9/3 -9/5 Daily Roundup

Well, the Giants announced their 53-man roster on Saturday. The notable cuts? Curtis DeLoatch, Willie Ponder (let’s hope he doesn’t come back to burn us some day), all the potential third tight ends, Damane Duckett, Quentin Harris, Eric Moore, Adrian Awasom, and Charlie Peprah. Michael Jennings, Kevin Dockery, Jason Bell, Reggie Torbor, and Na’Shan Goddard survived the Turk.
Michael Waxenburg has a really good take on the roster trimming, and Dan Benton blogs that DeLoatch was picked up by the Saints and Peprah by the Packers.
The third year for a highly touted young quarterback is critical, writes John Branch in a very good piece on Eli. Great photo too – a recommended click.
The G-Men are pumping Eli up for this game. Don’t worry about the little brother. He will be fine.
The G-Men are rarin’ to go, writes Mike Garafolo.
Ian O’Connor writes that Colonel Tom has something to prove this year. It’s a point that needed to be made. That’s not to say that he’s on the hot seat, but expectations are high all around, and Colonel Tom is no exception.
Next man up: The Colts, writes Ernie Palladino. The 4-0 preseason is great, Michael Jennings making the roster is great. But here comes the first of 16 challenges. Let’s get it on. Interesting point by Palladino in the article: “The defensive side of the ball presents other problems. Coordinator Tim Lewis will have to decide whether Carlos Emmons is ready to take on the starting job at weakside linebacker after missing almost the whole camp with a pinched nerve. If not, Brandon Short might have to play there, provided his surgically repaired knee cooperates.” Indeed, this is a concern. Emmons at the weakside, LaVar at the strongside… Neither one has seen much action with the first team D. The Colts are not the team for a defense to get its bearings against.
Vinny DiTrani on Justin Tuck and Kiwanuka, the dangerous depth at D-End. “We’re going to be a dangerous foursome,” says Tuck.
Another tremendous analysis from Eric at Big Blue Interactive, this one of the Giants-Pats preseason game. Among his points: “Shockey was clearly very focused and fired up for this game – he had his regular season game face on already (My note: big things expected from Shockey this year. He had a big year last year, and if he’s healthy… watch out); one of the major storylines for the preseason – if you ask me – is how well the second and third-team offensive linemen played; I continued to see Cofield getting mauled on running plays. He did not stick out to me at all (This is a concern).” Read this if you’re a serious fan – good job once again by Eric.
Yeah, yeah, yeah… The obligatory Eli-Peyton sibling rivalry story, via Ralph Vacchiano.
An AP piece on the Giants D vs. the Colts high-octane O. Some good quotes in this one. Here’s one from Osi: “They’ve had the best offense in the league for a number of years. It looks like we’ve improved our defense, but nobody’s talking about completely shutting them down. To be able to contain them would be good.”
Pressure is the key to stopping Peyton, writes Arthur Staple.
Good stuff from Michael David Smith about college quarterbacks being converted into receivers once they reach the pros. Check out this T.J. Houshmandzadeh quote: “But you know how they do with African-American guys. They want to move them to receiver. It’s the truth.” Food for thought. Smith disagrees, saying that “the racist belief that blacks can’t play quarterback is thankfully in our past.” I agree for the most part, but that shouldn’t discount what Houshmandzadeh says.
And here’s an interesting old piece by Smith about the phenomenon of converting quarterbacks into receivers. Basically, his thesis is that QBs have an advantage converting to another position because they’re brought up to read and understand defenses, especially in the passing game.
John Branch on the stiff test that the secondary faces against Peyton. Here’s a good quote from Pierce about what it was like last year: “Last year it was a sprint when the ball was in the air – make sure we got him down after he caught the ball most of the time. Now it’s a little more comfortable. We know our guys are going to actually go up there with the intention of getting the ball and being the more aggressive guys in the secondary. And that’s what you want in a secondary.” Here’s my analysis of the pass defense.
Kevin Dockery was signed as a favor to his agent, kind of like a Mike Piazza thing, but he’s impressed everyone with his work ethic. He’s only 5-8, and that led to his slipping out of the draft, but who knows? Corey Webster certainly likes him: “Oh man, he’ll stick to you like glue,” Webster says.
We’ll see what happens with Sinorice Moss this season. The Newsday headline takes the played out version of the “rolling stone gathers no moss” thing to the extreme: “An Idling Moss Gathers No Reps.”
Corey Webster on Marvin Harrison on Sunday, writes Paul Schwartz. And Sam Madison on Reggie Wayne. Big test for the new and supposedly improved starting corners.

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