Joe Judge laced into his players two hours into a hot, high-paced and efficient 2.5 hour Monday practice, and the Giants' head coach liked his team's response to his urgency.
"They definitely ended with a good intensity to the practice (and) were competing at the end," Judge said. "We gotta get it where we come off a day off and start sharp. That's definitely something we have to work on as a team and improve there."
Monday's practice was impressive to watch, a rapid-fire mix of fundamental drills, conditioning work, and demanding 11-on-11 football. All the while Judge and his coaching staff constantly reminded the players to drink water and stay hydrated.
A number of players left practice due to unknown issues, including strong safety Jabrill Peppers, center Spencer Pulley and guard Shane Lemieux. Judge said he had "a couple guys dealing with some cramps" that he'd need to check on.
Two-and-a-half hours is the maximum practice length allowed under the NFL's and NFLPA's collective bargaining agreement.
Two hours in, coming off a special teams period, Judge said he talked to his team because "we wanted to make sure we established what the emphasis of the rest of practice was, a little bit more move the field competitive period and then working into some two-minute, end of half, end of game situations there.
"You have to build the football conditioning through playing football," Judge said. "We've done a lot of work with our guys with post-practice conditioning and trying to work through the drills to finish everything and build our endurance, but really it comes with playing down after down with the right intensity and technique, and our guys really did that today to finish practice."
Judge is building the Giants towards Friday night's intrasquad scrimmage at MetLife Stadium, which the coach is using to mimic teams' typical all-hands-on-deck third preseason game.
The end of Monday's practice was important because it pitted full first and second-team offensive and defensive units against each other in full drives _ and not just in situations _ at live speed without tackling.
"We value the opportunities in camp like today when you can work on sustained drives," Judge said.
Daniel Jones underthrew a few different receivers, including David Sills V in 11-on-11 and Saquon Barkley in 1-on-1s, continuing the young quarterback's so-so start to camp. Jones also threw what should have been a red zone interception that rookie corner Darnay Holmes jumped but dropped.
But Jones also flashed some play making, with nice deep throws to tight end Evan Engram and wideout Golden Tate.
Engram showed his dynamic ability downfield and made some good blocks but also dropped a catchable deep Jones ball over the top.
Defensive tackle RJ McIntosh did even more conditioning than normal for these intense practices, running back and forth across the field on two different occasions on his own while drills were ongoing.
