying to do something
to get this offense going, I give them a lot
of credit for calling it. And I asked Joe Judge
yesterday on the taping for the MSG Joe Judge Report,

(22:36):
how much did you discuss that play with Jason Garrett,
your offensive coordinator, And do you tell him went to
pull that out? Or do you you know? Because remember
Garrett calls the place here, Judge doesn't Garrett calls the place.
So I said, do you tell him went to pull
that one out? And he said, you know, we talked

(22:57):
about it all week, the situation and the circumstance its
is that we might want to see to bring it out.
And then is the game is going on and we're
seeing the field position and was seeing what the defense
is doing, we kind of decided, okay, this was a
good time to do it. You know, Trick plays are
like plays we call like going for a big play,

(23:17):
look for a deep ball, right. That's what trick play
basically is, is for the deep ball for guys, especially
when they're throwing the ball down the field and it's
just one of those times you're like, Okay, we're gonna
take a shot right here. How you're gonna take the shot,
You're gonna you're gonna send four guys deep, You're gonna
send one guy deep. You gonna, you know, do the
flee flicker. It's another kind of play. It's a deep
ball play. You're looking for a deep ball play. They

(23:38):
just didn't quite get it down to feel as deep
as they wanted. But it still was a great play.
That goodness it didn't go further because if Pettis had
thrown the ball further, it would have been over Jones's
head and he would have got it well he was.
You know, the thing about running around is that even
Jones is a super athlete super fast too, is that
he kind of got caught looking back to see what
was going on instead of running. So that's what that's

(23:59):
why the ball was a little bit out in front
of him. If he would have been just running in
regular stride and kind of glancing back and they threw
the ball, he may have scored a touchdown, you know what,
And Howard, you're entitled to disagree here. But when I
watched the play again, when I watched it Monday several times,
as impressive as it was for him to then reach
up and pull it in, he got hit pretty hard

(24:23):
by Sean Chandler, the safety coming over as he was
kind of cradling the ball and then when he hit
the ground, he hit pretty hard. I was more impressive
not just with the catch, but the fact that he
held onto the ball through the completion of the catch.
If you're a safety and you see a guy running
out there running a route, you get a wagon. Yeah,
you get your shot at him, Like, okay, he's up, Okay,

(24:43):
he's still up. I got a shot. I can get
my shot. So that's the safety was doing. He was
trying to, like this, lodge the ball from him. He
wasn't question, he wasn't trying to hurt him or anything.
He was trying to hit him. And the I think
probably the big thing that I thought was really cool
was that he caught the ball all like, he didn't
really have it so we had to kind of tip
it to himself almost and didn't put both hands. I

(25:06):
agree with you through contact, but you know, he does
run the ball a lot, so he's used to contact,
so I won't give him as many points on that.
But the whole catching, going down falling that that's big.
To me. That was more impressive than reaching up to
grab it. And I just felt that way. I don't know,
maybe maybe that's just me, but I wanted to get
your tip. It was. It was a very athletic move

(25:27):
on all parts of it for him. Yeah, hey, let
me ask you too while we have a chance again,
two three lines are open. How is this running game
going to get going? Howard? Because you can't go into
every Sunday expecting Daniel Jones to lead your team in rushing.
That is a dangerous proposition. Like, you know, the backs
are gotta gotta figure it out. The offensive lines gotta

(25:49):
figure it out. Like the backs are gotta be able
to take some dirty yards like and and a lot
of times you're expecting big holes, you're expecting caps expect
we'll just take a dirty yard like Okay, if I
know you can block your guy, I might be on
your hip or your shoulder, depending on what side he's on,
and I'm gonna ride you down in the line for
two or three yards. You know, offensive lineman is disable
to move this guy off the ball. If you just

(26:10):
get on his butt and and and get behind him,
you're gonna get three yards before someone else gets you down.
It's it's when you stop and cut sometimes, and that's
what that's what backs are supposed to. That's the that's
their natural ability, and if they stop and cut and
then I'll sudden someone's loose, you can get tackled. But
I think that that's what's gonna be even even when
when when Sikon eventually gets back, it's gonna be the

(26:34):
same thing. Sake One got to the point in the
game he started like, Okay, I'm gonna start pressing a
whole little bit more. I'm gonna start like leaning on
my on my on my big tackles and guards and
letting him lead me up through the hole. And when
he did that, the outside plays and and him being
able to bounce starts to work because guys started to
dive in quick and then he can bounce and make
his move now. And speaking of the offensive line, uh,

(26:55):
we heard a lot from Daniel Jones and from Joe
Judge today. H's say that Matthew Purt played a strong
game at left tackle last week. Now you know what.
Chris Jones, the former War Pro defensive tackle for the Chiefs,
has been moved to defensive end this year. He's been
playing right defensive end, which is really not his natural position.

(27:16):
Definitely not okay, and it's not working out so well
for him. Over there, but parent's going to have to
draw him this week. Look, they're moving back inside. You
know this is how it goes. But you know, okay,
the experiment fail. We're gonna get you back inside and
get some pressure. But you know, I think parents did
a good job. I think he's going to get you know,
even he knows what he needs to do more of

(27:37):
it and how to get stronger at things and how
to how to get after guys. I think he was
getting banged up a little bit here to come out
of the game a couple of plays here his finger. Yeah,
so you know they get that thing wrapped up and
put a little cast on it so you can get
after guys. I only think that does keep it from holding.
When it's a finger, you can't hold as much that
that's that's a good thing. Now, it's not to need

(27:58):
to be able to grab them hold. Well. Yeah, you
don't want the penalties, Howard, don't use the that's a
dirty four letter words. Alignment. I don't like that word.
It's only holding when they called a penalty. We go
back to the phones. Live one has Peter from New Jersey.
You're next on the show. Hello, Hi, how you doing
very well, how are you doing here, Howard? So every

(28:20):
Ingram obviously with the tread trade deadline coming very quickly,
his name is coming about. I'm I'm not in favor
of of them trading him. I think, you know, he's
a very talented GIANTO. He's had some tough times, but
I think he's very talented and you know, and it
doesn't seem worth while for or sixth round draft pick
like they got, you know, like Philadelphia about for Earth.

(28:42):
So what are your thoughts, gentlemen? I think zach Ertz
is just a different situation. They were like trying to
build for the following year, and the fact that they've
only got a fill for six round pick for him,
I think they had some confidence in the Titans they
have down in Philly. Now. Well, it's also, if I
may say, Howard made it very clear that his time
in Philly had run out. You know, he was not
staying there. So you don't you don't want a guy

(29:03):
that's like, you know, complaining and whining and whatever, especially
now that you can move him. Used to be they
would just cut you and get rid of you. And
the other side. Judge says that Ingram is like his
favorite player he loves. So in Evans here working hard,
grinding and starting to you know, ask for this year
he had. He I think he had one play there

(29:24):
but would be a negative player. But he's had like
I would say, more than twenty five players that have
been super positive plays. I see him doing things like, uh,
you see the Daniel Jones run Ingram coming over being
a lead blocker and Daniel Jones run like that. That's
that's not that's not something they would give him a
responsibility before, you know, maybe his first year, but now

(29:44):
he's grown into like, okay, follow me, big fellow here,
you can go this way. So that that's something good
that he's done. Saw him cutching the ball across the middle,
throwing him tight end screens, trying to get him you know,
uses a building his speed to make plays. They're dependent
on him, so you gotta that'd be a crazy guy
for you to kind of trade away that. I don't
think that would be smart. And remember right now, because

(30:05):
they're down Tony, Shepard and Holiday, those are three important
targets in the passing game that the Giants are on.
Sure what game they're going to come back and so
to Howard's point Ingram is part of that passing attack.
Do you want to further deplete that ability? You gotta
have somewhere to throw the ball. Yeah, I just read

(30:26):
it a lot on you know, reading a lot on
the internet on a different Giant post. Well, if you
read it on the internet, it's true, right, it has
to be his name. And I'm very disappointed. I mean,
I don't see it. I am so you're you don't
think it's gonna happen. Obviously, No, not unless they get
like a bunch for him or something that you need.
You need to get a tight end back for him

(30:47):
and a whole lot of stuff. It would leave us
the only two tight ends, so which would be another deficit. Okay, great,
that's great news. That's great news. And again I I
you know, a big giant fan and enjoy you guys
all the time. Thank you so much for calling two five,
one three. Uh. If you're in the camp that wants

(31:08):
to trade Ingram, he is tradeable in that he's in
the final year of his contract that he won't cause
you when he did cap money going into next year
if you were to deal, if you feel like that's
something that needs to be done. That's the one argument
that you could make logically that makes economic sense. But

(31:28):
from a football perspective, as Howard just described, you'd kind
of be hurting yourself and stubbing your toe by trading him.
The other thing is, as I said, Joe Judge is
extremely fond of Evan Ingram. He loves him, says he's
his best practice guy. Uh does everything you could ask
and he's a huge, huge fan. So you've got to
consider that too. I would think that, you know, because

(31:49):
the last year his contract, if you're gonna try to
get something from him, I would say that that would
be you know, something that GM would be looking at,
you know, not us as fans, but the GM is
looking at He's looking at it from the standpoint of,
all right, what's if this guy goes to the Pro
Bowl again? What's he gonna make the following or what
will he be asking for? Right? So, if he's said,
how much are you gonna be asking for? Can we

(32:11):
afford to pay him that? Do we want to pay
him that? And then that's where the trade happens. It
doesn't really happen sometimes on necessity, it kind of happens
because you know, hey, well, he may be too expensive
for us, And why are we just gonna let him
walk and get nothing back for him. Why don't we
try to get something for him on this way out
the door? Yeah, I think the funniest part when you

(32:31):
read the rumor mill and fans who like to dream
and fantasize about trades, they gotta remember this is not
fantasy football. It's the National Football League, where there are
lots of implications to any transaction you make, and there
are a lot of reasons to make them or not
make them, and most of them, the newspaper writers and

(32:51):
the fans probably don't even think about I don't I
don't know any players that you trade for trade away,
So that that's the thing with me, Like, you know,
if you're trading for someone, that person usually shouldn't be playing. Now,
Zach Hurtz is like a unique spot. But Zach Hurtz
was complaining about it, you know, being in Philadelphia. If
a player is not complaining about it and he gets traded,

(33:13):
it's like the guy that got traded from May that
got traded from the Jets to safety, he was like,
I don't want to get traded, like traded, Like oh,
so like, you know, it's all it's all sorts of
things that you can look at with that. And I
know that fans are constantly trying to heard a fan
two weeks ago before we got to win, Oh, well,
shouldn't we be looking forward to next year? I'm like no,

(33:34):
I'm like, you can't keep continuously try to change everything
and expect something better to happen. You start to get
pieces and putting more pieces in and okay, now we've
got it going. If you keep changing everything, you just
keep setting the reset button. You can't do that. It
doesn't work. Two oh one nine four or five one

(33:55):
three is our phone number, Paul to Tino and Howard
crossed with you until the bottom of the hour here
on Big Blue Kick of Live. How would let me
ask you though? While we are talking about tight ends
and I've had quite a few people ask me, and
I'm I'm puzzled myself. Kyle Rudolph had the foot issue
during the offseason when the Giants signed him as a
free agent off the Minnesota Vikings. The guys had a

(34:16):
decade long career in this league. He's big, he's strong,
he's physical, wins the fifty fifty Bowl, has terrific hands,
has length, is a mismatch against any defensive back. You know,
he's proven to be quite a good player a couple
of times All Pro. He comes to the Giants. Now,
I know he had the foot thing, and I know
the Giants have used him a lot as a blocker,

(34:38):
and that's what's something he did very well in Minnesota.
But does it surprise you that to this point he's
only got ten catches for eighties seven yards and no touchdowns.
Does that surprise you much at all that he has
not been utilized more in the passing game. I don't know.
I mean it depends like when when everybody's healthy early

(34:59):
in the seas and I can see him not getting
many targets. As as as the season goes down, he's
starting to getting more targets because there's just fewer people
out there. It's just true. Right, So my question would be,
you know Jason had had Witten forever. He's kind of
a Witten type guy, right, Uh, Rudolph, So well, you're

(35:21):
not gonna win a hundred yard dashed with either of
those players exactly. And what they wouldn't do like a
little little quick outs, a little quick whatever near the
end zone, run down and put it, you know, post
somebody up to the Hall of Fame on the backs
of the giants. Is what he's doing, you know, whatever,
whatever he's doing. I mean, but that's but that's the
kind of guy that you get. So that's what. That's what.

(35:41):
That's the utilization of him if you want, if that's
what you were going to try to do with him.
But outside of that, you know, you just gotta played
the floor of the game. You gotta be able to
get in there. And you know, you kind of make
your own plays when you're when you're a pro or
college player, even high school or whatever. You you go in,
you practice, you you get started. When they ask you
to do something, you show up and you do it,
and you do it well, and you hope that when
they get to call your number that you can perform well.

(36:04):
I remember, Howard, you never caught a huge amount of passes,
but you found the end zone and Simms would find
you down there, knowing that you're six five and you
were a big target who he could count on to Hey,
I know this guy can go get it for me.
I used to have the problem of I used to
laugh about this all the time that I used to
block guys so well, the day we just loved me
to run routes. They were never gonna let me get

(36:25):
off the Really, you might have drove me off the field,
right then let's you get open their big feld. And
that's back when they could harass you all the way
down the field. And I wasn't and I wasn't super
nifty at the whole shaking, and I'm like, wait, okay,
this is not gonna work. But yeah, you know, you
catch it, they throw it to you. You have more
catches than anything. But you've got to be happy or

(36:46):
whatever role you get, and you gotta be able to
play with it. And and and I played a lot
of years, and like some years, like I think a
couple of years there had in the thirties and looks
like I was gonna get forty or fifty passes the
following year, and the next year it just goes down.
So you just don't know. Just you play the role
they give you. I want to say, what year you've
reached the end zone like a half a dozen times though,
didn't you? Yeah, I've had a couple of games or

(37:07):
two touchdown games and stuff it just happens. I mean,
Phili Phil would find you. It's just it just happens
that way. You don't know when it's going to happen, though. Yeah, hey,
speaking of roles. With Peppers now out for the season
and with c J Board with a broken arm, Giants
need to figure out what they're gonna do with the
kick return game. Any thoughts. I think they had homes.

(37:30):
I saw him go back, and he has returned kickoffs,
not punts though, and I think who's a young man
was returning the punts? Was number the Pettis Pettish Pettis.
That sells Pettiste, but Pettis did have Pettis has had
part return and Pettis remember when he came over from

(37:51):
San Francisco, he had return experience. I would be honest
with you, I'm kind of curious when Tony gets back,
if he could be the guy, well, you probably will
be a guy out of necessity. But the question is
you gotta wait till he's totally healthy. Can't be a
well he feels pretty good, We're gonna put him a game.
Let's get him in return right right now. It's got

(38:12):
to be bad. Are you You're back? You're healthy. Now
we're going to use you, use you, and that's what
you're gonna have to do. Two oh one nine nine
four or five one three is our phone number here
on Big Blue Kickoff Live. I see the phones are
starting to light up against We'll get to your calls
in just a second. Again, coming up on Monday Night football,
it's the Giants at the Kansas City Chiefs. Uh. Interesting note.

(38:36):
Over the years, Giants have done a pretty good job
against Kansas City. I believe they're eleven and three if
I'm not mistaken. In the old time series against the
Kansas City Chiefs. You played them a couple of times
when you were here. Yeah. I played against my my,
my good friend and college roommate for most of a
lot of the time, Derek Thomas So. We used to
have a lot of fun playing against each other. We
loved it, we loved it. I remember Derek Thomas So

(38:59):
we had a gay out at Arrowhead Stadium. I want
to say, My goodness was back in maybe and he
got after a Dave Brown big time. He was. He
was a special player man, a special guy and dearly missed. Yes,
yes he rest in peace. All right, we go back

(39:19):
to the phones piercing. Let me just refreshed the screen
a second and it would be Scott in New Mexico
is online one. Hello, Hi guys today, How are you
doing good? Getting back to your point, Paul, and maybe
Howard you can address it. First of all, Howard, I
thought you were one of the best blocking tight ends

(39:42):
in the NFL, best one I've ever seen. Scott, he
was best. One of your contemporaries, Mark Brunner from Pittsburgh
he was also a great blocking tight end to But
my question is this, Uh, if you extract the yes
right now have rest for six hundred approximate six hundred

(40:04):
forty two yards. If you extract what Daniel Jones has
rushed for, which is about two thirty three year down
to four hundred nine, that means the running backs are
averaging fifty one yards a game. And I know, Paul,
you asked the question, how do we improve this? And
I always go back to the days of Vincewombardi in

(40:25):
those famous sweeps where they would pull the two guards
and you'd have guys who were slower than anything, Jim
Taylor and Paul Horn, and they still got ten or
twelve yards and very high execber that. And I'm just wondering,
from either of your perspective, if running backs are averaging

(40:45):
fifty one yards a game and that's not going to
cut it no matter who you play. And I'm trying
to figure out do they forgetting the trade deadline? Isn't
there another running back they have on their roster too
that hasn't really seen very very well? Right, well, why
aren't they using him a little bit more? Because I

(41:06):
thought he was faster actually, And I know Delane Brokers
are good back, but schematically, if you have jumbo packages
or you have two tight ends, does that improve your
ability to rush outside? Because if you're running inside all
the time, people are going to get wise to it
if you're running off tackle. And I was just curious,
from your perspective, is there a cure to actually adding

(41:29):
the running back, crigniting the trade gione, using bright Well
a little bit more in game plan and seeing if
that works and you can get your Russian statistic up
a little bit. And I was just curious what your perspective, Well,
the problem with the running game is isn't the running backs,
It's the offensive line. They're not being able to get
their blocks so when you when you think about bright well,

(41:50):
whether it's say Kwan or whoever it is, no one's
really getting really getting started. So they're keying in on
the back when they touched the ball. If you pitch
the ball to the side, most defenses are faster than
those through your office anyway, so they cover more ground
and that's usually a tackle in the backfield unless you
get lucky and someone knocks somebody down on the edge.
The other problem with that is that if you pull
a guard around the edges today, he's not allowed to

(42:13):
run around the edge and cut anybody. So like you
lose that other ability that that was out there that
helped you get get the edge a lot. So if
if the offensive line kind of you know, they keep
growing and get a little bit better, they're they're getting
better at pass protection, but they need you get a
lot better at run blocking. And that's kind of what's
been happening, is that that's the whole, the whole thing.

(42:35):
And if you run one one you call a one
hole over, one slot over and you get to the
tight end, somebody from the inside is gonna get to
you because those are the guys who are making the
plays on the inside, so and the further you go
to the outside, you're still think about this. If you
go straight your one yard two yards back, three yards back,
going right into the line of scrimmage. If you go

(42:56):
to the tackle or the tight end to the outside,
that's three yards and then you have to come up field,
and you give those guys who aren't getting bought a
chance to catch you in the backfield. Now, Scott, I
would add this, and I don't know how much weight
you don't like to give to it, but I added
as a factor anyway, right well, as a very late
round draft pick, seventh round. I believe rookie who was

(43:17):
taken primarily because of special teams, even coach Judge admitted,
and I believe Dave Gettleman even told us originally that
it was Tom Quinn and Thomas mcgahey, but primarily Tom
Quinn who saw him and said, I think I want
this guy. So they drafted him primarily on the special
team's recommendation of the Giants coaches. He wasn't drafted so

(43:40):
much as a running back, so that may be part
of it. And then the other thing is too he
is a rookie. I don't know how much confidence they
have or trust in him. They obviously trust Elive Penny.
There's no question that they trust Elive Penny. And so
you know, he's gotten a little bit more of an opportunity,
not that he's had a lot, but but he's had
more of a chance to the ball in bright Well.

(44:01):
The one thing about running backs, especially rookies, the only
thing that matters about what their ability is if they
can protect the passer when they're called to A lot
of rookies can't. And you're not going to just be
in the game running the ball. They're like, oh, he's
gonna run the ball. That's key in on him. They're
gonna try to throw the ball, and you throw the
ball and they ask you to step up and block
somebody and you can't. Like say, Kuan, love him to death,

(44:23):
but he has a hard time step it up and
getting guys sometimes. So he's so used to running the
ball coming from Penn State. So is the answer that
the offensive line or their techniques have to improve in
order for the statistic of say fifty when you're into
the game between the backs improved. Yes, that it really
comes down to the offensive line. It really doesn't come
down to It comes down the offensive line, because when

(44:46):
they got their blocks, Booker looked pretty good. You know,
got a couple of little gaps. But if you don't
get your blocks, you're dodging one guy in the backfield
every every time you get the ball. And they'll tell
you that they know that they got to get better
at it, and they'll tell you a hundred percent they
got get better at it. They know, Scott, I can
give you one more answer. David Deale and I were
having a very same conversation about this topic just last

(45:07):
week as a matter of fact, off the air, and
David said to me, but I brought up to him. Look,
I've been watching the game a long time and I've
always had offensive lineman tell me run blocking is easier
than pass blocking. They much rather enjoy run blocking over
past blocking. And I said, David, I'm not sure why
this has become such a difficult task for this offensive line,

(45:28):
aside from the fact that they've had to change guys out.
Obviously that's part of it. And he said, well, you
know what he said, The combo blocks are the ones
that are the most difficult to do because if you
don't have that instinctiveness in that chemistry and that that
relationship with the guy next to you. He said, what

(45:48):
happens is when you try to do a combo block,
it's disjointed. The steps aren't even. Your shoulders, not even
your elbows aren't even. And he said, any time that
that happens, and there's a this joint in the in
the actual connection between the combo blockers, he said, that
automatically gives the defensive player an edge. Yeah, what he's

(46:11):
saying is is that And I used to say, uh,
foot the foot there you go, Howard right to hip
exactly all the way up to your shoulders, and it's
it's hard to do. And it's hard to do because
you know a lot of teams in college or in
two point stands for most of the most of the
year doing they're asking you to put your hand on
the ground. It's hard to get fit in that position.

(46:31):
If you're at a two point stands standing like like
a lot of teams are doing, then you're trying to
get down, lower your shoulders and your hips and step
together to get ready because when your hands on the ground,
you're coming up together. But if you're standing, you're you're
trying to do a combo block from standing. It's it's difficult.
So it's just interesting to see how these guys are

(46:53):
doing it. Uh when they negotiating, negotiating the way practice
time for all teams. That made it hard on the
offensive lineman. Yeah, that's the position that suffered the most.
Thank you, Scott two one four or five one three.
We do have another line open, and in the mean time,
let's go to line number two stops in Washington is

(47:14):
next up? Big Blue Kickoff Live? Hello, Hey, what's up guys? Good?
I actually I see a lot of this bright weld
talk um out in the east or if people wanted
to see him, and I just I just grabbed my
head in the wall trying to understand why you want
to put a late round rookie running back in on

(47:36):
like the seventh iteration of the offensive line and expect
this guy to eight produce, be have more security and
see protect the quarterback like it's it's it's really nice
night to think that he's the guy to put in
right now. Right now, You've gotta put in the people
who give you the best chance, because our offensive line
is just decimated at its injuries as is I mean,
we don't know who's you know, Danny Jones is meeting

(47:57):
his offensive, his guard to day of the game. That
practically to Howard's point, Davante Booker throughout his career has
been a really good blitz pick her upper. And as
a matter of fact, last weekend against Carolina, he did
a really good job of helping to pick up the pressure.

(48:20):
When he was signed and and and Dave Gunman was like, well,
he's threw down back and we need to be down back.
The first thing I did was look up how he was,
how he did in past protection. So I didn't follow him.
I didn't know too much. And I was just like, okay,
I see his point. You know, you got it. I
started coming back injured. But um, what I really want
to about was the case game this week. Um, here's
my opinion. There's two ways to go about this. Right,

(48:44):
If we don't, if we don't return weapons, and um,
and we have to, we're gonna have to pay extremely conservative.
We're gonna have to do pretty much who did in Carolina,
sloan drives, try to keep the score low and and
so on and touch forth. Um. But if we do
get weapons, after looking up all the stats, on the

(49:09):
Casey defense. If we do get weapons, my mind goes
the exact opposite way. I think we need to score
as many points as possible and hope to lean and
break a poor defense and force the struggling offense to
to keep up. Which I know that's not really odd bags,
but I think in this game, because it is the
Kansas City Chiefs and you never know when they're gonna

(49:31):
explode on you. If you have the opportunity to score,
I think you drive the score as much as possible.
Because Patrick, my homes to me, is one of the
best quarterbacks in the in the league, and at any
given moment, I feel like he could write his ship
and I'll take what your your guys thoughts to that offline,
thank you well, thank you. Yeah. I think that you
want to score points regardless you score touchdowns every time

(49:54):
you get the ball would be great. I think the
Giants offense also still struggling with some red zone wolls,
so they got to figure out how to put the
ball in the end zone. If it's from distance, put
it in there from distance. Once they get to the
red zone, the guy to put the ball in the
end zone, I think that's more more important than anything else.
Like I said before, Paul, we said this earlier. Pat

(50:16):
being down seventeen, Pat being down twenty not a big deal.
But this offers a line. It could be a big deal.
But Pat being down any amount of points right now,
if he still believes in himself, isn't a big deal
to him. Now, what's interesting, Howard, I'm looking at Kansas
City's red zone efficiency only six this year, which is
twelfth in the league for them, that is awfully low.

(50:38):
And I think to me that's a byproduct of a
struggling offensive line and the lack of a running game. Yeah,
but you know, with Kelsey and everybody, they should be
a little bit better. They just you would think you
get that tight end of control the middle of field.
But it's gonna be interesting to see. By the way, folks,
just so we don't give you this one sided opinion,
Let's uh, let's make it clear that Patrick Holmes has

(51:00):
thrown for over two thousand yards this year. He is
fourth in the NFL in passing yards, and he is
third in the NFL with eighteen passing touchdowns. So please correct.
So let's let's make it very clear that woe is
me that Kansas City's three and four and everybody wants

(51:21):
to throw dirt on this team. Uh, they could still
sting you big time in any moment. Parry Hill is waiting,
waiting to make his play. Yeah, that's that's for sure.
They're averaging twenty seven points a game on offense, but
they are giving up twenty nine game on defense. Um,
let me talk about Steve Spagnolo a second. The defensive coordinator.

(51:42):
Howard We saw him here with the Giants on two
different occasions, and I think, to be frank with you,
I've always had great respect for him. They're pressuring the
quarterback with blitz is of the snaps, which is the
sixth most in the National Football League, Yet they only
have eight sacks, which is tied for the fewest with Jacksonville. Spags.

(52:03):
From what we understand talking to the Giants people, is
doing his usual thing. He's coming with heat. He's mixing
up all kinds of coverages, mixing up all kinds of
looks like he's always done. But this is another case
of if you don't have the players and the players
aren't producing, it doesn't matter how good the coaches or

(52:24):
how much he wants to scheme it it's going to
be a problem. Well, Spags is a great guy in
the aspect of coming up with great schemes. But when
he's with the Giants, get great defensive lines, right, Pro
bowlers and and and Hall of famers and all kinds.
His whole defensive unit had talented. Yeah, he had. He
had a great defensive line. So it wasn't that there

(52:44):
guys were automatically getting uh sacks with these blitzes. They
were getting sacks on straight hand and os and and
tuck and you mean your he would pull back on
blitzes knowing the front four could get there. You have
four horses up, the four horsemen up there. It's really
hard to to worry about it. Now you go to
Kansas City, you don't have the four horsman. You got

(53:06):
one guy playing out of position, and Frank Clark has
been a big disappointment since they got him in that trade.
So now you got all these guys and you're trying
to figure out, like, Okay, who's gonna step up? Like
I keep telling people, don't don't feel them. Don't feel
any fire, because don't tell them that we could beat them.
Don't say anything about that. Just let them stay in
the front that they're in for at least one more week.

(53:27):
But at any moment, one of those guys could be like, hey,
I'm tired of this. Let's get this going. Well. You
only got to go back to the Baltimore game earlier
this year when Honey Badger, uh Tyrn and Matthew had
two interceptions, including one pick six. And you know SPACs
with his ability to come up with creative ways to
use a player like that who usually plays all over

(53:49):
the field anyway, you gotta keep an eye on him.
He could learn you. But the big thing for them is,
like for this particular game, for for the team that
we have, is you gotta find a way to get
like if you do score, next time, score again, if
you can get two scores, figure out how to run
the ball a little bit. Try to keep Patrick off
the field and make him stress out about having to

(54:10):
make him play when he gets on the field, even
though he can just make him stress out about it
because that offensive line and be like out there a
little desperate. They've been having a lot of penalties, even
they've been doing a lot of everything. But they're a
bad team right now. One thing the Giants should be
able to to use to their advantage. And Joe Judge,
I know, was going to stress this as he does
every week. Special teams, the kick coverage units have been

(54:32):
really good, Howard. They've done a nice job. And I
know c J. Boards now out with a broken arm,
but you know, Cam Brown has done a pretty good
job on special teams. Nate Evner is in there on specials, uh, Giants.
Giants have limited some of that return yardage on the
kick returns, and it's always better to win the battle
of field position when you go up against the explosive offense. Yeah,

(54:54):
but they give it back when they when they when
they're returned the ball with penalties. You know, I can't
disagree with that ragging about something they're doing good when
you know if they kept him inside of twenty, didn't
they got they got a penalty there inside of twenty,
It doesn't. There's no give and take you want to
be They gotta be solid all way around. And those

(55:15):
guys know that they know that they know that they're given,
you know, giving away yards two or one four or
five one three. We have a few minutes before the
show is over. If you want to give us a
quick call, we will get you in logan. Ryan said
something last week, Howard and I know actions are much
more important than words, but I thought he backed them
up when he said last week. I know him a captain,

(55:36):
and I've been telling guys about this and that and
this and that and that and the other thing. But
this week, going into the Carolina game, I'm gonna worry
about being the best player I can be. I'm gonna
be the best safety that I can be, worried about
my job and just tell everybody else do your job,
you know, and if we all do that collectively will

(55:57):
be better. Look, I'm not gonna be one who is
gonna sit here and say a speech like that makes
all the difference in the world. But maybe the mindset
and the philosophy of just controlling what you can control
and not worrying about the guy next to you may
have been part of the reason the Giants were more effective.
Is that possible? Yeah? I saw it at the Alabama game.

(56:18):
To after Texas A and M. You know, one of
the one of the linebackers got up and said, like,
you know what, it starts with me. I'll take care
of it. And I was like, big talk. That's kind
of cool for a guy to plays if there's like
ten other guys in the field. And let me tell you,
he brought the heat the whole game and the rest
of the team picked it up. So when guys start
making plays. I think Dory Jackson made a tackle early

(56:40):
in the game. They threw the ball uneath to the
tight end. He smoked him. I'm like, okay, I see
you now, okay, So like you see guys doing that?
Uh you? You had some guys in the middle of
the field. I think it was forty nine, like mackenzie, right.
McKinney then put a couple of hits, put a hit
on the guys, like hey, like, you're not running through

(57:01):
here like that. Once guys start popping people, you know
Dexter Lawrence coming up the middle look looking like he's
just washing through guys. They start popping people, It starts
to get contagious. I gotta tell you something. To Howard,
it's fun watching. Even though he's a rookie and he's
playing limited amounts of time, He's shown some really fun flashes.

(57:22):
He has a great, great, great ability to to get
the tackles hands off of them and to dip his
shoulder underneath. Once he dips his shoulder and he's past you.
There's nothing you can do. Like it's literally, like you
know Von Miller, You see all these guys doing the
exact same move. They swapped their hands, the hands missed
just a little bit, and then they dip their shoulder.
Once they dip their shoulder, you're touching a guy on

(57:43):
his back. He's by you and like, and that's what
Oli is doing. Like, it's just it's incredible. Five and
a half shacks already this year, leads all NFL rookies.
He's gonna have a lot more too. Bruce from Virginia
on Line one, We're gonna sneak you. When is the
last caller on the show. Hello, I'm glad, Yeah, I'm
glad to talk to you guys. Thank you listening to

(58:04):
your feedback. Um. Yeah, two things. Uh, we get a
lot of injuries and I'm wondering if they need to
look at the conditioning coach number one and number two.
The last time Barkley was hurt, he wasn't hurt in
a play. He was hurt, Uh stepping on a foot
and yeah, well yeah, but he was Paul he was

(58:26):
observing the play. Yeah, but he stepped on a foot
and the and the ankle twisted and that's why it
blew up like a tennis ball. No. I understand that, Paul,
but my my view as he was he was looking
at the play instead of being involved in the play. Anyhow,
I'll just listen to your comments. Thanks, Okay, thank you.

(58:47):
So so number one guys get banged up all the time.
There's nothing you can do about it. The difference between
the guys of my heir and the guys of this era,
I'm a beard wing get high. These guys are in
perfect health and condition, and and it's just different, like
different body types, different things. Also, the rules were different
back there where. If I got hurt, I never wanted

(59:09):
the guy behind me to play ever, and I would
do everything to convince the trainers I was fine. Yeah,
but it is, but it's true. And like today today's guys,
if you get something, they pull you in a heartbeat.
I can remember many times running goes like I think
you broke a couple of ribs. I'm like, I'm fine, Really,

(59:30):
could you come over let me look at you for
a second, like I'm gonna I'm fine go go treat
somebody else. Like got squirting blood out of my elbow
always almost from the sideline almost to the to the field,
and they're like, okay, what is that. I'm like, I
don't know. Can we tape it up? Those we can
get back in there. I broke my hand my second
year in the season. Uh, a second year in the
league and I first came in a season. I'll always

(59:53):
remember it. It was can he catch? I don't know,
I can catch it like this maybe, but can you
still block? Yeah? I can still block. Put them back
in the game. Like it's just that's the kind of
football we played, so so for him to I understand
what he's saying, but that's not what happens now. Guys
feel something and it's like, okay, we gotta check on it.

(01:00:15):
And the injuries are like crazy, and I still don't
know how these injuries happened. And it's not the Giants.
This is like I told somebody of the day, like
I was. I was with Mike Quick and some other guys,
and I was like, as I gotta ask you guys something,
how don't you play like thirteen years, fourteen years, when
have you ever heard of a non contact injury and
they kind of laughed. I'm like, so what is it
and they're like, I don't know. Like for us and

(01:00:37):
non contact injuries were tearing achilles, So we're old you know,
guys are doing that, their calves are pulling their there,
they tweak a knee or something. That just means that
they're like strong, so tight that things are getting knocked
knocked around. And I blame it on and I and
I'm you know, I'm old school, but I believe it
on the fact that you can't have a boxy match

(01:01:00):
without sparring. And they took away a lot of practice.
Now they say, well injuries and practice injuries and practice
injuries and practice, but you take away well you're not
used to getting bumped and leverage and stuff. That's that's
just it. And as far as the se Kwan Barkman,
I'll finish with this. I get out here too. As
far as say Koran Barkley, I'm sorry, I forget the

(01:01:24):
Genterman's name, but se Kwan was looking at the ball
that was thrown over his head, so he was watching
the play. He was watching the ball and he stepped
on somebody. That's kind of how it works like if
you can't reach it, then it goes over your heads.
Like man and they stepped on somebody foot. That's not

(01:01:45):
it's just just luck of the draw. But kids got
a little bit of a snake bite and stuff happens. Yeah,
that's a cute way to say. But he's got he's
a little bit snake bit. You know, he's got to
figure that out. All right. That'll do it for Today's
a day set, a big blue kick off live. We
appreciate everybody for tuning in and for calling. Uh, don't forget.
You could always catch the archive of this show as

(01:02:07):
part of the Giants media platforms everywhere, your Giants podcast platforms,
your regular podcast network platforms, and Giants dot Com slash podcasts.
For Howard Cross, I'm Paul Totino. We'll talk to you
next time.