The New York Giants improved to 2-0 this preseason with a lopsided 32-13 victory over the Chicago Bears at MetLife Stadium on Friday night.
Here’s a quick look at three takeaways.
The preseason is what you make of it
And some teams aren’t making much of it. The Bears came to town prepared to go through the motions with their backups. Another reason to reduce the ticket prices to these games. They sat all of their starters.
Meanwhile, the Giants continued to keep Saquon Barkley in a glass case and once again iced Evan Engram. Both are healthy and the team wants to keep them that way until the regular season begins.
But the Giants did play many of their starters for a good portion for the first quarter, so there’s that.
There’s no dogging it in East Rutherford these days
Rookies are expected to go balls-out every play but the Giants’ veterans are amped up as well. There’s a lot of competition for roster spots and playing time as well.
Wide receiver Alonzo Russell saved the Giants from being victimized by a pick-six by racing almost the length of the field to bring down Bears defensive back Clinton Duck, who picked off an Alex Tanney offering at the goal line and was headed for pay dirt until Russell tracked him down.
Rhett Ellison is taking his blocking seriously. T.J. Jones continued to impress with another receiving touchdown and a 43-yard kickoff return. Olsen Pierre and Markus Golden had sacks.
New PI rules are going to cause more problems than they solve
Last week, Giants rookie Corey Ballentine was victimized by a replay challenge that ended in an interference call. It was the right call as we saw Ballentine hold the Jet receiver’s arm.
This week, the Bears challenged that Ballentine impeded their receiver from catching the football. The replay shows Ballentine facing away from the ball and preventing the wideout from coming back to catch the football, which was thrown short. The officials ruled that no flag was warranted.
This is just as bad as having a no-call or a bad call with no replay.
