An impressive 41-13 victory over the Chicago Bears in a preseason game Monday night should have been cause for celebration for the New York Giants. Instead, the loss of starting cornerback Terrell Thomas for the season with a torn ACL overshadowed the victory.
Giants defensive captain Justin Tuck said Thomas had been “emerging himself as one of the elite corners in this league.”
“You can just tell his confidence level was tremendous coming into camp. Probably our number one corner,” Tuck said. “He’s going to be missed because you don’t just replace a guy like that as far as his instincts, as far as his athletic ability, as far as his knowledge of how we play the game.”
There were a number of good things that happened for the Giants, all of which end up being secondary to the Thomas injury. Among them:
- Much-improved work by the revamped offensive line, which helped the Giants first-team offense move the ball better than it did in its first preseason game.
- The running of Brandon Jacobs, who had 48 yards on eight carries, including a gorgeous 18-yard touchdown run.
- Excellent special teams work, including: A 73-yard kickoff return by Devin Thomas; A blocked punt by rookie Greg Jones; Tremendous punting by Steve Weatherford and Matt Dodge, and coverage that was equally as good; A 97-yard touchdown run by Da’Rel Scott; A 9-of-11 performance by David Carr that included two touchdown passes.
All of it, though, secondary to the loss of one of the Giants most important defensive players
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