{"id":967346,"date":"2026-08-08T06:15:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/967346\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:15:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:15:25","slug":"ny-giants-training-camp-practice-no-9-winners-losers-and-a-fun-finish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/967346\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Giants training camp, practice No. 9: Winners, losers, and a fun finish"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. \u2014 On Monday, New York Giants coach John Harbaugh said this second week in West Virginia was \u201cthe big week of camp<\/a>.\u201d After going through four grueling padded practices in five days, does Harbaugh think the Giants got out of the week what he hoped they would?<\/p>\n

\u201cI do,\u201d Harbaugh told Big Blue View. \u201cOne more day. I want to finish strong. I told the guys at the beginning of the week that you\u2019re going to look back after Saturday\u2019s practice and you\u2019re going to see how far you\u2019ve come, how much better you are, how much different you are as a team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hopeful that they\u2019ll feel that way after tomorrow\u2019s practice. I think they will.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Giants will practice from 10 a.m. ET to 12:30 p.m., then will depart West Virginia to return to East Rutherford, N.J. The team will have Sunday off, but will return to practice at Quest Diagnostics Training Center on Monday.<\/p>\n

Abdul Carter \u2014 The second-year edge defender is going to be a problem if he continues to play like he did on Friday, and like he has throughout most of camp. Carter had a sack and a pressure early in practice against Andrew Thomas. He also helped blow up a run play for a loss of yardage while working against right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor.<\/p>\n

The run defense \u2014 This is a Harbaugh team. The Giants tried, and tried, and tried some more to run the ball on Friday. The defense \u2014 first, second, and third units \u2014 was having none of that. The offense has had difficulty finding running lanes throughout training camp, a good sign for a defense that has been a sieve against the run in recent seasons.<\/p>\n

Why is the defense defending the run so well?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just because we want to,\u201d said rookie linebacker Arvell Reese. \u201cWe\u2019ve all got the ability to do it, it\u2019s just a want to do it. Getting downhill, you\u2019ve got to want to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The passing offense \u2014 For as much trouble as the offense had running the ball, the passing attack was humming. I do not chart quarterback stats, and did miss a handful of Jameis Winston reps. The passing attack, though, was in good rhythm all afternoon.<\/p>\n

Jaxson Dart had two incompletions in his first three throws. After that, I can find only one incompletion by Dart and one by Jameis Winston in my play-by-play chart.<\/p>\n

Harbaugh was pleased with the poise Dart showed against a defense that brought heavy pressure with a lot of exotic blitzes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say so. He did. I mean, and he made some good throws. He got us in some good plays,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cAll three quarterbacks got to some plays versus pressure, which was, that\u2019s great. It\u2019s good to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaiah Likely, Dalen Cambre, Darnell Mooney, and Calvin Austin all had busy days.<\/p>\n

Cambre had a highlight catch when he caught a hitch route and spun away from cornerback Colton Hood.<\/p>\n

Austin put his quickness on display during 1-on-1 drills. These favor the receiver, but Austin easily got open against both Hood and Paulson Adebo. Unfortunately, he dropped a short in-cut after beating Adebo.<\/p>\n

Odell Beckham Jr. \u2014 Even when he has a quiet day, he still gets love from the fans.<\/p>\n

Both placekickers \u2014 If memory serves correctly, Friday was the first time Ben Sauls and Dominic Zvada kicked on the same day. Sauls went 6 of 7 with makes of 50, 51 and 55 yards. His only miss came from 45 yards after a high snap from long-snapper Ben Mann. Zvada went 6 of 7 with makes from 48 and 51 yards, but a miss wide right from 55 yards.<\/p>\n

Brandon Allen \u2014 The third-string quarterback had six incompletions, by my count, and got intercepted by linebacker Zaire Barnes.<\/p>\n

Ryan Schernecke \u2014 The undrafted free agent right tackle committed one of the offense\u2019s two false starts on the day, and got yanked from the lineup for doing so.<\/p>\n

\u2018Let us finish, coach\u2019<\/p>\n

The Giants did an interesting full-field drill starting at the offense\u2019s 1-yard line to end the practice. This was a long session that ended up lasting 14 plays, interrupted by a water break. That is the longest stretch the first units have been on the field in camp, and the only time in two weeks I have seen action interrupted for a water break. There was, of course, some rotation of players during the session.<\/p>\n

The most interesting part came when the offense reached the defense\u2019s 3-yard line on its 13th play, which by the script was supposed to be the final one.<\/p>\n

The offense, though, wasn\u2019t having it. They insisted on finishing the drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted it. We wanted it, because Harbs was trying to save us,\u201d said rookie guard Sisi Mauigoa. \u201cHe didn\u2019t want goal-line stuff, but we wanted it. That shows you how tough and what the mentality of the team is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were right there by the goal line. We want to finish. Coach [was] calling the twos in. We\u2019re like, \u2018What the hell\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey lobbied. I wanted it to be done,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cThat was supposed to be the last play before that, and they wanted the last play, so I cracked and gave them that last play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The offense took advantage, with Dart finding Darius Slayton for a touchdown on a rub route.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t going to do it,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cI was going to stand firm because we\u2019re doing some goal line tomorrow and then I did kind of think, wow, they want to do it. Let\u2019s do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. \u2014 On Monday, New York Giants coach John Harbaugh said this second week in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":967347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,15972,6],"class_list":["post-967346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-football","tag-new-york-giants-training-camp","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117058425542749671","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/967347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}