**

QB ELI MANNING**

The first-team offense had its most productive outing of the preseason last weekend against the Jets, which included a 14-play, 85-yard touchdown drive that stretched 8:09 in the second quarter. But the offense still isn't there just yet with less than two weeks to go until the games count in Week 1.

So Eli Manning came back to work on Monday and looked sharp, throwing late touchdowns to wide receiver Preston Parker and running back Rashad Jennings.

**>> 5 THINGS WE LEARNED AT PRACTICE**

"I like the ball thrown down the field," said coach Tom Coughlin, who was the Giants' wide receivers coach before getting his first head coaching gig at Boston College in 1991.

"I like taking shots. I like all of those things, and it is one thing to talk about it and another thing to do it."

DE OWA ODIGHIZUWA

As the regular season gets closer and closer, rookie defensive end Owa Odighizuwa keeps flashing more and more, both in practice and in the preseason games.

Monday was his turn in the former and he showed the explosiveness the Giants will look to develop while fellow defensive end Robert Ayers Jr. is out with an ankle injury.

**>> TAKEAWAYS FROM MEDIA HOUR**

"[Owa] has done a good job to this point in time and we are obviously thinking more and more about how we might be able to utilize him to a further extent," Coughlin said. "So he is a young man that we have high expectations for.

"He has had a chance to practice and he has had a chance to learn more in the system and look at himself on tape and his [defensive line] coach [Robert Nunn] has been able to make the corrections with him. Again, that cumulative effect is what you are trying to accomplish in professional football even throughout the course of the entire season, so he definitely has improved --- there is still, of course, a lot of work to be done but he has improved."

WR PRESTON PARKER

As mentioned above, Parker caught a touchdown in Monday's practice while hauling in a handful of other passes earlier in the day, both from Manning and backup Ryan Nassib.

As Parker looks to make the 53-man roster, which is set on Saturday after first being reduced tomorrow to 75, he has two receptions for 19 yards in three preseason games.