Giants can attribute wins to good health
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – David Diehl was a rookie in 2003 and the season was winding down. Two of his fellow offensive linemen were on injured reserve. In all, seven offensive starters were out with major injuries.
“I looked over while I was stretching and I saw a guy, I didn’t even know who he was. I thought it was ‘Suit Up a Fan’ day,” Diehl said. “For my rookie year and last year, it felt like a rotation at times.”
The Giants have dodged the injury bug that decimated them the past two NFL seasons, and perhaps it’s no coincidence that they head into Sunday’s game atop the NFC East.
A stark way to portray the role reversals of the Giants and their hosts, the Philadelphia Eagles, is to look at the injured reserve lists of the two teams.
The Giants placed Will Peterson on IR on Wednesday, the first starter they have lost for the season (Barrett Green never started a game before being lost for the season). By contrast, five Eagles starters on offense alone are done for the year, including quarterback Donovan McNabb and running back Brian Westbrook.
None of the Giants’ 11 offensive starters this season has missed a game because of injury.
Tom Coughlin was a firebrand when he took the Giants’ coaching job 23 months ago, talking tough about winning the war on injuries. Once he lost three-quarters of his starting defensive line, Coughlin decided to use his analytical skills.
The results of his unscientific study – talking to fellow coaches and having his assistants speak to fellow NFL assistants – produced a lighter training camp schedule, one with far fewer two-a-days and numerous evening workouts. On the day after a win, Coughlin has allowed an off-day. Before, players usually would watch film and conduct jog-throughs in helmets and jerseys to correct mistakes from the day before.
“To be in this position, to be in the lead in our division and have the majority of our guys practicing,” Coughlin said, “it’s a good sign. … We play hard and we’ve been fortunate.”
Fortune is surely the biggest reason, and the players know it. “There’s no way to tell, and one or two days off has nothing to do with it,” Will Allen said.
But Coughlin’s less stringent attitude also has helped. Antonio Pierce, who has done everything asked of him, offered to suit up for Wednesday’s practice despite a bruised leg. “Coach gave me a free pass for the day,” Pierce said. “It was nice of him.”
Winning might have something to do with that. Without a major injury to a star player – Michael Strahan’s season-ending injury in Week 8 last season was as big a reason for the team’s second-half slide as any – the Giants have players such as Strahan and Pierce on defense and Eli Manning and Tiki Barber on offense leading by example.
Diehl, who has started all 44 games since he was drafted, sees an offensive line getting comfortable with one another.
“The ability to stick together, to practice with each other and play with each other since the off-season is enormous,” he said. “That’s how you become a great offensive line and a great offense: You get that cohesiveness from being together. If you’re just learning about the guy next to you midway through the season, it’s hard to mesh.”