ALBANY – On one of the first plays during the very first practice of training camp, new Giant right tackle Ian Allen jumped offsides, followed by Ron Dayne dropping a swing pass. On the next snap, Dorsey Levens and Kerry Collins mishandled an exchange, leaving the football spinning on the grass.
This is the feared Giants offense?
Soon enough, order was restored. Amani Toomer made a highlight-film, one-handed, over-the-shoulder grab, and Tim Carter beat Kato Serwanga for a long gain. By the time the first session was finished, only the sun-splashed skies at the University at Albany were brighter than the overflowing praise directed at a supposedly lethal Giant offense.
“We better come ready to practice or we’re going to get embarrassed out there,” safety Shaun Williams said. “That’s just the God’s-honest truth. You got guys trying to win on every play. There’s just so much talent out here, you have to come prepared every day or you’ll look bad.”
More than a buzz, a groundswell of positive vibes has hit the Giants, and rarely, if ever, in franchise history has so much breathless anticipation been heaped on their offensive potency.
There were too many summers when defensive players took a look across the line of scrimmage and grimly admitted to themselves there was no way.
This camp, the view is completely different.
“I can honestly say this is one of the first times I’ve ever come to camp and I can say, ‘I expect to go to the Super Bowl and win the Super Bowl’ and actually believe it,” defensive end Michael Strahan said. “I don’t really see why we can’t.”
For so many years, Strahan and his defensive mates could not overcome the deficiencies on the other side of the ball. The shoulder pads went on and the Giant offense went limp. Strahan or Jessie Armstead or Keith Hamilton would try to enliven the full-contact scrimmages, but the trash talk fell on deaf ears. There were too many offensive struggles, too many players unable to compete, lacking the talent or the temperament to put up much of a fight.
It led to some truly embarrassing training-camp mismatches.
“You’d watch a scrimmage, it wasn’t even fun to watch, right?” Williams recalled.
“There were years when defensively we probably could have closed our eyes and they wouldn’t have done anything against us, and we let them know that,” added Strahan. “Now it’s good they can bark back at us and we can bark at them. They didn’t have confidence back then. Now they have confidence and they have talent. That goes a long way.”
There’s loads of evidence to support the unwavering optimism. The Giants averaged 26.9 points in their final 10 games, taking flight as soon as coach Jim Fassel made the move to call the plays himself.
Tiki Barber and Amani Toomer have demonstrated Pro Bowl-caliber play. Jeremy Shockey, already, is one of the league’s most feared pass-catchers. Ike Hilliard was re-signed, and Carter looks ready to emerge after an injury-depleted rookie year.
All involved salute quarterback Kerry Collins’ exceptional arm and steadying influence. Other than the questionable and unproven right side of the offensive line, there aren’t any nagging doubts.
“We’ve always been known as a defensive team, so this is kind of an anomaly,” Toomer said.
“It’s unusual, but it is good,” echoed Strahan. “I’m excited to watch ’em. There’s so many weapons right now that we can’t go wrong, it seems.”