Keep cool, gang. No Michael Strahan, still. But at least Tom Coughlin was happy with Justin Tuck, who came up with four tackles, a sack, and a hurry in the first half against the Jets.

Tuck isn’t Strahan yet, but he’s a very athletic kid who worked well inside and out in a rotation last year. If Strahan doesn’t get back—I still believe he’ll be in in time for the Sept. 9 opener—the job at LDE will probably fall to Tuck. He’s learned quite a lot his first two seasons, so there’s a good possibility the sky won’t fall in if Strahan ultimately decides to pack it in.

Which I don’t think is happening.

Which means Strahan and Tuck would rotate.

Which would be fine.

There was one piece of sad news from Coughlin’s follow-up conference. E.J. Underwood, a good-looking cornerback, will have surgery on a fractured jaw incurred on the play where the Giants were awarded a safety. That’s a serious deal, since you can’t really have contact until the jaw heals. Ask former Giants quarterback Kerry Collins, who was out a month after Bill Romanowski broke his jaw in the 1997 preseason. And his job didn’t involve tackling.

Looks like IR for Underwood. Tough break. He was having a good camp.

As for starting weakside linebacker Kawika Mitchell’s strained groin, it looks like he’ll miss the preseason finale in New England, but could return in time for Dallas.

Coughlin also said don’t expect any kicker tryouts this week, even though Lawrence Tynes and Josh Huston combined to miss three of four attempts. He’s going to keep working with both of them, and said that Tynes’ second miss from 43 yards was the result of a bad snap.

If anyone’s job is in immediate danger, then, it’s third-round pick Jay Alford’s short-snapping job. Coughlin said he had other options there, such as Shaun O’Hara and Grey Ruegamer. Zak DeOssie, the team’s current punt-snapper, did not appear to be an option.

Ciao for now.

Hey, gang. They just taught me to post audio on my blog, so I’m going to try to lay a little Justin Tuck on you from last night. He’s talking about Michael Stahan potentially returning in the next few days.

Download:

Well, the Giants do have plenty to work on, especially shutting down those big plays. Kellen Clemens hit the second defense with a 34-yarder to the 1 to go along with Chad Pennington’s 79-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the game.

That said, there were a few positives. Eli Manning looked good, and the offensive line didn’t let the Jets’ starting defensive front so much as breathe on him. If Manning gets the time like that to set up consistently, he’s bound for a good season. But let’s not get too excited. Since these teams are going to meet again Oct. 7, Eric Mangini didn’t exactly empty his bag of defensive tricks. I’m sure things will be different when they play for real.

I’m also starting to feel bad for Justin Tuck. If Michael Strahan gets back in due time, Tuck will simply be part of a rotation, and that would be a shame. He showed a real good pass rush tonight and played the run well. With a little experience over there, he could quickly turn into a mainstay. Very athletic.

The defensive backups basically stunk on ice, though. Couldn’t stop the run or the pass. And forget about kickers Lawrence Tynes and Josh Huston. They both hurt their causes with three misses in four attempts, and now Tom Coughlin will be contemplating bringing in some outside help. Don’t be surprised if we find out this week that they both sealed their unemployment with last night’s performance.

That’s about it. See ya tomorrow.

Ciao for now.

Lawrence Tynes finally got off the sneid and hit a 40-yard field goal on his third attempt. But you still have to keep Josh Huston in the lead in this kicker competition. Not only did he hit a longer field goal last week in Baltimore, but he sailed one of his kickoffs out of the end zone tonight.

Had to love the sequence Justin Tuck put together early in the first quarter. On successive plays, he made tackles on running back Leon Washington twice, and then ran around Jacob Bender, the departed Pete Kendall’s replacement at left guard. Actually made the converted tackle look a little bit sick.

Eli Manning isn’t having a horrible game, save for a couple of near interceptions by first-round corner Darrelle Revis. He’s spreading the ball around nicely, looked good running two no-huddle series, and threw a fade pass to Anthony Mix that Mix hauled in nicely near the end zone sideline to go ahead in the closing moments of the half.

Any thoughts, feel free to share. Things are going to get busy now, so I’ll see you after the game.

Oh, yeah. Weakside linebacker Kawika Mitchell came out of the game in the second quarter with a groin pull.

Ciao for now.

What you saw on that first pass from Chad Pennington? That 79-yard touchdown pass between McQuarters and Butler? Expect to see some of that as the aggressive schemes of Steve Spagnuolo start to develop. If the pass rush doesn’t get there, a lot of the corners are going to be left on islands, as McQuarters was, and they’re going to get burned occasionally.

The key is to minimize those plays, and keep them from getting into the end zone.

Lawrence Tynes just left a 43-yard field goal attempt wide left, his second miss of the day. Think he might be playing his way off this roster?

Ciao for now.

Just spoke to somebody in the know about the Michael Strahan situation, and the person said he had no idea about when Strahan will report, if ever.

At this point, the feeling around the Giants is that Strahan may want to report, but he’s looking for a face-saving way to do it. He owes $442,928 in fines, and a healthy slash of that figure would probably do it. The Giants might even be willing to cut the total, the person said. But only if they were sure he’d come back with a good, distraction-free attitude.

My personal prediction was an ETA for Monday so he could get a few snaps in against New England in the preseason finale. But in light of this new info, I’m not so sure anymore.

Any thoughts?

Ciao for now.

Howdy again, gang. Now that we’re nearing the season, I’m hoping to put up some more consistent blogs since the Giants are back at the Meadowlands now.

In the meantime, enjoy Jets-Giants tonight. It’s the last real tuneup for the starters, since they’ll be coming out after about a minute and a half in Thursday’s preseason finale against New England. So take a good look tonight at how running back Brandon Jacobs handles a flocking Jets defense and whether that offensive line can keep Eric Mangini’s pass rush away from Eli Manning.

Figure Mangini’s going to keep a little bit under wraps, however, since these teams play again for real six weeks down the road. For now, just enjoy some real spirited play on both sides. These guys all nonchalant the game beforehand. But when the teams actually get out there, the emotions get going.

We’ll talk later.

Ciao for now.

Well, that’s the end of two-a-days. One more morning practice tomorrow and camp’s over.

It won’t end without some injury news, however. Jared Lorenzen didn’t practice because of the effects of a concussion he sustained after taking a late hit against Baltimore. Amani Toomer sat out with a sprained ankle, and R.W. McQuarters left the field limping.

Jeff Feagles also missed after his back tightened up, leaving the punting duties to Cory Ohnesorge, who will obviously be let go as soon as the Giants don’t need his leg anymore. Ohnesorge may have done himself a great service tonight, however, since he kicked the heck out of the ball. Maybe some other team will take a look and pick him up.

Ohnesorge also held for kickers Lawrence Tynes and Josh Huston, who hit all their field goal attempts.

As for eye-openers in the full-pads practice, Eli Manning found Steve Smith deep against McQuarters for a touchdown, and Plaxico Burress showed some nice feet and sideline awareness by staying inbounds on Manning’s pass in front of Corey Webster. But then Webster dropped an interception later in drills on Manning’s pass to backup tight end Kevin Boss, who was taking first-team work in place of the injured Jeremy Shockey.

Backup defensive end Adrian Awasom batted down an Anthony Wright pass at scrimmage, and Burress had a nice reaching grab of a Manning pass off scout team corner Darren Barnett for a touchdown.

We’re out of here. Leaving Albany in the rear-view mirror for another year. The rest of the guys—media, players, etc.—finish up tomorrow.

Ciao for now.

Just a jog-through, with some light scout team work, so no plays to speak of.

But there were some issues that were discussed, tops among them the status of Michael Strahan. Nobody really knows when, or if, he’s coming in. But his final “decision” should be made in the next couple of days. Assuming he does come back—does anybody really believe this is about retirement?—then Tom Coughlin would prefer he arrive sooner than later. Figure any later than next Monday, when the Giants resume work for the preseason finale next Thursday against New England, and Strahan would put himself in danger of missing Game 1 in Dallas.

Coughlin would like to see him take some snaps against the Patriots. But if he doesn’t, he’ll have to make a judgment call on the first game.

“He certainly has to spend time in camp if he’s going to come back,” Coughlin said. “If and when he comes in, we’ll deal with that. To sit here at this point in time and speculate on what he needs now doesn’t make sense for me.

“The longer he goes, when he comes into camp the decision will have to be made on what it’s going to take to get him ready to play.”

Coughlin said he and GM Jerry Reese haven’t talked about any deadline for Strahan. That’s understandable, since few can argue that the defense isn’t a stronger unit with Strahan holding down the left side.
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Eli Manning attempted to put an end to the back-and-forth he started yesterday with Tiki Barber over Barber’s criticisms of his leadership.

“Nothing’s really changed,” Manning said today. “No one’s had a falling out or questioned anything. What I said, it’s a dead issue for me now. It’s over. I don’t want to make it into a bigger deal, so I’ll end it here.”

He did clarify his statement about hearing that his running back had lost his heart for the game early last year. Barber, in his satellite radio show “The Barber Shop,” blasted Manning for the reference, saying he hadn’t played without heart.

“I was just saying what I read in some articles,” Manning said. “That his heart wasn’t in it.”

Stay tuned tomorrow for another installment in “As the Tiki Turns.”
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Coughlin said Jeremy Shockey’s tight hamstring is still sore. But he’s hoping the tight end can get back for Saturday’s Jets game.

Workload isn’t the issue, though.

“He’s had plenty of work,” Coughlin said. “It’s a medical call. If he can go, he’ll go. If it’s a limited number of plays, it’s a limited number of plays. Now that Plaxico’s out there, you’d like to have everybody out there. But we’ll see.”

Coughlin also said he expects to get WR Sinorice Moss (ankle) back for tomorrow’s morning practice before the players head home from Albany.

Back at you after the evening practice.

Ciao for now.

Last two-a-day session today, morning and night, so will have two sets of notes for you.

Seeing Eli Manning bite back at his former teammate and critic, Tiki Barber was great yesterday. But you know what was even better? Seeing that Dallas Dave has resurfaced after a long offseason hibernation. I’m sure he’ll be chiming in every now and then with some Texas-flavored observations from Cowboysland. He likes to tweak so, like Eli, don’t be afraid to get into it a little.

I’ll be back after morning practice with some tidbits.

Ciao for now.