Eli Manning picked apart Seattle’s secondary for 232 yards and three touchdowns and Ahmad Bradshaw added two TDs — all in the opening half — and the Giants routed the Seahawks 41-7 on Sunday.

Coming off its bye, New York (6-2) won its fifth straight game and is among the NFL’s top teams halfway through the season.

The win had a little extra meaning. Five years ago at Qwest Field, the Giants were penalized 14 times — including 11 false starts — in a 24-21 overtime loss. A year later, after the Giants made claims that artificial crowd noise was being piped into the stadium, the Seahawks jumped to a 42-3 lead in another win over New York.

This time, the Giants were called for just two false start penalties and handed Seattle its worst home loss since 2002. It was the Giants biggest road win since a 41-7 win at Washington in 1993.

Manning’s passer rating was a nearly perfect 152.3 in the first half. He finished 21 of 32 for 290 yards and TD passes of 46, 6, and 5 yards. Bradshaw, Brandon Jacobs and D.J. Ware combined for 201 yards rushing, while Hakeem Nicks had six catches for 128 yards.

About the only positive for Seattle was keeping quarterback Charlie Whitehurst upright and in the game after the Giants had knocked out five quarterbacks already this season.

But Whitehurst’s performance, in his first NFL start, should silence those calling for the end of Matt Hasselbeck’s tenure in Seattle. With Hasselbeck out with a concussion, Whitehurst completed 12 of 23 passes for 113 yards and two interceptions.

It didn’t help Whitehurst that two starting offensive linemen were out, along with three-fourths of Seattle’s starting defensive line. And Seattle’s run game never got started against the Giants defense with Marshawn Lynch held to 48 yards on 11 carries, 26 yards coming on one run.

Whitehurst did complete the first regular season pass of his career — for a 3-yard loss — and he threw a 36-yard TD pass to Ben Obomanu early in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks first touchdown since the second quarter against Arizona two weeks ago.

But Whitehurst wasn’t alone in Seattle’s general ineptitude. Offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates called a double pass on third-and-1 in the first quarter that fell incomplete when Whitehurst overthrew tight end Chris Baker by 10 yards.

After Manning hit Nicks on a 46-yard touchdown — a drive kept alive by an illegal contact call against Seattle rookie safety Earl Thomas on third down — Leon Washington fumbled the ensuing kickoff. Jonathan Goff recovered and returned it to the Seattle 4 and Bradshaw piled in on the next play.

Washington’s next kickoff return went for 57 yards and Lynch got Seattle its first first-down on a 6-yard run. But two plays later, Lynch fell on his face before the snap and was called for a false start. Whitehurst was intercepted on the next play on a throw into the end zone that Mike Williams should have caught, but instead was deflected and landed in the hands of Terrell Thomas.

Manning then led the Giants to another score, hitting Steve Smith on a 6-yard TD pass and a 28-0 lead. Smith celebrated by running over and standing next to a “Volume 12″ sign in the end zone and getting a beer shower in the process.

Big Blue is now 2-2 in a division of 2-2 teams, after the Eagles (2-2) today were taken down by Donovan McNabb and his equally mediocre Washington Redskins (2-2) while the Dallas Cowboys (1-2), the pre-season favorites to make it to the Super Bowl this year, finally broke through with a win over their intra-state rival Houston Texans last week. As a matter of fact, after todays’ games, exactly 11 of the league’s 32 teams are sporting 2-2 records.

If that’s not a testament to parity permeating the league, nothing is. More than a third of the teams are sitting with .500 records. Yuck.

The NFL is now a league with a paucity of competent starting quarterbacks and as anyone knows, a team losing it’s starting signal-caller might as well kiss the season goodbye. Injuries are a part of the game but God forbid if a starting quarterback gets hurt. The backups are putrid and most of them couldn’t play competently even if they received all of the practice reps that the starters get.

Did anyone watch Todd Collins of the Bears last night? He came in for the concussed Jay Cutler, who had been treated like a ragdoll by the Giants pass rush. With the Bears down only a touchdown in the third quarter at 10-3, they had the ball on their own two yard line at third and 9. With Todd Collins behind center, instead of trying to make a play to either get a first down or, at the very least, give Bears punter Brad Maynard a little breathing room to kick the ball out of the end zone, Bears coach Lovey Smith didn’t trust his veteran, Collins, to even make the smallest of passes against the raging Giant defense. Instead, the call was for an off-tackle dive that gained exactly what it deserved to gain. Zero yards.

And Collins is a guy with more than ten years experience in the league carrying clipboards on the sidelines of NFL stadiums.

The NFL has now officially become a league of equality. There are no longer any super teams but there are going to be a lot of 9-7 teams at season’s end. I’m not sure if Roger Goodell, the league’s commissioner was shooting for mass mediocrity among the conferences and teams but frankly, he’s got it now.

Every game your favorite team is going to play this year will be that much more crucial to their staying in the race, such as they may be, for a playoff spot. As long as this is a league where few, if any teams will pull away to 10-2 starts, even the Kansas City Chiefs, down in the dumps for so many years, have a chance to make the playoffs. Sure, they are (shockingly) the only undefeated team left in the NFL but nobody, absolutely no one expects their little magic carpet ride to continue much longer.

Like the rest of the league, the Chiefs just aren’t that good.

So, before Tom Coughlin and his coaching staff break down the film of tonight’s game, which included four more lost fumbles by the Giants offense, they will surely look at each other and say, “we still stink but tonight, we stunk less than the Bears.”

If NFL owners are looking at the mess they’ve created on the field so far this year, imagine what the upcoming 18-game schedule is going to mean for the depth of NFL rosters and the quality of play.

Andrews, 6-4½ and 330 pounds, was at the University at Albany yesterday for a workout and signed with the Giants at 1:45 this morning. He later stood with his new teammates during this morning’s jog-thru and will begin practicing next week.

The 27-year-old Andrews drew interest from other teams, but signed with the fierce NFC East rivals of his former team.

“I guess they kind of picked me, but I picked them as well,” Andrews said. “I just like the atmosphere. The guys that I met, I can tell genuine people when I see them. And it’s right up the road in the NFC, same division where I come from and it’s real intense and I like that.

“They were always good games (between the Giants and Eagles). Always a nice little battle down in the trenches. (Eli) Manning was physical. I remember playing against Fred Robbins, we always had a great battle. It was fun. Some of my better games, I would say.”

But Andrews hasn’t participated in one of those battles since 2007. He played only two games the previous two seasons – none in 2009 – due to back problems that required two surgeries. But he has started all 52 regular season and postseason NFL games in which he has played. And Andrews has worked hard to rehabilitate his back and return to optimal condition.

“Our personnel staff has been monitoring Shawn’s progress for awhile now,” general manager Jerry Reese said. “He looks great and had a very good workout for us yesterday. He can play both guard and both tackle positions. We just have to take him slow for the rest of the preseason to get him into game shape. Shawn is very excited and grateful for this opportunity to play for the New York Giants.”

“You have to give the personnel people some credit,” Coach Tom Coughlin said. “They’ve been tracking the guy. You know he’s in excellent shape, starting to work out, very motivated.

“He had the back and some other issues that he had to deal with. But, sensing now that he really is motivated and that he really wants to play. He’s just a pleasant young man to visit with. He does indicate to you the kind of desire that he has to get back in the game.”

Andrews left no doubt that he is eager to get back in the trenches.

“I’ve put myself through various tests, and the only test for football really is getting on the field and just kind of going slow – (a) few plays here, see how the back holds up,” Andrews said. “I’m laying it all on the line. Not that I haven’t before, but this is it. So the Giants are going to get everything from me.”

Coughlin said he hasn’t decided if Andrews will begin working at guard or tackle. Andrews is a lefthander who can play both positions. Neither of the Giants’ starting guards, Chris Snee (knee) or Rich Seubert (hand) will play in tomorrow’s preseason home game vs. Pittsburgh, though neither is considered a long-term injury.

“We’ve got to do a bunch of work there,” Coughlin said when asked about Andrews’ position. “We know that he’s played guard and we’ll see. We’ll work him in.

“I would think he’ll get back (to football form) relatively quick. He’s in good shape. He’s in very good shape.

Andrews sounded as if he could be happy at either guard or tackle.

“I like the ‘right now’ aspect of the physical-ness of playing guard, but at tackle I kind of like the aspect of kind of showing my footwork a little bit – kind of showing off, if you will,” he said. “I guess it’s all physical, but I like both aspects and wherever they want me to be, that’s where I’m going to be.”

Andrews was Philadelphia’s first-round draft choice in 2004, the 16th pick overall. He immediately won the starting right guard job, but suffered a fractured fibula in the season opener against the Giants, ending his season.

Andrews started all 16 games and was voted a Pro Bowl alternate in 2005. He was a Pro Bowler in both 2006 and 2007, when he was universally considered one of the NFL’s finest offensive linemen.

The Giants have four Pro Bowl offensive linemen on their roster: Shaun O’Hara, Chris Snee, David Diehl and now Andrews.

In 2008, Andrews started the first two games of the season, but was then placed on injured reserve with a back injury. He re-injured his back early in training camp last year and again spent the season on injured reserve. The Eagles said he failed a physical in March and terminated his contract, but Andrews seemed to dispute that.

“That’s kind of tricky right there,” Andrews said. “I won’t say that…nah, I didn’t.”

Andrews said he had “a couple partial-disc removals,” the most recent last December. But he is confident his back can withstand the rigors of NFL football.

“The back is feeling pretty good,” Andrews said. “I’ve been working hard. I’ve been going hard — not that I’ve never worked hard in my life, but I said this is my last attempt at it and I’m going to go just all out. I’m selling out right now.”

In Philadelphia, Andrews had a successful if somewhat curtailed career. He accomplished more than many players and could have easily settled into a post-NFL life. But he believes he still has much to accomplish.

“I’m a competitor and I’m trying to follow the footsteps of the great Larry Allen (an 11-time Pro Bowl selection with the Dallas Cowboys). I want to be that good and even better and I think I have a chance to do that. In this conference, it’s competitive and I think I have a good shot to achieve that. So hopefully everything goes well, and it’s back to kicking butt.

“I never set the bar low. If I would set the bar low, I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t have gone through a second surgery and I wouldn’t have come here to work out. I always want to be the best. I want to do better than ‘good enough’ and that’s what I aim to do while I’m a Giant.”

To make room on their roster for Andrews, the Giants waived offensive lineman Cliff Louis.

Post PM Practice – New Meadowlands Stadium

June 15, 2010

Q:  What is your reaction to working here in the new stadium?
A:  It’s good to be here; really good to be here.  We needed to get in here.  It is a beautiful, beautiful stadium.  I have been in the locker rooms, we have been upstairs.  We were in the Commissioner’s Club.  It a gorgeous place and it is one proud organization, we are, to think of this as our home stadium.  So to come in here, to have an opportunity to work on the turf, to check the wind out – it is different from Giants Stadium.  It is a different venue – it did swirl on us here today.  The crowd, the excitement, the energy to talk to our fans, to tell them how much we appreciate them and to say, hey, this is just a reminder of the 12^th Man Principle and how much we need them as we go into the regular season.  But this has been a very good experience to come in. I’m glad we did this on a beautiful, beautiful spring day.  The guys really appreciated it and it gives us a really good end to our first day – our second practice – our first day of our mandatory minicamp.
Q:  How about getting used to where the clocks are, where the replay is – there is so much that you have to get used to.
A: Yeah there us, but we have three preseason games to handle that. So that will be something that we will address as we come in here, for example, and do a two-minute drill, get ourselves oriented to where those type of things are — the 40-second, straight in front of us – very low.  So we would have to experience that. 

Q:  How is Domenik Hixon?
A:  I’m not sure yet – we’ll see.  This turf kind of snagged his foot.  He didn’t get it up out of the turf.  We are hoping that it is not something serious.  I think he will be sore tomorrow.  The extent of it, I’m not sure right now.  Domenik is a tough guy, now.  He has fought his way through some things in the past.  Hopefully this is not something serious.

JUSTIN TUCK

Post PM Practice

June 15, 2010

……..waiting for him to kind of run out of it but he keeps it going all day, all practice.  That is the biggest thing.  I love it …….

Q:  ………practice.

A:  That is not surprising. You know how New York fans are.  They probably have been champing at the bit to see some football action.  So we are excited about it.  We have the best fans in the world – no doubt about it.  I saw a guy with a Philly jersey on and I thought there was going to be a little trouble.  They kind of exiled him.  I thought he was going to get roughed up a little bit.  But it is great to be out here with our fans. We know that our fans love us and we love them, too.
Q:  Is there any way, even in late June, you can tell something about the way the field will play or the wind conditions – about what it is going to be like?
A:  You can tell. Sometimes when you look up at the goal post and one goal post is blowing in and the other one was blowing in, too.  So the wind is going to play a factor. But we like that.  We will be used to it by the time we play in here, so opposing teams are going to have something to deal with – especially come late fall.
Q:  How do you feel about this place – just kind of getting your bearings down?

A:  It is a different.  This is a new field.  So it has not been broken in yet.  It is still kind of soft.  So you have to wear the right cleats out here right now. But as we get out here on it more and get more comfortable in here, I’m sure it is just going to be just like we are making old memories like we did in old Giants Stadium.
Q:  The fans are out here just kind of hootin’ and ‘hollering.  Training camp is not here yet, ……this team and the enthusiasm of the fans seems to be as good as ever. 

A:  I think it is going to be an exciting team.  Coming off of last year and having the disappointment that we had last year – we are definitely champing at the bit to get out here and play good football.  And we didn’t do that all year last year.  And we are used to playing good football.  So that is what we want to get back to and that is what we are working for. 
Q:  It is a bit of a double edged sword.  The fans are very close to the bench.  When things are good, that can be good.  But that can also be bad. 
A:  We have ways of taking care of …………..  But that I don’t worry about.  The only thing I can do to control that is by playing good.

Instead, today’s completion of  rounds two and three likely elicited reactions from fans that were closer in emotion to the more current show known as Glee.

The problem lies in the fact most of the high-profile college stars are usually chosen in the first forty or so picks. After the heavily publicized, All-American-caliber players are off the selection board, the endless stroll to the podium to call out the next couple a hundred or so names can become a mind-numbing experience for most viewers except perhaps, the ultra die-hard draftniks. There may be interesting stories associated with these young pros-to-be but those stories don’t appeal to enough of a prime time audience for four hours.

The most dramatic story lines over these past two nights were something far less satisfying than “who shot J.R.” quality. In football parlance, it was more like “who’ll take Jimmy Clausen” and, “what will happen to Colt McCoy.”

The two star quarterbacks, Clausen from Notre Dame and McCoy from Texas were skipped over in the first round despite putting up huge statistics throughout their acclaimed careers. For many reasons, NFL teams decided to either draft for other positional needs or felt these two quarterbacks were probably not franchise-altering performers.

The one quarterback who was viewed as an immediate impact player was Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford who, despite recent surgery on his throwing shoulder proved to NFL teams in pre-draft workouts that he had healed well and had retained his arm strength and accuracy.

The bigger surprise at the quarterback position, and perhaps the story worthy of primetime television programming was the drafting of Tim Tebow, the University of Florida lefty thrower, by the Denver Broncos, with the 25^th pick of the first round. Tebow, a two-time national champion, had not been rated an NFL-quality talent but had generally been accepted as a great leader and winner at the college level. It was felt right up until the day of the draft by many personnel experts that Tebow’s game wouldn’t translate well to the professional ranks. Scouts had viewed his throwing motion and his lack of accuracy as major drawbacks in evaluating his skills in a league where a split-second delay in delivering a pass invariably leads to a drive-killing interception. It was felt Tebow simply lacked the physical tools to successfully make the transition to the NFL. One wiseguy scribe, noting Tebow’s well-publicized devotion to spiritual and religious pursuits, described his drafting by Denver as the teams’ wish to fill, not a need for a quarterback but for the job of team chaplain. Evidently, Denver’s hierarchy feels differently. We’ll see.

 As it turned out, Clausen, listed on most football scouts’ draft prognostications as a first rounder was finally selected with the 48th pick by the Carolina Panthers, the former home of Jake Delhomme who spent much of his last two years being chased by onrushing defensive linemen and getting smashed to the ground much more than he would have preferred. Unless Panther head coach John Fox does something about the Panthers’ porous offensive line, Clausen, more of a pocket passer than a scrambling quarterback, will find himself running for cover a lot of the time. His years at Notre Dame, also a team with offensive line problems will have given him good practice for his professional experience with Carolina, it appears.

McCoy, a national champion with Texas, had to wait all the way till the 85th pick, by the Cleveland Browns before he could call himself a professional player. Despite his near-legendary production as a four-year starter at Texas, his short stature and average throwing arm turned off NFL teams, but not as turned off as many televisions across America became as the names of insignificant story lines, I mean, college players rolled off the tongue of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Having noticed Mr. Mara walking out of the Giants administrative offices and headed towards his car shortly after his Giants had picked Pierre-Paul with the 15th pick in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft, I asked Mara, as we stood in the parking lot why he was leaving the Giants complex so early, with the first round less than half completed.

“I don’t think we’re making any deals to get players at the bottom of the first round,” he told me. “I’m ready to get home and come back tomorrow for the rest of the draft.”

I wondered  how it felt to have chosen a player many of the so-called experts were describing as either a hit or miss type of athlete, meaning, Pierre-Paul had the potential to either become a huge star or a huge bust.

“We’re really happy about it,” he said. “He was the highest rated player on our board. If you told us before the draft that he’d be available to us at number 15, we’d have been very happy.”

There was a potentially terrible moment for the Giants early in the draft when the Oakland Raiders, that bunch of unpredictable clowns, went against type and chose Rolando Mclain, the 6’3”, 255 pound star linebacker from Alabama. The Giants had been known to have focused their loving eyes on Mclain, given their lack of run-stopping ability last season. 

“I kind of expected Mclain to go off the board that early but we had a big grade on Pierre-Paul so we’re really happy with who we ended up with,” said Mara.

Pierre-Paul is not an experienced football player, having played only one year of high school ball and only one year of Division I football at South Florida, after having bounced around two junior colleges. I wondered if Mara was concerned by the limited exposure on the kids’ resume.

“His lack of experience was one of our concerns but he showed rare talent and all of our scouts felt athletically, he had no limitations but does have a huge ceiling so we thought it was worth the pick.”

I reminded Mara that the Giants last general manager, Ernie Accorsi, used to love making baseball analogies when it came to football. In baseball, the old adage is you never have too much pitching. I told the Giants owner how Accorsi used to tell me, “in football, you never have enough people rushing the passer.”

John laughed loudly and confirmed how Ernie used to tell him the same thing.

“We do have a lot of defensive ends now (Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, Mathias Kiwanuka, Dave Tollefson and now, Pierre-Paul) but they’re all players who will play in the rotation. Three years ago, we won the Super Bowl and had a bunch of defensive ends playing in that rotation, too.”

Pierre-Paul is the only former USF player expected to get drafted in tonight’s first round. He was projected to go as high at No. 8 to the Raiders by some NFL draft analysts. If he is selected No. 24 overall or high, he’ll supplant Dallas Cowboys cornerback Mike Jenkins (25th overall in 2008 draft) as the highest-drafted USF player in school history.

Pierre-Paul’s stock exploded when a video of him doing more than a dozen back-flips became a YouTube hit, drawing more than 500,000 hits and the attention of NFL scouts. The 6-foot-5, 270-pound Pierre-Paul also impressed scouts at the NFL combine with his athleticism.

“They ask me do I feel like I’m ready for the NFL, I say I just feel ready,” Pierre-Paul said at USF’s Pro Day. “Put me on the field and I will produce.”

Q:  Who are you speaking about specifically?

Q:  What is it about him that leads to that confidence based on what you saw last year?  Is it just based on what you saw before the draft with him?

JOHN MARA

January 4, 2010

 Q:  How disappointing is this?

A:  Probably as disappointed as I have ever been in my life with this team, given the expectations that we had this year, given the roster that I thought we had and given the way we started out and given the embarrassment of the last two games.

Q:  When you say ‘disappointed,’ are you disappointed in the effort?

A:  Everything.  I’m disappointed in everything.  I’m unhappy at everybody.  It is just not acceptable to perform like that.  There are 8-8 seasons and there are 8-8 seasons.  This one felt a lot more like 2-14 to me.

Q:  A lot of times guys will say they don’t want to react too much to what occurred late in the season.  But it sounds like you are in not in that mode right now.

A:  Well, I’m less than 24 hours after the end of the season.  So I’m sure I’ll cool down at some point and will try to make intelligent decisions going forward.  And I’ll sit down with the coach and the general manager.  We’ll do what we need to do to improve the team.  But, obviously, I’m not very happy right now.  They know that.

 Q:  Did the last two games, particularly, tell you something? 

A:  We had — even before the last two games, there were at least four other losses where we were just not competitive.  And obviously the last two games were the worst.  But when you have that many games where you get blown out, there is something wrong.  That means that something has to be done. 

Q:  You have been around a lot of losing seasons here.  For you to say this is the most disappointed you have been in a team, what was it?

Q:  Was it a lack of fight, a lack of pride, those kinds of things?

A:  Given the expectations that we had, given the roster that we thought we had coming into the season and we start out 5-0.  And you start thinking about the postseason.  We just did not expect it to end this way, particularly the last two weeks.

A:  Lack of mental and physical toughness and, quite frankly, a lack of effort over the last two weeks.  That is just something that I never expected to see from this group of players.

Q:  What message would you want to tell your fans moving forward?

A:  We are going to do what we need to.  We are not going to leave any stone unturned. 

Q:  When you start evaluating, are you going to start evaluating from the top?

A:  That is always the way we do it.  To answer your question, I’m not pleased with anybody right now.

Q:  Both Tom Coughlin and Jerry Reese said today that, by in large, even the last two games, they did not think the team did not give effort.  Sounds like you don’t agree with that?

A:  Well, let’s just say it was not the effort that I expected. 

Q:  Did you address players?

A:  No, I haven’t.

Q:  I know your dad occasionally did that.   Did you consider doing that?

A:  I really didn’t, no.  I just really don’t think it is my place to do that.  But looking back, it probably couldn’t have hurt.

Q:  It seems like Jerry and Tom only think this team needs some tweeking.  You just said something has to be done.  It sounds like you are thinking a little more along the lines of something dramatic. 

Q:  Any changes to the coaching staff?

A:  Well, I don’t know how you define ‘dramatic.’  Obviously our roster isn’t as good as we thought it was.  So we need to take a look at that.  We are going to have to discuss everything at this point.  I don’t think we can take anything for granted after the way this season ended

A:  The status quo is not acceptable on any level.  I’m not going to get into specific positions or anything like that.  But we need to do something, and I will be expecting them to give me their recommendations on what we need to do.  And ultimately we will approve it or not approve it.

Q:  Are Jerry and Tom safe?

A:  Yes…There will be no change to the head coach or general manager, if that is what you are asking.

A:  Well, that is always what you try to do.
 

Q:  Do you want to kind of settle down a little bit and not let emotion drive you here

Q:  How long are you talking, a couple of days?

A:  I have no idea.  It is going to be awhile.  I don’t know that I will ever get over the last two weeks. 

Q:  But you need to get to the point where you can start making logical decisions?

A:  Yes.

Q:  You have no timeframe for that?

Q:  In Jim Fassel’s last year – after that year you characterized the team a certain way – I forget the exact words. 

A:  No, there is no specific time.

A:  Franchise in trouble.

Q: Franchise in trouble.  Is this a ‘franchise in trouble?’ 

A:  I don’t know that I would put it the same way here.  I think we have a pretty good nucleus of players and a pretty solid organization, notwithstanding our performance over the second half of the season, so I don’t think I would be quite that dramatic.  I think I probably made that statement within that 24-hour period.

Q:  We were very interested in the talks you had with Tom after the ’06 season and what kind of changes he made.  Do you think – do you anticipate that maybe again – speaking with him along those lines again? 

A:  I’ll certainly be sitting down.  I only spoke to him briefly this morning.  But I’m not going to tell him how to coach the team.  He has been doing this a long time and he knows how to do that better than I do.  But I am anxious to hear from both he and Jerry about what we are going to do to fix this.  We spent a lot of money this past offseason in free agency.  We didn’t get quite the results that we anticipated.  Obviously we were not as good as we thought we were.

Q:  Is that why it hurts so much?   Were you kind of blindsided by what happened here? 

A:  Listen, when you perform the way we performed over the second half of the season, it hurts, period, regardless of what you have done prior.  I have been around a long time.  I thought I had seen everything.  But I certainly didn’t see this coming.  And I certainly didn’t see the last two weeks coming.

Q: The fact that the closing of the stadium was one of those weeks, was that especially tough for you to take? 

A:  No question; no question.  That is not the way we wanted to go out in that building.  I felt that loss probably more deeply than any other, particularly the way we were so non-competitive in that game.

Q:  How much stock- if much at all – do you put in former players like Harry Carson or Carl Banks on the radio really questioning heart, character, that kind of thing?

A:  Well, I have my own eyes and ears.  I go to practice.  I’m at the games.  So I can see for myself. 

Q:  When you talk about ‘lack of physicality’ did you notice this all season?  Did you see this coming on?

A:  I think more toward the second half of the season.  I just think that — we always used to pride ourselves on being a tough team both physically and mentally.  And I didn’t see any evidence of that over the second half of the season.

Q:  Do you have any theories on why?

A:  I don’t know why.  I know we had some injuries, but I don’t think we had catastrophic injuries.  There is no excuse for performing the way we performed over basically the last 11 weeks.

Q:  This could be a very unique offseason with the CBA and everything.   There could be an opportunity for a team to kind of break the bank if they really wanted to.   What is your sense of what it is going to be moving forward and how much of a bank do you want to break? 

A:  Well, I think it has been proven that that doesn’t work.  If there are players that we are interested in, we are going to go after them.  But how many times do we have to see evidence of the fact that spending a lot of money on free agency doesn’t necessarily improve your team.  It is a lot of times about chemistry and having the right nucleus and having leadership in the locker room.  We are going to look at the free agency market and we will make decisions if we think we can improve the team. 

Q:  This could also be an opportunity for a team to unload some of the contracts without cap repercussions.

A:  Well, that is true.  But again we are not going to do anything that is going to hurt the product on the field.  If we think a guy can be a contributor, we are going to keep him.

Q:  Coach Coughlin’s contract – he has two more years on the contact.  Is that enough time for him to rebuild what you had here? 

A:  Well, I don’t know.  Two years is a lifetime.  I’m worried about next season right now and I am still trying to recover from this one. 

Q:  Do you question the leadership in that locker room?

A:  I think there was a lack of leadership in the locker room this past season.  I am disappointed that nobody emerged to act like a leader.  I think some guys tried.  I think a lot of guys have that in them. But for whatever reason, it didn’t come out this year. 

Q:  What do you make of this Osi situation?
A:  I don’t make a lot of it.  I can remember being in the locker room with Harry Carson where he was going to retire and lead a rescue mission into Iran to rescue the hostages.  You can’t place too much emphasis on it. Osi is a competitor, and I expect him to be a big part of this team in the future.

Q:  Do you see other guys on the field executing like Eli.

A:  Not enough.

Q:  When you talk about some guys having it in them to be a leader and you didn’t see it, was Eli in that group?

A:  Well, I’m not going to get into criticizing individual players.  It is just not the way I want to …..

Q:  Do you find it ironic that going into the season receivers were the big question mark and they may have been the best part of the team? 

A:  They probably were; they probably were.  That happens a lot in football, though.  You always have to expect the unexpected.  What I didn’t expect was – and probably the biggest area of disappointment – was the lack of pressure on the passer.  We thought that would be our strong suit coming into the season.  For whatever reason we didn’t generate consistent pressure on the quarterback.  And I think that hurt us tremendously this year.

Q:  Is the lack of a defensive identity tougher for you to swallow because of the history of the franchise or does it not matter? 

A:  I don’t think it matters what of side of the ball.  What disappointed me the most was the just the lack of physical and mental toughness.  Even in the game against Carolina, we go down the field – we get the touchdown called back with the penalty.  We fumble the ball and it is like we collapsed. 

Q:  Guys admitted they were demoralized. 

A:  I just don’t understand that.  It is still 0-0.  Just stop them, get off the field and go back down and score.  There were just too many instances where that occurred this year.  And that, to me, comes back to the mental toughness.  And maybe a lot of that is confidence, I don’t know.  But there was just a lack of that this year.

Q:  Regarding the evaluation process – are you waiting for Jerry and Tom to get back to you with their evaluations first or are you going to be a part of it?
A:  Tom is obviously going to talk to his coaches.  He and Jerry will meet.  I will be meeting with them on the procedures.  There will be a lot of discussions over the next couple of weeks.

 Q:  You said the status quo is not acceptable.  If Tom came to you and said, “I can turn this around with these guys,” would you be more inclined to let him do what he wants to do?

A:  You like to let the head coach made the final decision on those things. But that would be a tough one as well.  The status quo, after what we just went through, is just not acceptable.

“I got my first start jitters behind me,” Beatty said today, “and now I can go with the rest of the vets and perform.”

Not to give him any new jitters, but the Giants need him to do that in a big way when he plays right tackle against the Redskins in an NFC East game that will be critical to their postseason aspirations.

Beatty, the 2009 second-round draft choice from Connecticut, will step in for Kareem McKenzie, who sprained the medial collateral ligament in his knee in the 45-38 loss to Philadelphia last Sunday. Tom Coughlin said Monday that the team’s medical staff said McKenzie would be sidelined “a couple weeks.” Although Coughlin pointed out then that McKenzie is traditionally a fast healer, Coughlin said today nothing that has happened since then has changed that prognosis.

So Beatty looks to step up and play well in a big game. He started and played the entire game against Arizona on Oct. 25, which McKenzie missed because of a groin injury, and played the entire second half last week against the Eagles.

“I think I did pretty well,” Beatty said. “I had (right guard) Chris Snee helping me a lot, more than anyone should be in a game. So now I need to make sure that I know what I am doing and I am making calls out there and am participating in the actual call making and things along those lines.”

“He is a good, young football player,” Coughlin said. “We have asked him to play a number of spots. He has played left tackle, he has played tight end, right tackle and has done a good job. He is going to have to do another good job.

Beatty was the 60^th overall selection in this year’s draft and the third player chosen by the Giants, after Hakeem Nicks and Clint Sintim. His head coach at UConn was Randy Edsall, who was on the Coughlin’s staff in Jacksonville from 1995-97.

“We talked some,” Coughlin said. “He highly endorsed him.”

On draft day, the Giants’ decision-makers lauded Beatty’s athleticism and quick feet, attributes they believe will eventually help make him an outstanding left tackle. They have also helped him serve as an extra tight end on numerous occasions. But because McKenzie is the only lineman to miss a start this season, Beatty’s most important assignment has been at right tackle.

“He has worked hard, he has studied,” Coughlin said. “He is a good athlete. We knew that – that is why he is here. He is a very good athlete. There is just an awful lot to learn at this level and that normally is the barrier that guys have to overcome. And he is still working at that.”

Beatty was asked where his most significant improvement has been since the start of the season.

“It’s more of the knowledge of the game, playing with confidence,” he said. “Before, it was blocking people – is this my guy? Second-guessing myself. So now it’s finishing the plays, getting more aggressive. If I have the guy across from me worried about me, then he is not worried about the ball or who is running it. It’s a mind game, so I am more in it.”

Washington’s left defensive end is Phillip Daniels, who has started every game this season without recording a sack. But Beatty also should see plenty of strongside linebacker Brian Orakpo, the rookie who was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week after his four-sack performance in Oakland last week and is tied for the team lead with 11.0 sacks.

“They were a great defense the first time we played them,” Beatty said of the Giants’ 23-17 victory on opening day, when his only action was on special teams. “It’s not going to be the same team we are going up against, so think the best and prepare for the worst. I just have to make sure that I have my footwork, my steps down, I am staying low, I am punching, so whatever twist game they do I can pick it up and am not a step behind. It’s going to be different going away, you have the crowd noise and things along those lines.”

This week and in the game, Beatty will receive help from a strong support system – the Giants’ other offensive linemen. In addition to being highly skilled, it is a close-knit group in which the players watch each other’s back.

“(David) Diehl has been in my ear, I had Kareem make sure that I know what I am doing,” Beatty said. “I have changed my seat in the meeting room, I am now sitting beside him, just to make sure my notes are right and I am actually doing what I need to be doing. I have great support from my teammates and my coaches, they all believe in me and trust that I have the ability, so I just have to go up and show it.”

In the game against the Cardinals, Snee constantly talked to Beatty to make sure the youngster understood his assignments and to help prepare him for what the Cardinals were going to throw at him.

“I have a good understanding of what is going on,” Snee said. “I can remember back to when I was a rookie and Shaun (O’Hara) and Dave kind of helping me out. So it goes with the territory of being a veteran and helping out the young guy.”

Snee was asked if he’ll have to offer help to Beatty as frequently Monday as he did two months ago.

“I don’t know. I’ll do whatever is necessary,” Snee said. “I like for us to be on the same page, so if it’s required, I will. It’s not an inconvenience to me – I’ll just have no voice after the game. It’s something that I am more than willing to do.”

Diehl can understand the challenges Beatty faces. Like Snee, he started every game in his rookie season (as the right guard in 2003). Diehl also started at right tackle in 2004 (he has started all 116 regular and postseason games the Giants have played in his career).

“He is a guy that’s played in some games,” Diehl said. “He knows what it’s going to be like. He knows that game speed. It’s about him putting it together for an entire game. The most important thing that I stress to him is make sure he studies, make sure he is in his playbook, is 100 percent confident on his assignments and the most important thing is studying his opponents and make sure he learns from what he did last week. They are going to watch film and are going to see what happened last week, see if there’s anything they can do to use that against him. I remember as a rookie, they are going to intimidate you, they are going to try and do that stuff. You are in the NFL for a reason, because of the characteristics that you have and the type of player that you are. It’s all about just going out there and relaxing and enjoying the process and playing.

“I can help him watch film and his technique, but when game time comes it’s you as an individual. You have your own number; your name is on the back of your jersey. Obviously, we are all going to rally around him, we are all going to be there to support him, but this is his chance. This is his opportunity to step up and show why he is here.”

*In addition to McKenzie, three other players did not practice today: cornerback Corey Webster (knee), running back Ahmad Bradshaw (ankles/knee) and wide receiver Mario Manningham (illness).

Webster also hurt his knee against the Eagles, though Coughlin said he was “day-to-day.” Asked if Webster may return to the practice field this week, Coughlin said, “I’m hoping.” Webster said this afternoon that he expects to play.

Coughlin did not say who would play cornerback if Webster is sidelined. Aaron Ross, the starting corner last year opposite Webster, has played safety since returning to action last month after missing the first nine games with a hamstring injury. Coughlin didn’t directly answer a question about Ross’ possible return to cornerback.

Bradshaw has seldom practiced early in the week this season because of his ongoing ankle and foot issues.

The only other player on the Giants’ injury list is Eli Manning, who practiced fully and whose foot injury has not caused him to miss any practice or game time in several weeks.

*For the Redskins, right tackle Stephon Heyer (knee) did not practice. Defensive tackles Albert Haynesworth (ankle) and Cornelius Griffin (shoulder), cornerback DeAngelo Hall (knee), safety Kareem Moore (ankle) and fullback Mike Sellers (quad) were limited.

*Defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka has been voted the winner of the ninth annual George Young Good Guy Award by the Giants’ chapter of the Professional Football Writers of America.

The award, named for the late general manager of the Giants, is given annually to honor a Giants player for his consistent and outstanding cooperation with the writers who cover the team on a daily basis. Kiwanuka, in his fourth NFL season, distinguished himself by being constantly available to the media and patiently answering questions in a difficult season for the Giants’ defense.

Kiwanuka is the second member of the Giants’ defensive line to win the award in the last three years. Previous winners of the award were:

2008 – QB Eli Manning

2007 — DE Justin Tuck

2006 — WR Plaxico Burress

2005 — RB Tiki Barber

2004 — QB Kurt Warner

2003 — WR Ike Hilliard

2002 — QB Kerry Collins

2001 — OL Lomas Brown

*A couple of statistical leftovers from the Philadelphia game:

Manning’s career-high 391-yard passing game was the 10^th 300-yard game of his career. That broke a tie with Hall of Famer Y.A. Tittle and moved him into third place on the Giants’ career list, behind only Phil Simms (21) and Kerry Collins (17).

*Jeff Feagles’ three punts increased his NFL-record total to 1,701. He has exactly 300 more punts than the No. 2 man on the NFL’s career list, former Giant Sean Landeta, who retired with 1,401 punts. Landeta will be in Washington on Monday night as the sideline reporter on Westwood One’s national radio broadcast.