Giants RB Brandon Jacobs came into work on Wednesday morning determined to take control of a situation and make a difference.
“I said on Wednesday morning that I was going to be that guy to come in and jump on people’s backs when it doesn’t look like they’re working hard and about 40 other guys had the same mentality. It was crazy.”
Crazy or not, it’s worked so far as with two days of preparation in the books for their Sunday matchup against the San Diego Chargers, Jacobs and his teammates said they’ve noticed a definite change in attitude, preparation and attention to detail that might not have always been there during the last three weeks.
“I think yesterday and today were both solid days of practice,” Jacobs said. “Guys had a lot of energy and were flying around and making some plays. I think this will be a good week for us. A lot of guys are willing to step up and go make plays.”
Cornerback Terrell Thomas said it was all a matter of going back to square one after realizing that the habits formed in practice the last three weeks were not getting them anywhere.
“Going into this week, we were like going to revamp everything and treat it like week one,” he said. “We were going to run to the ball and do whatever we need to do to change things around because obviously what we’ve been doing hasn’t been working.”
The changes have been working so far as players have noticed a significant improvement in the little things. “Our attention to details is what’s stood out to me most,” said DE Mathias Kiwanuka. “Everyone is focused and ready to go as you’re doing the little things and trying to get everything right the first time, and that’s important to us in practice.”
Jacobs, who was sporting a T-shirt that was emblazoned with “LEADER” on the front and “FOLLOWER” on the back, agreed that some of the team’s urgency and fun has been lost during the three-game losing streak. But this week, the clouds are slowly dissipating as the Giants are remembering how much fun it is to play football again.
“I see it coming back -- there’s been a lot of laughs, a lot of giggles, and a lot of plays are being made,” he said. “I see a lot of guys who are ready to play football. We have guys running around, flying around, making a lot of noise and everyone has been ‘that guy’ to get on someone else when they’re not doing it right.”
Despite the general consensus that the practice week has been productive, it won’t mean anything unless it transfers over to the playing field on Sunday. And that’s something that is impossible to gauge given the practices are not quite run at game speed.
“You’ll never know,” Thomas allowed. “All you can do is practice good habits. When the ball is in the air, attack it. Turn the ball back on the run, run to the ball – all the fundamentals in practice you just want to keep harping on them and hopefully on Sunday by practicing better during the week it’s going to show on Sunday.”
“It was all pretty easy to correct once we knew what we needed to correct,” added Kiwanuka. “There were a lot of corrections that were made, so we’ll see this Sunday whether everyone really took it to heart.”
