Things, believe it or not, could have been worse. LT Will Beatty was limping around at halftime. The foot that kept him out for nearly two months last year appeared to be the problem. The Giants dodged a bullet. Beatty just rolled his ankle a bit….X-Rays were negative…

“The foot feels pretty good,” Beatty said. “I just playing on this turf, had the new shoes on and just not really playing out there in the off-season and all of that. Just spatting my foot up. It’s good. ”

The competition at punter between Matt Dodge and Steve Weatherford seems to be bringing the best out in both. They combined for an average of 52 yards per attempt on four punts. Dodge had a 63-yarder and Weatherford boomed a 57-yarder.

WR Domenik Hixon made a big-league grab in the left corner of the end zone on pass from David Carr, who always looks competent when given the chance to play. Hixon is killing it this year thus far. May we add, the Giants need him to..

“Carr did an awesome job. He checked to the play. He got us out of a bad play and got us into a good one,” said Hixon. “It was a great ball. We practiced that. We missed a couple in practice but we hit it in the game tonight.”

The Giants may have found a KR in Devin Thomas, who ripped off a 73-yarder last night…

“Honestly, there were just great holes open on the kickoff return. The 10 guys just made it happen for me. I saw the hole and tried to hit it as hard as I could,” Thomas explained. “Improvement on special teams was an emphasis all week. I think we did a good job all the way around across the board with special teams.”

WR Victor Cruz got reamed by Kevin Gilbride after he ran the wrong the route on an red zone drill. 

A TE caught a pass last night. Daniel Coats scored on a 17-yard strike from David Carr.

Here are some things I will be focusing on in tonight’s affair with the Bears:

Offense

Eli Manning‘s rapport with his receivers…..he has not shown much consistency going back to last year and now he does not have Steve Smith or Kevin Boss to bail him out. After Nicks and Mario the Giants have loads of questions. Domenik Hixon can answer some of those with another strong outing.

TE and FB….is anyone going to emerge from this group? Can’t see it myself, unless rookie Henry Hynoski breaks out…. not wasting anymore time waiting for Travis Beckum to produce…boy, did they miscalculate on this one…

The offensive line….New center David Baas is still acclimating. He and Eli have yet to click. I’m sure it will come, maybe as soon as tonight. LT Will Beatty needs to continue his mean streak. He’ll draw Julius Peppers tonight. No bigger test than that…

Defense

JPP will be hard to miss. The Bears are in for a shock…The interior of the line looks pretty solid with Canty and the young guys Joseph and Austin. Tuck may take it easy after that Achilles scare last week.

The LBs still have show us what they can do. All of them. Goff, Kiwi and Boley are pretty much entrenched as the starters, but we are intrigued by the prospects of three rookies: Mark Herzlich, Greg Jones and Spencer Paysinger.

The secondary is looking better. Need to see if Aaron Ross is ever going to live up to his first-round promise. We like Brian Witherspoon and are beginning to wonder about Tyler Sash and where he fits in. Would love to see the real Kenny Phillips reappear…

ST

With Tynes out, kickoffs can’t really be measured properly. Dodge and Weatherford will come down to the wire. Is anyone ever going to return a kick or punt for big yardage on this team ever again?

Enjoy the game.

Click here for tickets

From Larry Mayer of ChicagoBears.com:

“We won’t play him in the game, but hopefully before long we’ll get him out there,” said coach Lovie Smith. “We’ll just let him rest that knee a little bit.”

Briggs, who has been selected to the last six Pro Bowls, has missed just four games due to injuries in eight seasons with the Bears. Since the 2003 third-round draft pick was elevated to the No. 1 defense four weeks into his rookie season, he has started 121 of 125 games.

Other starters who sat out Thursday’s practice with general soreness included middle linebacker Brian Urlacher and wide receiver Devin Hester. Their status for Monday night’s game is not known.

With Lance Louis back as the starting right guard Thursday after falling ill Wednesday, Roberto Garza moved back to first-team center and Chris Spencer worked as the second-team center.

• Camp breaks with lots of questions still to be answered
• Kiwi knows he’s a lucky guy
• The Book on Eli
• CBA practice rules helping to reduce injuries
• MetLife can expect their stock to drop after naming rights deal  

Things got a little heated when two backups got into a fistfight after a play. CB Michael Coe and WR Duke Calhoun went at it, helmets flying, but it ended quickly.

Tom Coughlin shrugged it off. Apparently he didn’t mind the feistiness:

“Half the time I don’t even see it. I am looking the other way or I am looking at something else. I don’t know who has done something to who. I don’t care for it but as long as it doesn’t go any further. There is always the follow-up with the back and forth but it was a little warm today so they decided to spend some time verbalizing.”

Backup QB Ryan Perrilloux wore a helmet cam in practice yesterday. The purpose? The Giants want to see what he’s seeing and looking at during plays. Coughlin said the picture was dark (“not as clear as I was hoping”) but it would help to see where the young signal-caller’s eyes are…

DE Dave Tollefson plans on taking advantage of the extra playing time he’ll get in Osi Umenyiora’s absence:

“Yeah, are you kidding me? Maybe that’s a big reason, not even maybe, that’s why I came back. I’m comfortable in the system.  I’ve had success in it and I’ve played with these guys. We’ve all played together. We’ve got a good group of guys that have played together.  Yeah I’m ready. Whenever called upon, I am ready.”

WR Ramses Barden, who is still on PUP, says his ankle is feeling better, but does not know when he will return to the field:

“Couldn’t tell you. I definitely don’t think it’s months away. I feel it coming soon. I hesitate to say anything with specifics just because I don’t know. I don’t know how it’s going to respond the more we keep doing things. They might say hey, you’re good to go tomorrow, they might not. The best thing I can do is be on my toes.  I’m excited for it. I’m anxious. I get tired of answering the questions. My peers, my teammates, they’re excited for me to comeback, too.  I want to be a part of the team again as fast as possible and as much they want me.”

DE Jason Pierre-Paul spoke about how Osi’s injury affects him and what his focus is:

“It really doesn’t affect me. I just have to play both sides now. I’m use to it and coach just told me to play more of the right end especially this game so that’s what I have been doing in practice…..When I am out there I just have to be in shape and run to the ball every play. If I run to the ball in practice then I will run to the ball in the game.”

And run to the ball he does….

Practice begins at 1:30. The running backs will be signing autographs afterward.

The Giants will practice at TIMEX today and tomorrow at 1:30pm – the final two practices that will be open to the public. The Giants host the Chicago Bears at NMS
Monday night at 8 on ESPN.

The NFL will hold their supplemental draft Monday. Don’t expect the Giants to get involved. There are only six players to choose from:

Torez Jones DB W Carolina
Caleb King RB Georgia
Keenan Mace DE Limdenwood
Mike McAdoo DE North Carolina
Terrelle Pryor QB Ohio State
Tracy Wilson DB No Illinois

“Eli’s saying he can be in the conversation, [and] I certainly understand where he’s coming from. He’s won a Super Bowl,” Ryan said. “Is he Tom Brady and Peyton? Probably not. But he’s pretty damned good.”