It was a fourth straight day of training camp practice for the Giants, the third of those four with full pads on a hot, steamy day at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center. Tomorrow is a day off.
• It was a back and forth day with the offense and defense making some splash plays. Take a look at my top performers column for some specifics. It was a little sloppy early with some penalties, and then midway through practice cornerback Eli Apple and tight end Evan Engram mixed it up following a sideline catch. Engram stiff-armed Apple, who jumped up and shoved the tight end, who then threw the ball at Apple, who has been very physical throughout camp. Shortly after the play, head coach Pat Shurmur, not happy with what would have been penalties on both players, called the team together and the nonsense quickly stopped.
• Great speed from running back Jonathan Stewart during red zone drills when he popped a run outside. Safety Landon Collins didn't play his outside leverage quite well enough, and Stewart turned on the after-burners to beat him to the sideline for a touchdown.
• It was an eventful day for tight end Jerell Adams. He was out of position on a red zone play, which would have resulted in an illegal formation if Shurmur didn't tell the offense to re-huddle. On the very next play, Adams beat linebacker Tae Davis outside for a touchdown catch. He caught a nice pass down the seam from Alex Tanney a few plays later, but didn't finish the play by running through to the end zone, to the dismay of the head coach. Davis Webb hit Adams on a nicely executed comeback route in traffic. He capped his practice in the best way possible. To close out the first team's two-minute drill, Adams went up and over the top of Collins on a fade route for a really difficult catch near the sideline that resulted in a touchdown.
• Linebacker Alec Ogletree was vocal on one play, directing his linebackers and nickel cornerback to be in the right position. The result was a stop on third down on an incomplete pass to Beckham in the slot. Ogletree later showed off his athleticism tracking down wide receiver Hunter Sharp in the flat.
• Sharp had a busy day, including a nice jumping catch in front of B.W. Webb on a pass from Eli Manning. It was contested extremely well, but Sharp extended his arms to make the catch.
• Michael Thomas picked up an interception on a throw from Davis Webb that was too far in front of Travis Rudolph. It went off Rudolph's outstretched hands and right to Thomas.
• Big time hit from Romeo Okwara on a pass rush, knocking Rhett Ellison to the ground with a one-handed power rush. There was a nice sack of Davis Webb on an inside rush by Avery Moss.
• The last half of practice featured unscripted plays, designed to give the play-callers and quarterbacks a chance to make their play calls on the fly for nearly 50 plays. The highlight was a very competitive two-minute drill. All three groups started with the ball on their own 39-yard line with 1:30 left on the clock, two timeouts and needing a touchdown to win the game.
• The first group started slow with some short passes on the sideline to Sharp, setting up a 4th and 3. Manning squeezed a pass into Sharp in traffic for the first down. The offense eventually had at 1st and 10 on the 33-yard line with only 15 seconds to go and one timeout. Manning dropped back and fired a perfect strike to Rhett Ellison down the seam between the linebackers, corners and safeties for a 28-yard gain. With nine seconds to go. Manning threw an incomplete pass to wide receiver Russell Shepard. On the next play, he hit Jerell Adams on the aforementioned fade over Landon Collins for the touchdown.
• The second group was a big win for the defense, with a sack by linebacker Lorenzo Carter and then three incomplete passes.
• The third group got started fast with a beautiful long pass away from Kyle Lauletta to Jawill Davis and Lauletta threw the ball away from the safety. Davis made a perfect over-the-shoulder catch. As Davis put the ball on the ground, wide receiver coach Tyke Tolbert came screaming down the sideline to tell Davis to give the ball to the referee so it could be spotted faster as the clocked continued to run. Tolbert let the young wideout know he lost valuable time. Lauletta threw a short pass to move the ball from the seven to inside the five-yard line. Alex Tanney came into the game, threw one incomplete pass, and then two passes short of the goal line to Davis to give the win to the defense. There was a nice play on the final catch by Sean Chandler to keep Davis from turning up field and getting into the end zone.
• There's a day off tomorrow. We'll talk to you on Monday!
