September 15, 2021 • 34 mins
We preview the Giants-Washington Football Team matchup with NFL Network Anchor Colleen Wolfe, Giants second year left tackle Andrew Thomas, and Giants head coach Joe Judge. SUBSCRIBE NOW: AppleSpotifyGoogleStitcheriHeart Radio 1:13 Andrew Thomas 10:17 Colleen Wolfe 25:20 Joe Judge
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time to get inside the Giants hole on Giants
dot Com, the Giants Mobile, the Giants Podcast Network. Welcome
to the newest edition of the Giant Huttle Podcast. John
Smoke with you. Today we preview the Giants week to
match up against the Washington football team on Thursday Night Football.
I speak to Giants left tackle Andrew Thomas. Then I
(00:22):
talked to NFL Network anchor Colleen Wolf who was pregame
coverage of the game on enough on Network on Thursday Night.
And finally Bob Papa talks to the head coach of
the New York Football Giants, Joe Judge. But first, as
a reminder, you can find the Giants Subtle Podcast at
Giants dot com, slash podcast on the Giants Mobile app.
But most importantly, make sure you go subscribe on your
(00:42):
favorite podcast platforms and the most recent episode will be
delivered to you whenever it is published. All right, let's
start their interviews, and we go first with Giants left
tackle Andrew Thomas, entering his second season. A two thousand
and twenty fourth overall pick out of the University of Georgia,
He's the Giant started left tackle head off season ankle surgery.
Was having a good off season, a rough patch in
(01:05):
joint practices with the Patriots and that preseason game, but
came out and played very well in that first week
against the Denver Broncoes. How you feel a man short week?
I'm feeling great. Uh, quick turnaround. I had to put
you know, Denver away and started Washington today, so I'm
excited for it. What's the challenges for a guy like
you coming off a game on a Sunday, having to
play again on a Thursday night on the road. Just
(01:26):
putting away the game as quick as you as quick
as we have to. Um, you watched the film and
the next day, you know, we're already installing for the
next game. You have to be mentally prepared because we're
not getting the same physical reps that we get there
are a normal week of practice, so you have to
be really locked in. How was the film study for
the offensive line coming off that week one game? It
was good? Um, definitely some things we had to clean up,
some things in protection and UM just been a lot
(01:48):
better in the run game, getting more movement. Um, get
a hat on the hat for next week. You'll hear
from Joe Judge later on this podcast. I just talked
to him with Bob Pop inside and he said that, look,
he tells you guys to block everything out from the outside,
but he says, look the offensive one. Here's what people
are saying, did you guys, were you happy to come
out and put such a really good, strong performance together
after all those doubters were kind of question you guys
(02:10):
after that final preseason game or do you just not
care about any of that stuff at all? No, I
wouldn't say we were happy. Did not run the ball? Well, Um,
that's there's something that's something that we you know, we
part ourselves on as being a physical team here and
run the ball. We have some talented backs and we
didn't you know, let them do what they needed to do.
Protection was okay, but every time we you know, every
time we snapped the ball, we don't want anybody on
DJ and that game there were you know, people on
(02:32):
our quarterback. So, um, definitely some things you can look
and say, okay, yeah, we we we've improved, but there's
a lot of things that we're still working on to
get better at. What do you guys need to do
to show up that run blocking in the run game? Uh,
just uh, it's technique making sure you have the right fit,
the right hand placement at the right leverage, and then
understanding the scheme, the concept if the linebackers are flowing back,
if we have certain emotions, things like that. UM. I
(02:55):
think a better understand as the offensive line will help.
How are you physically and offseason? You had your offseason
ankle surgery. You've kind of been limited in some practices
over the summer. There were reports that you were under
the weather a little bit during that week up in
New England. How are you physically right now? I think
I'm doing pretty well. UM. I think I felt pretty
good after the Denver game. Um. It's a short week
this week, so we'll see how I feel Thursday. But
right now I felt pretty good. Where do you think
(03:16):
you are in terms of past pro in terms of
your progress in terms of the technique stuff is? You know,
we talked back and think in June on the Giants
huddle and you talked about the things you're working on
become a better pass protector. Where do you think you
are in terms of getting your techniques at your slide
you're punched, sinking it all up and doing all those things.
I'm still improving. Um, it hasn't gotten muscle memory yet
right now. I'm still you know, focusing on it, thinking
every time, you know, this is what I need to do.
(03:37):
This is where my hands need to be, this one
my sets needs to be. I want to get to
a point where it's just it just happens. I have
to think about it. Um, every time I turned the film,
it's like, this is how you're supposed to do it.
So still working out. Now. You've had a lot of
different guys next to you this summer. You had, um,
Kenny Wiggins there for a while. You chamm me obviously,
now you have been Bredicon has only been here for
a couple of weeks. What has it been like trying
to adjust to having different guys next to you? Depending
(03:58):
on the day, that's a brodio of the the NFL. Any
given week, you can have somebody you know playing next
year could be a different combination of guy. Somebody could
go down. Um, so you have to be prepared. Were
practiced really hard, um, next man up mentality and whoever's there,
that's what we have to win with. You're talking about
the run game. I want to jump back to it
for a second last year, I thought, you guys really
hit your stride when you use it. A lot of
power like gap right, pulling the guard around, things like that,
(04:19):
a lot of the duo stuff to double teams. You
wouldn't do a little bit more outside zone stuff, a
little more zone stuff with Barkley back right. What's the
key to be in a good zone blocking team? Well,
I would say, first, um, your steps and your angles. Um,
you have to have the right step the right angles
to get the d line to flow, to get the
linebackers to flow. That way, it opens up the cut
(04:40):
best for you know zones game plays. If you don't
get your right fit, the right hat placement, then you
tell the running back where to go and then he
doesn't get to you know, react. So um, just like
I said, making sure you get your your good steps,
good leverage, and um the ballsh your hit. How many
times did you actually go up against vom Miller in
that game? I know he was lined up over the
name most of the time. How many times was he
actually on your side? He didn't up on my side
(05:00):
or not? He staid on the right side. And that's
what we thought on film. What happened? I mean that's
what they did, all right. So talk about the two
guys gonna face this week, Montes Weed and Chase Young.
I just watched that game this morning and they were
rotating back and forth. It was mostly sweat on your side,
but chasing a little bit to start the game. What
are you say when you watch those guys, how are
they different? And what do you have to do to
slow him down? Yeah? So um planning them. Last year
(05:21):
they did the same thing. They rotated a little bit.
It's never always left, always right. Um. I guess I'll
start with Chase very athletic, a guy UM good power,
um has good speed, good hands, Uh, ability to bend
the corner. So I have to be really good and
pass pro And then Montez is long, long, you know,
really athletic, has good power, good speed to power, and
so you have that. You have to be abt a
(05:42):
anchor against him. I feel like you against Montes sweat.
It's kind of strength or strength, right, you both are big, long,
strong guys. Do you feel like that's kind of a matchup.
We're like, all right, this is like really getting into
what I'm good at type of stuff. Definitely, But at
the same time, like I said, still athletic ability to
he does a good job after he goes to our
countering back off of that. So I have to be
prepared to, you know, once I sit it down to
(06:04):
the counter and do whatever I need to do to
you know, stop the rush. They have too real good
defensive tackles too. How many times how often do they
run games or do they like to try to get
the one on one iod matchups. It just depends on
how they align. They but they both rush really well,
so it can be either or sometimes it might be
a pick game. And sometimes that's just how they rush.
I know Jhonathan likes to do the hunt move a lot,
and sometimes that can to guard. It could be deceiving
(06:26):
because you don't know if he's just doing the hunt
move or if they're running a t e. So you
have to be, you know, very discipline in your set.
When you take a look at what they try to
do defensively with their blitz packages, is it a lot
of linebackers, is the corners and when did they try
to utilize that stuff? Is mostly on third down or
they're mixing it in different spots. They mix it. It's
it's a lot of different people. Um that blitz, they
(06:46):
will bring the will, They'll bring the free safety. Depending
on if it's you know, a slot formation, they bring
the corner sometimes. So just we just have to be
in tuned the safety rotation things like that, and most
of the times it's probably you know, second third down
longer situations, Um that they will bring it. I know
you talked about the offensive line of specific you want
to talk about the offense in general. You guys, we're
kind of in and out of the line up a
(07:07):
lot in the off season, right. Se Quan didn't come
off popp to second first week of August, didn't practice
fully until the end of August beginning September. Kenny Golladay
was in and out, Tony was in and out. How
do you feel like the group overall is clicking? Are you?
How close are you to where you want to be?
I know, the whole season you're trying to improve the
whole time, right, but how how close to you to
be and where you want to be? Um? I think
we still have a lot of improvement, But honestly, I
(07:28):
think we started to yell a little bit, especially on
that last drop, Like, I know, the game, you know,
it's overweight people. You know, people might not be watching,
but for us, that's like time to get better as
reps that we can improve. And I think we're strung
it together and I think it's going to help us,
you know, towards going on to the next game and
the rest of the season. When you look at that
Broncos game, because one negative play, a penalty can short
circuit to driver. You can do three plays, well, you
(07:49):
have one bad play, everything gets a race because it
destroys your drive. When you look back at the Broncos game,
was it consistent issues? Was it a few places here
there that like I'm talking about short circuit to drive?
You're there? How would you characterize the over issues you
had against Denver? Unable to being unable to get points
up on the board of Coach Garrett Um says it, well, Um,
we only had eight possessions, so I know, and football
(08:11):
they teach us, you know, next play is the best play,
but you have to understand that one of those my
bads is a drive that we could have scored and
we only have eight m Their oftens did a good
job of standing on the field, Um running down the clock.
So once we're got in the field, we have to
capitalize and regardless of what what the issue was, we
didn't you know, we didn't score and that's the thing
that we're you know, trying to fix. And you have
to score inside the twenty, right, I know that's a
(08:32):
big focus for you guys. It's such a compressed area.
So what do you have to do well to be
a better red zone team? Um? I would say first
the run game. Um, if we running the ball is
you know, we don't even need to throw it, but
pass protection as well, then you have to be you
have to be a little bit more firm. You might
take a little longer, the quarterback might have to scramble,
you know what I'm saying, because everything is so condensed
(08:52):
where obviousvers are not as open, so we have to
protect better. What was it like being in front of fans,
giant fans for the first time, like full throw to
giant fans. It was exciting for me on a special time.
You know, we're not in the living everything, Um, the
fireman and policeman out there, it was a it was
a special time and me personally, I was just happy
to be out there. My family got to come to
their first home games. That's great. It was exciting for me.
All right. Final question, Um, now you're heading in first
(09:15):
division game of the year, bowl teams are and one.
Just what is anxiety levels? The wrong answer? What's this
sense of urgency for you guys? Prime time? Coming off
and one division game? Having to get this win against
Washington's a statement game, coach Josh says, Um, most teams
improved from you know, week one to week two. Um,
and this is a vision game that we you know,
we it's a must win game. We have to win. UM.
(09:36):
Watchington's a great team. We have to be prepared for it,
but we look forward to seeing it. Andrew, thanks so
much of the time. We appreciate it. Thank you for
having me. That's Giants left tackle Andrew Thomas. Don't miss
out on the return of New York Giants football. Season
might be under way, but there's still time to secure
your season tickets and route on your Giants. Here I
MetLife Stadium. Speak with the Giants ticket representative now and
become a season ticket member by calling eight n YG
(10:00):
five or check out single game tickets. Go to Giants
dot com slash single game tickets now to secure your seat.
All Right, now let's go on and continue our preview
of the Thursday night game between the Giants and the
Washington football team. For that, I was joined by NFL
Networks Colleen Wolf, and now we're joined by NFL Networks
Colleen Wolf. She anchors the coverage on Thursday Night Football.
(10:22):
NFL Network has the game Giants and the Washington Football Team.
It all starts at six pm with NFL Game Day kickoff.
She's on Twitter at Colleen Wolf. Also the host of
Saturday is Good Morning Football. Colleen. Thanks for being with
us all the way out there on the West Coast.
How are you. I'm doing great, Thanks for having me.
Good to see you. Awesome. Let's talk about the game
on Thursday night. Both these teams come in oh and
(10:43):
one and you've seen these numbers. I'm sure you put
them on your pregames and you know Good Morning Football
all the time. The chances of making the playoffs when
you're O N two is not great. So what do
you think the urgency level is going to be for
these two teams when they come out on Thursday Night?
I mean, it's huge, and it's so dumb to say
that this is a must in game in week two
like the season just started. It feels like yesterday. Um,
(11:04):
but it's just it's so important because this division is
so winnable. I mean, this isn't exactly the NFC West,
so right now. The fact that the Eagles are the
only team that one week one and that they are
in first place, that tells you all you need to
know about this division because no one really thought a
ton about the Eagles coming into this year, and maybe
(11:26):
everyone was wrong, but all of these teams will be
really close, I think ultimately. And to start oh in two,
especially in a primetime game on a short week, that's
not how you want to start the season. And the
Giants they're familiar with this because I feel like they've
been starting oh and two for so many years. I
went back and I looked. I think it's eight out
(11:47):
of the last nine seasons. If they lose this week,
that's what it would make it. So, uh, that's not
That's not the way that they want to start. They
want to break that streak. And there's a lot of
different things I think that they go into the law.
Losses for both teams, a lot of things they need
to improve on. But they really need to step up
both teams too on Thursday. Yeah, you had it exactly
(12:07):
right every year since except for one, and that's the
one year they made the playoffs in sen So yes,
try to avoid that for sure. And and then to
your point to get with the NFC East. Last year,
I think everyone said, oh, you know, we could see
the Eagles winning it, their favorite Dallas could win it.
Nobody thinks Washington is gonna win it. Then who won
the division? It's Washington and now's Philadelphi in the same
spot this year. So you're right, you absolutely never know
(12:29):
with this division. Let's talk about last week's games. What
do you make of Washington's loss to Los Angeles. I
just watched the game on tape, and the way Los
Angeles was able to move the ball up and down
the field against what I thought before the season was
going to be one of the best defenses in the league.
I thought it was pretty impressive. I know I was
expecting a lot more from Washington's defense, and I think
(12:49):
that's why a lot of people in the off season
we're picking Washington to win the division. It's like Week
one was really a great week to eat crow, I
think for everyone because there were just so many things
that proved everyone wrong. I mean from Jamis Winston throwing
five touchdowns at Aaron Rodgers looking in the way that
he did. But also I thought that Washington's defense, I
(13:11):
thought that they were going to come out and really
handle the Chargers offensive line, and Justin Herbert was able
to move around well and get everything done. And I
think that when I look at this this d line,
I mean Chase Young, he didn't have any sacks, the
only at three tackles one TfL. But this entire front
seven is really really talented. They have really good pass rushers.
(13:33):
So it's one game. I don't think that that's going
to what we saw on Sunday. I don't think that's
gonna dictate how they will play the rest of the season.
But it really did surprise me. From Washington and Taylor.
Heineke came in and was like decent too. And I
shouldn't be surprised by that because the fact that he
(13:54):
came in and started a playoff game and actually played
really well last year and that wild card game again
the Bucks. So he's a former undrafted free agent, this
is his fifth team and somehow he's still making it happen.
And now he's a full week of practice too. I
think that's something that a lot of people underestimate. You know,
he didn't take any reps for probably almost two weeks
(14:15):
leading up to that first regular season game, and now
maybe they adjust things in the offense. So you look
at that game in the playoffs last year against Tampa Bay,
he was pushing the ball down the field. He wasn't
a checkdown Charlie. This is a guy I think that
giants do have to be concerned about. He can move
in the pocket a little bit. This guy can play. Yeah,
he can definitely make plays. And he's like sneaky athletic too,
(14:35):
because he's able to have some of that mobility that
even Ryan Fitzpatrick sort of has that at times two
So I think that they're kind of similar in that
regard um. But yeah, Tyler Roe, I'm you know what,
I'm really bummed though that we're not going to have
Ryan Fitzpatrick for a Thursday night broadcast because I feel like,
without fail, every single season, I've been doing this job
(14:58):
that Fitsyo is out and does something in prime time
and whether it's like he's rocking this Hawaiian shirt, this
chess hair, is hanging out and he's just doing this
whole thing. He's saying hello, and it was like twenty
seven children. I love fitzing. Something very sad about these
development and I feel like he was preparing all off
season for primetime. He shaved the beard, he's slimmed down.
He looked like a new Ryan Fitzpatrick. And now we're
gonna miss that. Hopefully we'll be back. We'll see yeah, alright,
(15:22):
uh yeah. They have somebody good weapons too, right. They
add Curtis Samuel. I know he's on injured reserve, but
Antonio Gibson is a good player. Terry mclaurence kind of
emerging as one of the better wide receivers in the league.
Then they have some young guys too, so to me,
if they can get that offensive line squared away, and
I know that was an issue for them in Week one,
Joey Bosa was pretty much all over the place and
did whatever he wanted. That to me is kind of
(15:43):
the key year. If they can protect then those weapons
might have a chance to do something. And especially Terry McLaurin,
think about how much success he's had with so many
different quarterbacks, and even last week I was I was
surprised that we didn't see more from him because he
only had I think he was only targeted four times,
and he caught all four of those balls, but he
(16:05):
only had sixty two yards, and that's well under his
typical output. So I think that I think we could
probably see a big day from him. I don't know
what's going on with James Bradberry, if they're gonna be
matched up on each other, but that could potentially be
a problem. Antonio Gibson, Um, he's been really good. Uh not.
I'm not really thrilled with the fumble that he had
(16:27):
to kind of through the Washington come back bit because listen,
for us, we really hate when both teams on Thursday
night come in with losses, and especially to start the season.
So I'm always when, like on Sundays, I'm watching the
two games who are playing on Thursday, and so I'm
always rooting for those teams to win. And uh, it
(16:48):
was really disappointing for both of these teams to lose
on Sunday. To your point, though, and I think this
is important, we see this every year in the NFL.
Never take too much out a week one. Weird things
happened in Week one, and we we all don't think
that the Packers are gonna pull like that all year, right,
I don't think we think the Titan's gonna play like
that all year. Things changed very quickly from Week one
to week two in this league every year. I mean,
(17:10):
look the Jags. They won a game last year in
Week one, so I mean, anything can happen, really, no
question about it. All Right, let's talk about the Giants
in Week one. I think the thing that took me
by surprise, I think we all knew Denver was gonna
have a really good defense this year. I don't think
we expected them to be able to kind of march
up in down the field the way they did. So
this to me has to be a big bounce back
(17:31):
game for this Giants defense because we talked about, right,
Washington's defense is so good. The Giants defense, I know
they don't play against each other, but they're gonna have
the match because I don't think the Giant's gonna go
out there and put a you know, a thirty or
forty burger up on the board here. So this Giant
defense is gonna have to keep this game probably around
twenty points. They have to absolutely. Teddy Bridgewater came out
and did his thing against the Greats that he was
(17:54):
really good. I mean again, is this a week one thing?
I don't know, but that was one of my like
we won surprises and I loved it for the Broncos
and Teddy Bridgewater, but I wasn't expecting this for the Giants.
Even on our show Good Morning Football last Saturday, Mike
Garret Folo, one of the guys I worked with, he
picked the Giants to be the surprise winner of the division.
(18:15):
And so the whole time during the game, I'm texting
him and I'm like, be still you still feeling that way?
I don't know you wanted it? What's havana? Uh? The
one thing that I did really love though, and I
was impressed, um about with the Giants. I feel like
there's a little bit of a silver lining. The offensive
line played better than I thought they were going to play,
and that was the one thing that I was really
waiting for. And I was like, oh, no, there's gonna
(18:37):
be a problem like von Miller. I mean really, just
like any defense on this offensive line, and I thought
they did a good job giving Daniel Jones time to throw. Um.
I saw pff. The Giant said that Jones had a
clean pocket seventy four point four percent of the time,
which that's pretty good. He was only sacked two times.
They hit him twice, but uh, the left tackle there,
(18:58):
Andrew Thomas, he looked a lot better than he did
in the preseason, and I think that that was a
huge focus for them, and I think that that's something. Yes,
the Giants lost the game, but coming away from that game,
that offensive line did a lot better than they have
in the past. Yeah, it just shows you unpredictable. The
nfellows Giant Fanger thinking, know, the defense is gonna be fine,
but this offensive line is gonna be a mess, and
(19:19):
it's the exact opposite of what you're expecting in Week one.
You might have foreshadowed this with with a couple of
your previous answers, But what do you think the one
real key matchup is gonna be on Thursday night between
Giants and Washington in terms of how who's gonna determine
who's gonna come out with a winness Gamp is it
the Daniel Jones fumbling issue? Is that the key? I
don't know, I hope not. What is going on I mean, honestly,
(19:41):
I think the key is probably the Giants offensive line
against Washington's D line. That almost feels like too low
hanging of fruit though um to take. Like for me,
Daniel Jones has to figure out ways to clean up
these mistakes. I mean thirty career fumbles now, I think
that was his forty career turnover. This is something like
(20:02):
he's in his third year now, and the Giants focus
so much in the off season of building around him
and making things better for him, and we as I
just talked about, the offensive line played better, but that
was just it's such an inopportune time in the game
for him to fumble to downten. It was just that
would have taken them into the red zone if he
(20:23):
didn't fumble the ball at that point. So it's disappointing.
I think he really really needs to fix that. And
I don't know if it becomes a more of like
a mental thing at this point or what, but that's
something that is kind of concerning. All Right, what do
you have planned on Thursday night for the pregame Coindly,
what do people have to look forward to on your
coverage leading up to that game? All of it all
(20:45):
of the things. Uh, this is so exciting and I'm
not even just blowing smoke right now. It's our first
show back together on the road, and last year, if
you remember all of our Thursday night football broadcast, we're
done at home. I was the only one in studio.
Everyone else was like, you know, at their in their
guest rooms or in their garages or wherever else. We
(21:07):
all legitimately really like each other. So we're so excited
to see each other. And I feel like the show
could probably get off the rails very quickly, um multiple times,
so that is something to look forward to. Speaking of
shows going off the rails, did you enjoy the Manning
cast last night? Did you watch that? You know what?
I was flipping back and forth because it was so good.
(21:27):
I loved it, and I was like, you know what,
I almost need I must need both up at the
same time, though, because it was like I loved the
stories that they were telling, and there was really fun
insight that they were giving about like different plays and
showing like who was off, and then um, I loved
when they started getting into like the number changes and
everything else. And then obviously just like whenever anyone was
(21:49):
ripping on anyone else. It was fun, it was entertaining,
it was different. I liked it a lot. I I
like it as a companion though, because I also have
like a little traditional in at I need to know
what just happened, if they're not talking about it, if
I missed it or something. So I'm someone who needs
like twenty seven screens around me at once, and then
through us mosis, I will learn something. Probably what do
(22:11):
you guys expect that to say? By the way, Thursday,
I should ask you about that. I know, well, I'm
hoping something more than we saw. I think that they're
they're gonna try and bring them along slowly. I guess
they don't want to push it too much. But we
really didn't see a whole lot from him, um, And
I think I don't know if that's if it's a
problem that now it's a short week for him coming
(22:33):
off of this injury. Um, how many how many like
plays he's even gonna be in for. But I think
that it's it's definitely something to monitor. I really hope, though,
we see something more from him for sure, because they
need to be able to run the ball, especially if
in this division, in a Division game, like they're gonna
need that. So I say this for the end, did
you break down into hives having to do fourteen minutes
(22:54):
of NFC East talk without a lot of Eagles talking? There?
Are you? Okay? I got the Eagles in at the
very beginning. I was very impressed. Actually, the way I
know that was another thing like Week one. I have
so many things written down that just like completely shocked
me because I even though yes, I'm from Philadelphia, but
(23:16):
I like to set the bar super low because I
hate being disappointed. So I am just like baseline, They're
gonna lose every game this season, and whenever they win,
I'm like, oh my god, what are they good? Now?
I think that that could be just like a Week
one thing. But I think that Jalen Hurts. He definitely
looked a lot better than I thought he was going
to be. We only saw like four starts from him
(23:39):
last season, though, so it's hard to even judge what
you saw last year because it was only that sample size.
So we'll see. I know you, Hey, I feel like
you're scoring right now because we're talking too much about
the Eagles and you are just like covered in giant
stuff behind you. It's actually funny. One of my best
friends went to college with was it is an eagle
stand and she has told me many times the best
(24:00):
way to go about things to set the expectations as
low as you possibly can so you can't be disappointed.
It's the life of a Philadelphia sports fan, right, don't
be true. I'm so glad I'm not alone. I'm like,
I am very much a cidek. I'm very much the
class is basically empty all the time, so that I
don't know, maybe that's just like a Philadelphia thing. No,
I think it is. Colleen awesome stuff. I really appreciate
(24:22):
the time. This was fun and you can see Colleen
on NFL Game Day kickoff Thursday, six pm. She anchors
the pregame coverage for Giants and the Washington football team
on NFL Network. Colleen Enjoy, We'll see you on Thursday night.
Thanks so much for the time. All right, thank you.
Let's do it again. We thank Colleen Wolf for joining us.
Real fun spot. Check out her coverage again on NFL Network,
previewing the game on Thursday night starting at six p m.
(24:46):
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(25:10):
slash get vaccinated, or talk to your healthcare provider. All right, now,
let's go to the man in charge, the head coach
of the New York Football Giants, Joe Judge Pop Pop.
I had a chance to talk to him. Short week
for your ball club, Uh, coach, Let's go back though,
to Sunday. Obviously the sky is falling after Week one
in the NFL for half the teams in the league.
(25:30):
What were some of the positive things that you got
out of the game that you've tried to reinforce into
your ball club getting ready for tonight. You know, first off,
you can never ride that emotional roller coaster and look
every week in the nation football is about improvement. You
gotta be a better team each week as you go forward.
It's a long season. We have sixteen games remaining. It's
important to keep improving every week and that's what our
focus on. We gotta stay focused on the process of
what takes to be successful, and that ties us back
(25:52):
into tape. We watched and we took an emcess on
what we did, what we call winning football and the
game on Sunday. Things we can build on and take
forward and things we have to eliminate and get off
the apps so we don't eliminate a chance to be successful.
To me, it starts with the offense out fronts. Please
out the offensive line played last week, been working really
hard as a group, making a lot of strides. He
gave us time to go ahead and produce up front,
have time to get the ball up. Daniel facilitated it
nicely as far as getting the ball out on time,
(26:13):
getting the receivers a chance with the passes down the field.
You know, I'd like the way the skill players made
plays in space. So a lot of tough catches, contested catches,
extended runs, Cheft doing good things with the ball in
his hand in the space. These are things we can
take and we can build on a lot of things
we focused in the off season in terms of identifying,
you know, where we can go ahead and get some
production down the field. We saw a lot of that
and really start up from the offensive line having a
good game last week. You know, defensively, there were times
(26:34):
we really show that we could stop the run. Obviously,
there are times we have to improve and make sure
we don't have breakdowns, but there are times we could
play stout up front shut off the run by building
a wall and setting the edge, and that's how we
want to start our mentality of stopping the run, making
another team one dimensional. We gotta do a better job
of getting off the field and sustaining drives. That's there's
no secret to that right there. So there's nothing we
have to work on. We gotta see it carry over
in tonight's game, you know, But there's a lot of
positive last week. We just gotta make sure we take
(26:56):
the things we have to get off the tape and
correct those we've worked all week on, and then obviously
keep doing the things we've done well going forward to
have strengths from a psychological standpoint, right in baseball, you
play every day, uh, basketball and hockey. They got back
to backs. This is almost the NFL's version of a
back to back. Uh, Is it almost good to just
kind of get onto the next and not have a
(27:17):
week of dealing with media and outside influences talking about
what all the things were that were wrong last week
and they just go play here. Yeah. I think in general,
anything that's happening on the outside we can't really go
ahead and pay attention to the truth is really what's
on tape. And we understand systematically and schematically what we're
trying to do. We understand what we've done well, We've
to improve on any important things. Just stick to the
process of getting better as a team. You know, In
(27:39):
terms of being a short week, I mean, look, the
folks is getting your player as physically as fresh as
possible and then letting them turn around mentally and be
as prepared as possible going to the game. You know,
is it good to have a short week turn around?
I think for players sometimes mentality wise, a turn in
the page moving on quick and I having time to
dwell on other things. But to be honest with you,
we don't spend a lot of time dwelling on things
around here. I mean, look, the mood and the tone
of my meetings on Monday when lose, whatever it is is,
(28:00):
are always the same. It's gonna be the same tape
every week in terms of educating our players what we
have to improve on, what we can do to carry forward,
and what our instance for the week is going to
be in terms of sticking to the process. So in
terms of how we handle things internally, we don't ride
the emotional roller coaster up and down. We don't live
in the world of extremes, which can be the National
Football League. And you can't go ahead and let the
outside set the mood for the inside. You know, each
week we come back to work, you know, and that's
(28:21):
our focus. That's our goal to get better each week
and look over the course of the season, we're gonna
keep improving as a team at the end of it.
That's where our goals be the best team we can make.
All right, short week, you got Washington, so at least
it's a familiar foe, a team that you've played twice
a year. We know how good their defense is. Obviously,
last week the Chargers chewed up the last sixty three
of the ball game and closing the game out. But
(28:42):
that being said, this is a really good defense up front.
What do they do so well to create stress on
you as an offense? Well, first off, we anticipate seeing
their absolute best this game. We're not gonna underestivate our opponent.
We're in a full respect for them. But I think
it starts up front with these guys really on the edges.
All right, tell about Chasing. What these guys are big,
long men, They have a lot of power, They have
(29:03):
exceptional first step quickness of getting off the ball. They
have a combination of moves. What's a you know, strong
guy will play through your edge or both through your
chest and really push you forward. Chase is just a
rare combination of you know, size, speed, athleticism, and then
the intensity he plays with. He's really got a relentless
effort about him that you've got to go ahead and
account for. And this guy makes them, you know, plays
you turn on. You said, like, Okay, there's not a
(29:23):
lot of those guys in the world. You know, the
reality is, you know, you get guys early in the
season right now with exceptional rushers last week with Von Miller,
But our guys did a good job in terms of
you know, protecting in the way we emphasize throughout the week.
It's gonna take everything we can to protect against chase
and sweat this week. But you talk about that rush
up front, you know, to combine the defensive tackles and
they're paying and now and as well. They do such
a good job of pushing the pocket speed come off
the edge. They force you into bad decisions and they
(29:45):
make you force a ball where their defensive backs are
waiting to pounce on it and make a play. This
is one of the top turnover teams in the league.
Last year twenty three total sixty interceptions. Lots of interceptions
come from bad decisions by quarterbacks and defensive back sitting
back and aggressively jumping the ball. We gotta make sure
his receiver we don't telegraphed the top of all route.
You have to make good of fishing cuts, you know,
as a quarterback, have to be on time and accurate
with the past. Now we gotta protect up front. We
(30:06):
gotta put everyone together, All eleven have to operate as one.
But you've got to count for everyone on their team.
There's a lot of team speed on their second level.
Their linebackers and defensive back, so you can't undersmate their
breaks on the ball with the pursuit against run game.
Finally we go to the other side of the ball. Uh.
Ryan Fitzpatrick got hurt last week, so he's out. They
put him on I R. Taylor Heineke. Obviously he's shown
some pretty good things in some of the opportunities. They
(30:28):
got a good run game. Mclaurin's a big play threat
on the outside and a former quarterback has turned into
quite a tight end in this NFL. Logan Thomas had
the touchdown last week. Schematically, how do you think they
try to attack you? Well, I think with these guys
that always starts with a run game, and they got
very talented backs and obviously Gibson and a Kissick and
I cannot only just run the ball, but they can
(30:49):
screen threats, check down threats, you know, regular receivers and
the routes. So they can line up in different personnel
groups with having the same people on the field. I
mean that's saying talking about one personnel, two backs, one
tight end, two receivers. They can be in twenty one
also make it eleven at the same time by line
mkissic or gives it out in the slot normal it's mckissic,
but you're looking at that point, you know, one back,
one tight end, three receivers, So in terms of who
they have in the huddle, they can get the different
(31:09):
sets and run different modes of our offense. And you've
gotta be able to defend the run and the past
of those guys in there. They're very explosive. You gotta
tackle well in space, you know, you talk about their
skill group outside. Mclauren's obviously an explosive player, you know,
and off the run game they tie in some of
the screens get in space. There's really an extension of
the run game or the shots down the field. You
gotta count from McLaren number one. The rookie Brown is
really a shot player down the field, and he's got
(31:30):
top speed. He's a long player. He gets going down
the field. We all knew about this guy coming out
in the draft. He's definitely a threat and they're gonna
look to use him not only for the nines you
know over top in the post, but also those deep
comeback routes when you sell out to go ahead and
take advantage of you overplaying the deep ball and you
talked about Logan Thomas again, this guy's really made himself
in one top tight ends in the league. You know,
former quarterback has really you know, evolved his game. You know,
(31:52):
third down right area. He's really their top go to target.
You know where he is and how to use it.
He's just got such a big range of catching the ball,
knows how to use his body like a power forward
and basketball, and you've got to really account for him
and not let him get started early. It's easier said
than done. But you know they've got weapons on all
ends right there. And you talk about Heinekey and this
guy's really that gun slinging game or type of quarterback.
(32:12):
And he goes out there and knows how to extend
plays improvised on his feet. He knows how to really
make profits all right out of loose games and moving around.
He also can run the ball with his feet. So
you always have to count for this guy as a runner.
If you get on discipline in the in your rush
lanes and let him have a lane going forward, he'll
eat it up. Andy'll make you pay if you let
him extend to plays. You gotta cover the receivers as
well as respect him. Pullmeball and then run as well,
so you know they pose a lot of problems. It's
(32:34):
a shame that you know, Fits his injured. You don't
want see any player, especially a guy like Fits, He's
such a respected player in this league, be hurt. At
the same time, we have full respect for Heinekey. He's
a very capable player. You know, he's been very, very
competitive and big games and that's obviously a big game
being Division game for us. Coach bust of Luck tonight
and thanks for joining us as always, Thank you. That's
Giants head coach Joe Judge. Giant fans on September twenty six,
(32:56):
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are offering an exclusive Sweet package which includes Eli Bobblehead's jerseys,
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Option four. We thank our three guests, Joe Judge, Colleen
Wolf and of course Giants starting left tackle Andrew Thomas
(33:16):
for joining us on this special game preview edition of
the Giant Subtle Podcast. I am John Schmilk and once
again for the Giant Subtle Podcast, which by the Way
includes every episode of our special edition All in n
y G podcast, presented by P and C Private Bank,
which details and celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Giants
Super Bowl forty six championship. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms.
(33:41):
You'll get all the new episodes delivered right to you.
No one went is up. We do a rapid reaction
after each game. You have the All on podcast, the
game preview of other guests sprinkled in throughout the year.
Make sure you check that out on the Giants Huddle podcast.
It's also in the Giants mobilat and of course at
Giants dot com slash podcast. I'm John Schmilk. Thanks you
for being with us. Will you see you next time
(34:01):
on the Giant Turtle. Enjoy the game, everyone,
It's time to get inside the Giants hole on Giants
dot Com, the Giants Mobile, the Giants Podcast Network. Welcome
to the newest edition of the Giant Huttle Podcast. John
Smoke with you. Today we preview the Giants week to
match up against the Washington football team on Thursday Night Football.
I speak to Giants left tackle Andrew Thomas. Then I
(00:22):
talked to NFL Network anchor Colleen Wolf who was pregame
coverage of the game on enough on Network on Thursday Night.
And finally Bob Papa talks to the head coach of
the New York Football Giants, Joe Judge. But first, as
a reminder, you can find the Giants Subtle Podcast at
Giants dot com, slash podcast on the Giants Mobile app.
But most importantly, make sure you go subscribe on your
(00:42):
favorite podcast platforms and the most recent episode will be
delivered to you whenever it is published. All right, let's
start their interviews, and we go first with Giants left
tackle Andrew Thomas, entering his second season. A two thousand
and twenty fourth overall pick out of the University of Georgia,
He's the Giant started left tackle head off season ankle surgery.
Was having a good off season, a rough patch in
(01:05):
joint practices with the Patriots and that preseason game, but
came out and played very well in that first week
against the Denver Broncoes. How you feel a man short week?
I'm feeling great. Uh, quick turnaround. I had to put
you know, Denver away and started Washington today, so I'm
excited for it. What's the challenges for a guy like
you coming off a game on a Sunday, having to
play again on a Thursday night on the road. Just
(01:26):
putting away the game as quick as you as quick
as we have to. Um, you watched the film and
the next day, you know, we're already installing for the
next game. You have to be mentally prepared because we're
not getting the same physical reps that we get there
are a normal week of practice, so you have to
be really locked in. How was the film study for
the offensive line coming off that week one game? It
was good? Um, definitely some things we had to clean up,
some things in protection and UM just been a lot
(01:48):
better in the run game, getting more movement. Um, get
a hat on the hat for next week. You'll hear
from Joe Judge later on this podcast. I just talked
to him with Bob Pop inside and he said that, look,
he tells you guys to block everything out from the outside,
but he says, look the offensive one. Here's what people
are saying, did you guys, were you happy to come
out and put such a really good, strong performance together
after all those doubters were kind of question you guys
(02:10):
after that final preseason game or do you just not
care about any of that stuff at all? No, I
wouldn't say we were happy. Did not run the ball? Well, Um,
that's there's something that's something that we you know, we
part ourselves on as being a physical team here and
run the ball. We have some talented backs and we
didn't you know, let them do what they needed to do.
Protection was okay, but every time we you know, every
time we snapped the ball, we don't want anybody on
DJ and that game there were you know, people on
(02:32):
our quarterback. So, um, definitely some things you can look
and say, okay, yeah, we we we've improved, but there's
a lot of things that we're still working on to
get better at. What do you guys need to do
to show up that run blocking in the run game? Uh,
just uh, it's technique making sure you have the right fit,
the right hand placement at the right leverage, and then
understanding the scheme, the concept if the linebackers are flowing back,
if we have certain emotions, things like that. UM. I
(02:55):
think a better understand as the offensive line will help.
How are you physically and offseason? You had your offseason
ankle surgery. You've kind of been limited in some practices
over the summer. There were reports that you were under
the weather a little bit during that week up in
New England. How are you physically right now? I think
I'm doing pretty well. UM. I think I felt pretty
good after the Denver game. Um. It's a short week
this week, so we'll see how I feel Thursday. But
right now I felt pretty good. Where do you think
(03:16):
you are in terms of past pro in terms of
your progress in terms of the technique stuff is? You know,
we talked back and think in June on the Giants
huddle and you talked about the things you're working on
become a better pass protector. Where do you think you
are in terms of getting your techniques at your slide
you're punched, sinking it all up and doing all those things.
I'm still improving. Um, it hasn't gotten muscle memory yet
right now. I'm still you know, focusing on it, thinking
every time, you know, this is what I need to do.
(03:37):
This is where my hands need to be, this one
my sets needs to be. I want to get to
a point where it's just it just happens. I have
to think about it. Um, every time I turned the film,
it's like, this is how you're supposed to do it.
So still working out. Now. You've had a lot of
different guys next to you this summer. You had, um,
Kenny Wiggins there for a while. You chamm me obviously,
now you have been Bredicon has only been here for
a couple of weeks. What has it been like trying
to adjust to having different guys next to you? Depending
(03:58):
on the day, that's a brodio of the the NFL. Any
given week, you can have somebody you know playing next
year could be a different combination of guy. Somebody could
go down. Um, so you have to be prepared. Were
practiced really hard, um, next man up mentality and whoever's there,
that's what we have to win with. You're talking about
the run game. I want to jump back to it
for a second last year, I thought, you guys really
hit your stride when you use it. A lot of
power like gap right, pulling the guard around, things like that,
(04:19):
a lot of the duo stuff to double teams. You
wouldn't do a little bit more outside zone stuff, a
little more zone stuff with Barkley back right. What's the
key to be in a good zone blocking team? Well,
I would say, first, um, your steps and your angles. Um,
you have to have the right step the right angles
to get the d line to flow, to get the
linebackers to flow. That way, it opens up the cut
(04:40):
best for you know zones game plays. If you don't
get your right fit, the right hat placement, then you
tell the running back where to go and then he
doesn't get to you know, react. So um, just like
I said, making sure you get your your good steps,
good leverage, and um the ballsh your hit. How many
times did you actually go up against vom Miller in
that game? I know he was lined up over the
name most of the time. How many times was he
actually on your side? He didn't up on my side
(05:00):
or not? He staid on the right side. And that's
what we thought on film. What happened? I mean that's
what they did, all right. So talk about the two
guys gonna face this week, Montes Weed and Chase Young.
I just watched that game this morning and they were
rotating back and forth. It was mostly sweat on your side,
but chasing a little bit to start the game. What
are you say when you watch those guys, how are
they different? And what do you have to do to
slow him down? Yeah? So um planning them. Last year
(05:21):
they did the same thing. They rotated a little bit.
It's never always left, always right. Um. I guess I'll
start with Chase very athletic, a guy UM good power,
um has good speed, good hands, Uh, ability to bend
the corner. So I have to be really good and
pass pro And then Montez is long, long, you know,
really athletic, has good power, good speed to power, and
so you have that. You have to be abt a
(05:42):
anchor against him. I feel like you against Montes sweat.
It's kind of strength or strength, right, you both are big, long,
strong guys. Do you feel like that's kind of a matchup.
We're like, all right, this is like really getting into
what I'm good at type of stuff. Definitely, But at
the same time, like I said, still athletic ability to
he does a good job after he goes to our
countering back off of that. So I have to be
prepared to, you know, once I sit it down to
(06:04):
the counter and do whatever I need to do to
you know, stop the rush. They have too real good
defensive tackles too. How many times how often do they
run games or do they like to try to get
the one on one iod matchups. It just depends on
how they align. They but they both rush really well,
so it can be either or sometimes it might be
a pick game. And sometimes that's just how they rush.
I know Jhonathan likes to do the hunt move a lot,
and sometimes that can to guard. It could be deceiving
(06:26):
because you don't know if he's just doing the hunt
move or if they're running a t e. So you
have to be, you know, very discipline in your set.
When you take a look at what they try to
do defensively with their blitz packages, is it a lot
of linebackers, is the corners and when did they try
to utilize that stuff? Is mostly on third down or
they're mixing it in different spots. They mix it. It's
it's a lot of different people. Um that blitz, they
(06:46):
will bring the will, They'll bring the free safety. Depending
on if it's you know, a slot formation, they bring
the corner sometimes. So just we just have to be
in tuned the safety rotation things like that, and most
of the times it's probably you know, second third down
longer situations, Um that they will bring it. I know
you talked about the offensive line of specific you want
to talk about the offense in general. You guys, we're
kind of in and out of the line up a
(07:07):
lot in the off season, right. Se Quan didn't come
off popp to second first week of August, didn't practice
fully until the end of August beginning September. Kenny Golladay
was in and out, Tony was in and out. How
do you feel like the group overall is clicking? Are you?
How close are you to where you want to be?
I know, the whole season you're trying to improve the
whole time, right, but how how close to you to
be and where you want to be? Um? I think
we still have a lot of improvement, But honestly, I
(07:28):
think we started to yell a little bit, especially on
that last drop, Like, I know, the game, you know,
it's overweight people. You know, people might not be watching,
but for us, that's like time to get better as
reps that we can improve. And I think we're strung
it together and I think it's going to help us,
you know, towards going on to the next game and
the rest of the season. When you look at that
Broncos game, because one negative play, a penalty can short
circuit to driver. You can do three plays, well, you
(07:49):
have one bad play, everything gets a race because it
destroys your drive. When you look back at the Broncos game,
was it consistent issues? Was it a few places here
there that like I'm talking about short circuit to drive?
You're there? How would you characterize the over issues you
had against Denver? Unable to being unable to get points
up on the board of Coach Garrett Um says it, well, Um,
we only had eight possessions, so I know, and football
(08:11):
they teach us, you know, next play is the best play,
but you have to understand that one of those my
bads is a drive that we could have scored and
we only have eight m Their oftens did a good
job of standing on the field, Um running down the clock.
So once we're got in the field, we have to
capitalize and regardless of what what the issue was, we
didn't you know, we didn't score and that's the thing
that we're you know, trying to fix. And you have
to score inside the twenty, right, I know that's a
(08:32):
big focus for you guys. It's such a compressed area.
So what do you have to do well to be
a better red zone team? Um? I would say first
the run game. Um, if we running the ball is
you know, we don't even need to throw it, but
pass protection as well, then you have to be you
have to be a little bit more firm. You might
take a little longer, the quarterback might have to scramble,
you know what I'm saying, because everything is so condensed
(08:52):
where obviousvers are not as open, so we have to
protect better. What was it like being in front of fans,
giant fans for the first time, like full throw to
giant fans. It was exciting for me on a special time.
You know, we're not in the living everything, Um, the
fireman and policeman out there, it was a it was
a special time and me personally, I was just happy
to be out there. My family got to come to
their first home games. That's great. It was exciting for me.
All right. Final question, Um, now you're heading in first
(09:15):
division game of the year, bowl teams are and one.
Just what is anxiety levels? The wrong answer? What's this
sense of urgency for you guys? Prime time? Coming off
and one division game? Having to get this win against
Washington's a statement game, coach Josh says, Um, most teams
improved from you know, week one to week two. Um,
and this is a vision game that we you know,
we it's a must win game. We have to win. UM.
(09:36):
Watchington's a great team. We have to be prepared for it,
but we look forward to seeing it. Andrew, thanks so
much of the time. We appreciate it. Thank you for
having me. That's Giants left tackle Andrew Thomas. Don't miss
out on the return of New York Giants football. Season
might be under way, but there's still time to secure
your season tickets and route on your Giants. Here I
MetLife Stadium. Speak with the Giants ticket representative now and
become a season ticket member by calling eight n YG
(10:00):
five or check out single game tickets. Go to Giants
dot com slash single game tickets now to secure your seat.
All Right, now let's go on and continue our preview
of the Thursday night game between the Giants and the
Washington football team. For that, I was joined by NFL
Networks Colleen Wolf, and now we're joined by NFL Networks
Colleen Wolf. She anchors the coverage on Thursday Night Football.
(10:22):
NFL Network has the game Giants and the Washington Football Team.
It all starts at six pm with NFL Game Day kickoff.
She's on Twitter at Colleen Wolf. Also the host of
Saturday is Good Morning Football. Colleen. Thanks for being with
us all the way out there on the West Coast.
How are you. I'm doing great, Thanks for having me.
Good to see you. Awesome. Let's talk about the game
on Thursday night. Both these teams come in oh and
(10:43):
one and you've seen these numbers. I'm sure you put
them on your pregames and you know Good Morning Football
all the time. The chances of making the playoffs when
you're O N two is not great. So what do
you think the urgency level is going to be for
these two teams when they come out on Thursday Night?
I mean, it's huge, and it's so dumb to say
that this is a must in game in week two
like the season just started. It feels like yesterday. Um,
(11:04):
but it's just it's so important because this division is
so winnable. I mean, this isn't exactly the NFC West,
so right now. The fact that the Eagles are the
only team that one week one and that they are
in first place, that tells you all you need to
know about this division because no one really thought a
ton about the Eagles coming into this year, and maybe
(11:26):
everyone was wrong, but all of these teams will be
really close, I think ultimately. And to start oh in two,
especially in a primetime game on a short week, that's
not how you want to start the season. And the
Giants they're familiar with this because I feel like they've
been starting oh and two for so many years. I
went back and I looked. I think it's eight out
(11:47):
of the last nine seasons. If they lose this week,
that's what it would make it. So, uh, that's not
That's not the way that they want to start. They
want to break that streak. And there's a lot of
different things I think that they go into the law.
Losses for both teams, a lot of things they need
to improve on. But they really need to step up
both teams too on Thursday. Yeah, you had it exactly
(12:07):
right every year since except for one, and that's the
one year they made the playoffs in sen So yes,
try to avoid that for sure. And and then to
your point to get with the NFC East. Last year,
I think everyone said, oh, you know, we could see
the Eagles winning it, their favorite Dallas could win it.
Nobody thinks Washington is gonna win it. Then who won
the division? It's Washington and now's Philadelphi in the same
spot this year. So you're right, you absolutely never know
(12:29):
with this division. Let's talk about last week's games. What
do you make of Washington's loss to Los Angeles. I
just watched the game on tape, and the way Los
Angeles was able to move the ball up and down
the field against what I thought before the season was
going to be one of the best defenses in the league.
I thought it was pretty impressive. I know I was
expecting a lot more from Washington's defense, and I think
(12:49):
that's why a lot of people in the off season
we're picking Washington to win the division. It's like Week
one was really a great week to eat crow, I
think for everyone because there were just so many things
that proved everyone wrong. I mean from Jamis Winston throwing
five touchdowns at Aaron Rodgers looking in the way that
he did. But also I thought that Washington's defense, I
(13:11):
thought that they were going to come out and really
handle the Chargers offensive line, and Justin Herbert was able
to move around well and get everything done. And I
think that when I look at this this d line,
I mean Chase Young, he didn't have any sacks, the
only at three tackles one TfL. But this entire front
seven is really really talented. They have really good pass rushers.
(13:33):
So it's one game. I don't think that that's going
to what we saw on Sunday. I don't think that's
gonna dictate how they will play the rest of the season.
But it really did surprise me. From Washington and Taylor.
Heineke came in and was like decent too. And I
shouldn't be surprised by that because the fact that he
(13:54):
came in and started a playoff game and actually played
really well last year and that wild card game again
the Bucks. So he's a former undrafted free agent, this
is his fifth team and somehow he's still making it happen.
And now he's a full week of practice too. I
think that's something that a lot of people underestimate. You know,
he didn't take any reps for probably almost two weeks
(14:15):
leading up to that first regular season game, and now
maybe they adjust things in the offense. So you look
at that game in the playoffs last year against Tampa Bay,
he was pushing the ball down the field. He wasn't
a checkdown Charlie. This is a guy I think that
giants do have to be concerned about. He can move
in the pocket a little bit. This guy can play. Yeah,
he can definitely make plays. And he's like sneaky athletic too,
(14:35):
because he's able to have some of that mobility that
even Ryan Fitzpatrick sort of has that at times two
So I think that they're kind of similar in that
regard um. But yeah, Tyler Roe, I'm you know what,
I'm really bummed though that we're not going to have
Ryan Fitzpatrick for a Thursday night broadcast because I feel like,
without fail, every single season, I've been doing this job
(14:58):
that Fitsyo is out and does something in prime time
and whether it's like he's rocking this Hawaiian shirt, this
chess hair, is hanging out and he's just doing this
whole thing. He's saying hello, and it was like twenty
seven children. I love fitzing. Something very sad about these
development and I feel like he was preparing all off
season for primetime. He shaved the beard, he's slimmed down.
He looked like a new Ryan Fitzpatrick. And now we're
gonna miss that. Hopefully we'll be back. We'll see yeah, alright,
(15:22):
uh yeah. They have somebody good weapons too, right. They
add Curtis Samuel. I know he's on injured reserve, but
Antonio Gibson is a good player. Terry mclaurence kind of
emerging as one of the better wide receivers in the league.
Then they have some young guys too, so to me,
if they can get that offensive line squared away, and
I know that was an issue for them in Week one,
Joey Bosa was pretty much all over the place and
did whatever he wanted. That to me is kind of
(15:43):
the key year. If they can protect then those weapons
might have a chance to do something. And especially Terry McLaurin,
think about how much success he's had with so many
different quarterbacks, and even last week I was I was
surprised that we didn't see more from him because he
only had I think he was only targeted four times,
and he caught all four of those balls, but he
(16:05):
only had sixty two yards, and that's well under his
typical output. So I think that I think we could
probably see a big day from him. I don't know
what's going on with James Bradberry, if they're gonna be
matched up on each other, but that could potentially be
a problem. Antonio Gibson, Um, he's been really good. Uh not.
I'm not really thrilled with the fumble that he had
(16:27):
to kind of through the Washington come back bit because listen,
for us, we really hate when both teams on Thursday
night come in with losses, and especially to start the season.
So I'm always when, like on Sundays, I'm watching the
two games who are playing on Thursday, and so I'm
always rooting for those teams to win. And uh, it
(16:48):
was really disappointing for both of these teams to lose
on Sunday. To your point, though, and I think this
is important, we see this every year in the NFL.
Never take too much out a week one. Weird things
happened in Week one, and we we all don't think
that the Packers are gonna pull like that all year, right,
I don't think we think the Titan's gonna play like
that all year. Things changed very quickly from Week one
to week two in this league every year. I mean,
(17:10):
look the Jags. They won a game last year in
Week one, so I mean, anything can happen, really, no
question about it. All Right, let's talk about the Giants
in Week one. I think the thing that took me
by surprise, I think we all knew Denver was gonna
have a really good defense this year. I don't think
we expected them to be able to kind of march
up in down the field the way they did. So
this to me has to be a big bounce back
(17:31):
game for this Giants defense because we talked about, right,
Washington's defense is so good. The Giants defense, I know
they don't play against each other, but they're gonna have
the match because I don't think the Giant's gonna go
out there and put a you know, a thirty or
forty burger up on the board here. So this Giant
defense is gonna have to keep this game probably around
twenty points. They have to absolutely. Teddy Bridgewater came out
and did his thing against the Greats that he was
(17:54):
really good. I mean again, is this a week one thing?
I don't know, but that was one of my like
we won surprises and I loved it for the Broncos
and Teddy Bridgewater, but I wasn't expecting this for the Giants.
Even on our show Good Morning Football last Saturday, Mike
Garret Folo, one of the guys I worked with, he
picked the Giants to be the surprise winner of the division.
(18:15):
And so the whole time during the game, I'm texting
him and I'm like, be still you still feeling that way?
I don't know you wanted it? What's havana? Uh? The
one thing that I did really love though, and I
was impressed, um about with the Giants. I feel like
there's a little bit of a silver lining. The offensive
line played better than I thought they were going to play,
and that was the one thing that I was really
waiting for. And I was like, oh, no, there's gonna
(18:37):
be a problem like von Miller. I mean really, just
like any defense on this offensive line, and I thought
they did a good job giving Daniel Jones time to throw. Um.
I saw pff. The Giant said that Jones had a
clean pocket seventy four point four percent of the time,
which that's pretty good. He was only sacked two times.
They hit him twice, but uh, the left tackle there,
(18:58):
Andrew Thomas, he looked a lot better than he did
in the preseason, and I think that that was a
huge focus for them, and I think that that's something. Yes,
the Giants lost the game, but coming away from that game,
that offensive line did a lot better than they have
in the past. Yeah, it just shows you unpredictable. The
nfellows Giant Fanger thinking, know, the defense is gonna be fine,
but this offensive line is gonna be a mess, and
(19:19):
it's the exact opposite of what you're expecting in Week one.
You might have foreshadowed this with with a couple of
your previous answers, But what do you think the one
real key matchup is gonna be on Thursday night between
Giants and Washington in terms of how who's gonna determine
who's gonna come out with a winness Gamp is it
the Daniel Jones fumbling issue? Is that the key? I
don't know, I hope not. What is going on I mean, honestly,
(19:41):
I think the key is probably the Giants offensive line
against Washington's D line. That almost feels like too low
hanging of fruit though um to take. Like for me,
Daniel Jones has to figure out ways to clean up
these mistakes. I mean thirty career fumbles now, I think
that was his forty career turnover. This is something like
(20:02):
he's in his third year now, and the Giants focus
so much in the off season of building around him
and making things better for him, and we as I
just talked about, the offensive line played better, but that
was just it's such an inopportune time in the game
for him to fumble to downten. It was just that
would have taken them into the red zone if he
(20:23):
didn't fumble the ball at that point. So it's disappointing.
I think he really really needs to fix that. And
I don't know if it becomes a more of like
a mental thing at this point or what, but that's
something that is kind of concerning. All Right, what do
you have planned on Thursday night for the pregame Coindly,
what do people have to look forward to on your
coverage leading up to that game? All of it all
(20:45):
of the things. Uh, this is so exciting and I'm
not even just blowing smoke right now. It's our first
show back together on the road, and last year, if
you remember all of our Thursday night football broadcast, we're
done at home. I was the only one in studio.
Everyone else was like, you know, at their in their
guest rooms or in their garages or wherever else. We
(21:07):
all legitimately really like each other. So we're so excited
to see each other. And I feel like the show
could probably get off the rails very quickly, um multiple times,
so that is something to look forward to. Speaking of
shows going off the rails, did you enjoy the Manning
cast last night? Did you watch that? You know what?
I was flipping back and forth because it was so good.
(21:27):
I loved it, and I was like, you know what,
I almost need I must need both up at the
same time, though, because it was like I loved the
stories that they were telling, and there was really fun
insight that they were giving about like different plays and
showing like who was off, and then um, I loved
when they started getting into like the number changes and
everything else. And then obviously just like whenever anyone was
(21:49):
ripping on anyone else. It was fun, it was entertaining,
it was different. I liked it a lot. I I
like it as a companion though, because I also have
like a little traditional in at I need to know
what just happened, if they're not talking about it, if
I missed it or something. So I'm someone who needs
like twenty seven screens around me at once, and then
through us mosis, I will learn something. Probably what do
(22:11):
you guys expect that to say? By the way, Thursday,
I should ask you about that. I know, well, I'm
hoping something more than we saw. I think that they're
they're gonna try and bring them along slowly. I guess
they don't want to push it too much. But we
really didn't see a whole lot from him, um, And
I think I don't know if that's if it's a
problem that now it's a short week for him coming
(22:33):
off of this injury. Um, how many how many like
plays he's even gonna be in for. But I think
that it's it's definitely something to monitor. I really hope, though,
we see something more from him for sure, because they
need to be able to run the ball, especially if
in this division, in a Division game, like they're gonna
need that. So I say this for the end, did
you break down into hives having to do fourteen minutes
(22:54):
of NFC East talk without a lot of Eagles talking? There?
Are you? Okay? I got the Eagles in at the
very beginning. I was very impressed. Actually, the way I
know that was another thing like Week one. I have
so many things written down that just like completely shocked
me because I even though yes, I'm from Philadelphia, but
(23:16):
I like to set the bar super low because I
hate being disappointed. So I am just like baseline, They're
gonna lose every game this season, and whenever they win,
I'm like, oh my god, what are they good? Now?
I think that that could be just like a Week
one thing. But I think that Jalen Hurts. He definitely
looked a lot better than I thought he was going
to be. We only saw like four starts from him
(23:39):
last season, though, so it's hard to even judge what
you saw last year because it was only that sample size.
So we'll see. I know you, Hey, I feel like
you're scoring right now because we're talking too much about
the Eagles and you are just like covered in giant
stuff behind you. It's actually funny. One of my best
friends went to college with was it is an eagle
stand and she has told me many times the best
(24:00):
way to go about things to set the expectations as
low as you possibly can so you can't be disappointed.
It's the life of a Philadelphia sports fan, right, don't
be true. I'm so glad I'm not alone. I'm like,
I am very much a cidek. I'm very much the
class is basically empty all the time, so that I
don't know, maybe that's just like a Philadelphia thing. No,
I think it is. Colleen awesome stuff. I really appreciate
(24:22):
the time. This was fun and you can see Colleen
on NFL Game Day kickoff Thursday, six pm. She anchors
the pregame coverage for Giants and the Washington football team
on NFL Network. Colleen Enjoy, We'll see you on Thursday night.
Thanks so much for the time. All right, thank you.
Let's do it again. We thank Colleen Wolf for joining us.
Real fun spot. Check out her coverage again on NFL Network,
previewing the game on Thursday night starting at six p m.
(24:46):
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(25:10):
slash get vaccinated, or talk to your healthcare provider. All right, now,
let's go to the man in charge, the head coach
of the New York Football Giants, Joe Judge Pop Pop.
I had a chance to talk to him. Short week
for your ball club, Uh, coach, Let's go back though,
to Sunday. Obviously the sky is falling after Week one
in the NFL for half the teams in the league.
(25:30):
What were some of the positive things that you got
out of the game that you've tried to reinforce into
your ball club getting ready for tonight. You know, first off,
you can never ride that emotional roller coaster and look
every week in the nation football is about improvement. You
gotta be a better team each week as you go forward.
It's a long season. We have sixteen games remaining. It's
important to keep improving every week and that's what our
focus on. We gotta stay focused on the process of
what takes to be successful, and that ties us back
(25:52):
into tape. We watched and we took an emcess on
what we did, what we call winning football and the
game on Sunday. Things we can build on and take
forward and things we have to eliminate and get off
the apps so we don't eliminate a chance to be successful.
To me, it starts with the offense out fronts. Please
out the offensive line played last week, been working really
hard as a group, making a lot of strides. He
gave us time to go ahead and produce up front,
have time to get the ball up. Daniel facilitated it
nicely as far as getting the ball out on time,
(26:13):
getting the receivers a chance with the passes down the field.
You know, I'd like the way the skill players made
plays in space. So a lot of tough catches, contested catches,
extended runs, Cheft doing good things with the ball in
his hand in the space. These are things we can
take and we can build on a lot of things
we focused in the off season in terms of identifying,
you know, where we can go ahead and get some
production down the field. We saw a lot of that
and really start up from the offensive line having a
good game last week. You know, defensively, there were times
(26:34):
we really show that we could stop the run. Obviously,
there are times we have to improve and make sure
we don't have breakdowns, but there are times we could
play stout up front shut off the run by building
a wall and setting the edge, and that's how we
want to start our mentality of stopping the run, making
another team one dimensional. We gotta do a better job
of getting off the field and sustaining drives. That's there's
no secret to that right there. So there's nothing we
have to work on. We gotta see it carry over
in tonight's game, you know, But there's a lot of
positive last week. We just gotta make sure we take
(26:56):
the things we have to get off the tape and
correct those we've worked all week on, and then obviously
keep doing the things we've done well going forward to
have strengths from a psychological standpoint, right in baseball, you
play every day, uh, basketball and hockey. They got back
to backs. This is almost the NFL's version of a
back to back. Uh, Is it almost good to just
kind of get onto the next and not have a
(27:17):
week of dealing with media and outside influences talking about
what all the things were that were wrong last week
and they just go play here. Yeah. I think in general,
anything that's happening on the outside we can't really go
ahead and pay attention to the truth is really what's
on tape. And we understand systematically and schematically what we're
trying to do. We understand what we've done well, We've
to improve on any important things. Just stick to the
process of getting better as a team. You know, In
(27:39):
terms of being a short week, I mean, look, the
folks is getting your player as physically as fresh as
possible and then letting them turn around mentally and be
as prepared as possible going to the game. You know,
is it good to have a short week turn around?
I think for players sometimes mentality wise, a turn in
the page moving on quick and I having time to
dwell on other things. But to be honest with you,
we don't spend a lot of time dwelling on things
around here. I mean, look, the mood and the tone
of my meetings on Monday when lose, whatever it is is,
(28:00):
are always the same. It's gonna be the same tape
every week in terms of educating our players what we
have to improve on, what we can do to carry forward,
and what our instance for the week is going to
be in terms of sticking to the process. So in
terms of how we handle things internally, we don't ride
the emotional roller coaster up and down. We don't live
in the world of extremes, which can be the National
Football League. And you can't go ahead and let the
outside set the mood for the inside. You know, each
week we come back to work, you know, and that's
(28:21):
our focus. That's our goal to get better each week
and look over the course of the season, we're gonna
keep improving as a team at the end of it.
That's where our goals be the best team we can make.
All right, short week, you got Washington, so at least
it's a familiar foe, a team that you've played twice
a year. We know how good their defense is. Obviously,
last week the Chargers chewed up the last sixty three
of the ball game and closing the game out. But
(28:42):
that being said, this is a really good defense up front.
What do they do so well to create stress on
you as an offense? Well, first off, we anticipate seeing
their absolute best this game. We're not gonna underestivate our opponent.
We're in a full respect for them. But I think
it starts up front with these guys really on the edges.
All right, tell about Chasing. What these guys are big,
long men, They have a lot of power, They have
(29:03):
exceptional first step quickness of getting off the ball. They
have a combination of moves. What's a you know, strong
guy will play through your edge or both through your
chest and really push you forward. Chase is just a
rare combination of you know, size, speed, athleticism, and then
the intensity he plays with. He's really got a relentless
effort about him that you've got to go ahead and
account for. And this guy makes them, you know, plays
you turn on. You said, like, Okay, there's not a
(29:23):
lot of those guys in the world. You know, the
reality is, you know, you get guys early in the
season right now with exceptional rushers last week with Von Miller,
But our guys did a good job in terms of
you know, protecting in the way we emphasize throughout the week.
It's gonna take everything we can to protect against chase
and sweat this week. But you talk about that rush
up front, you know, to combine the defensive tackles and
they're paying and now and as well. They do such
a good job of pushing the pocket speed come off
the edge. They force you into bad decisions and they
(29:45):
make you force a ball where their defensive backs are
waiting to pounce on it and make a play. This
is one of the top turnover teams in the league.
Last year twenty three total sixty interceptions. Lots of interceptions
come from bad decisions by quarterbacks and defensive back sitting
back and aggressively jumping the ball. We gotta make sure
his receiver we don't telegraphed the top of all route.
You have to make good of fishing cuts, you know,
as a quarterback, have to be on time and accurate
with the past. Now we gotta protect up front. We
(30:06):
gotta put everyone together, All eleven have to operate as one.
But you've got to count for everyone on their team.
There's a lot of team speed on their second level.
Their linebackers and defensive back, so you can't undersmate their
breaks on the ball with the pursuit against run game.
Finally we go to the other side of the ball. Uh.
Ryan Fitzpatrick got hurt last week, so he's out. They
put him on I R. Taylor Heineke. Obviously he's shown
some pretty good things in some of the opportunities. They
(30:28):
got a good run game. Mclaurin's a big play threat
on the outside and a former quarterback has turned into
quite a tight end in this NFL. Logan Thomas had
the touchdown last week. Schematically, how do you think they
try to attack you? Well, I think with these guys
that always starts with a run game, and they got
very talented backs and obviously Gibson and a Kissick and
I cannot only just run the ball, but they can
(30:49):
screen threats, check down threats, you know, regular receivers and
the routes. So they can line up in different personnel
groups with having the same people on the field. I
mean that's saying talking about one personnel, two backs, one
tight end, two receivers. They can be in twenty one
also make it eleven at the same time by line
mkissic or gives it out in the slot normal it's mckissic,
but you're looking at that point, you know, one back,
one tight end, three receivers, So in terms of who
they have in the huddle, they can get the different
(31:09):
sets and run different modes of our offense. And you've
gotta be able to defend the run and the past
of those guys in there. They're very explosive. You gotta
tackle well in space, you know, you talk about their
skill group outside. Mclauren's obviously an explosive player, you know,
and off the run game they tie in some of
the screens get in space. There's really an extension of
the run game or the shots down the field. You
gotta count from McLaren number one. The rookie Brown is
really a shot player down the field, and he's got
(31:30):
top speed. He's a long player. He gets going down
the field. We all knew about this guy coming out
in the draft. He's definitely a threat and they're gonna
look to use him not only for the nines you
know over top in the post, but also those deep
comeback routes when you sell out to go ahead and
take advantage of you overplaying the deep ball and you
talked about Logan Thomas again, this guy's really made himself
in one top tight ends in the league. You know,
former quarterback has really you know, evolved his game. You know,
(31:52):
third down right area. He's really their top go to target.
You know where he is and how to use it.
He's just got such a big range of catching the ball,
knows how to use his body like a power forward
and basketball, and you've got to really account for him
and not let him get started early. It's easier said
than done. But you know they've got weapons on all
ends right there. And you talk about Heinekey and this
guy's really that gun slinging game or type of quarterback.
(32:12):
And he goes out there and knows how to extend
plays improvised on his feet. He knows how to really
make profits all right out of loose games and moving around.
He also can run the ball with his feet. So
you always have to count for this guy as a runner.
If you get on discipline in the in your rush
lanes and let him have a lane going forward, he'll
eat it up. Andy'll make you pay if you let
him extend to plays. You gotta cover the receivers as
well as respect him. Pullmeball and then run as well,
so you know they pose a lot of problems. It's
(32:34):
a shame that you know, Fits his injured. You don't
want see any player, especially a guy like Fits, He's
such a respected player in this league, be hurt. At
the same time, we have full respect for Heinekey. He's
a very capable player. You know, he's been very, very
competitive and big games and that's obviously a big game
being Division game for us. Coach bust of Luck tonight
and thanks for joining us as always, Thank you. That's
Giants head coach Joe Judge. Giant fans on September twenty six,
(32:56):
watch the Giants retire Eli Manning's jersey in style. We
are offering an exclusive Sweet package which includes Eli Bobblehead's jerseys,
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Option four. We thank our three guests, Joe Judge, Colleen
Wolf and of course Giants starting left tackle Andrew Thomas
(33:16):
for joining us on this special game preview edition of
the Giant Subtle Podcast. I am John Schmilk and once
again for the Giant Subtle Podcast, which by the Way
includes every episode of our special edition All in n
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(33:41):
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No one went is up. We do a rapid reaction
after each game. You have the All on podcast, the
game preview of other guests sprinkled in throughout the year.
Make sure you check that out on the Giants Huddle podcast.
It's also in the Giants mobilat and of course at
Giants dot com slash podcast. I'm John Schmilk. Thanks you
for being with us. Will you see you next time
(34:01):
on the Giant Turtle. Enjoy the game, everyone,
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