Kiwanuka: Probably the biggest injury news of the week was Coughlin’s pronouncement on Monday that Kiwanuka’s ankle injury would linger for the rest of the season.

“Let’s face it – I don’t know that those things ever get cleared up,” he said.

But ‘Nuke (so much of a cooler nickname than Kiwi) had a different take: He admitted that his ankle was still bothering him, but said, “It shouldn’t be all season long.  It’ll probably be a couple more weeks.  But if I can get it under control over the bye week, it should just be an afterthought.”

That’s good, but apparently, ‘Nuke is still battling the effects of his broken fibula from last year.

“After having surgery last year, it’s still going to take some time before it doesn’t swell up after a game,” he said.  “With the recent injury, yeah, it’s going to take some time.  But we have a bye week, so I’m looking forward to getting off it, and hopefully when I get back I shouldn’t have any issues with it.”

This was all a little confusing to me.  Like, how long will the ankle injury take, and how long will the fibula take?  Are their effects related?  And what do we make of the fact that ‘Nuke was completely shut down by Orlando Pace last week?  Is it attributable to ‘Nuke being hobbled, or is it attributable to Orlando Pace being Orlando Pace? 

Let’s just hope he has a good game Sunday and puts our minds at ease.

R.W: ‘Dubs hasn’t practiced all week because he’s still bothered by a calf injury.  But even if he were healthy, Coughlin said on Monday that Hixon has earned the punt returning duties.  R.W. McQuarters, meet Wally Pipp.  (Imagine if that encounter actually occured…)

Two thoughts on this: 1) It’s great that Hixon is returning punts – this moment couldn’t have came too soon.  But why isn’t he returning kicks as well?  For as much as I want to see Ahmad on the field, his kick returns have been pretty bad this year.  Come on, Tom.

And 2) Barring injury, this basically means that R.W. has no role on this team – you have to think Dockery will remain the nickelback.  This closes the book on what has been a pretty eventful Giants career.  Think of the big plays, good and bad, in which R.W. was involved in last year’s playoffs alone:   

The game-clinching pick against Tampa Bay; the huge punt return against Dallas to set up our go-ahead touchdown; the game-clinching pick against Dallas; the interception against Green Bay that he fumbled back to the Packers; and the fumbled punt return against Green Bay that was kicked around and finally recovered by Hixon.

But that’s R-Dubs for you.  Ever since the guy entered the league in the mid-nineties with that awesome name and those even awesomer dreads – which were original back then – he was never good, but he was always noticed. 

Tynes: He was limited in practice on Thursday, so he’ll probably be inactive at least through this Sunday.  The best guess is that he’ll be back the week after the bye.  Oh, and there’s no chance we get rid of Tynes in favor of Carney.  As many writers have pointed out, Coughlin hates carrying an extra kicker on the roster, so if we had any plans to cut Tynes, we would have done so already.  Plus, we just signed the guy to a 5-year, $7 million contract, though I’m not sure how much of that was guaranteed. 

Johnson: Johnson suffered a stinger against the Rams, but was back to practicing in full on Wednesday.  He played well against the Rams, and although Kenny Phillips is obviously breathing down his neck for the starting job, Johnson should still be a solid contributor to this team for the next few years.

Terrell Thomas: The rookie second rounder is back practicing after a preseason hamstring injury.

Kickoff Coverage:

Last year, our kickoff coverage was pretty bad.  According to FootballOutsiders’ advanced stats, we gave away 6 points over the course of the year because of Tynes’ relatively weak kicks and our sub-par coverage team, placing us 26^th in the league.

Thursday night, despite Carney’s strong kickoffs, covering kicks was obviously a problem.  Washington’s started their drives after kickoffs on our 27, 24, 35, the 50, and then on our 33 (this was after Kehl’s 15-yard penalty for going low on the wedge).  On average, the ‘Skins started drives on their 34 yard-line.

This is bad.  The average starting field position for an NFL drive off a normal kickoff is around the 27.5 yard line, meaning that we gave away 32.5 yards of field position during the game.  That’s significant, and this is something that has to improve.

Punt Returns:

Here’s my question, which I’m sure many Giants fans are asking too: Why the hell is R-Dubs still returning punts?  Are you telling me a team with Hixon, Bradshaw, Ross, and Sinorice, can’t get someone more explosive in there?

Last year, our punt return game ranked 22^nd in the league, according to FootballOutsiders’ stats.  Things went from bad to disastrous for ‘Dubs in the postseason, when he relinquished his monopoly on sure-handedness by fumbling twice in the Green Bay game (although his return against Dallas to set up our go-ahead drive was admittedly huge).

Yes, Dubs always catches the ball – I’ll give him that.  But the man is slow and not explosive at all.  Last year was great for the Giants, but if we want to stay on top – and maybe surpass the Cowboys in our own division – Tom and the staff have to constantly look for ways to upgrade this team, even if it means taking a risk that someone will muff a punt.  Please, let’s get a potential game-breaker back there.

Hixon:

Hixon’s back was still bothering him last week, which is why Bradshaw returned kicks.  Bradshaw was accompanied “back deep” with Danny Ware, who would seem to be an upgrade from Droughns as the blocker/second option on kick returns. 

HIxon got some action on the coverage teams, probably because they needed competent bodies.  But evidently the coaching staff thought a healthy Ahmad was better than a semi-injured Hixon for retruns.  Expect Hixon to get that job back once the brass is sure he’s healthy.  Frankly, I don’t know when this will be, but probably pretty soon.

Tynes and Carney:

It looks like Tynes might be out through the Week 4 bye. I’m no huge fan of Tynes, and it was nice that Carney hit that 47-yard field goal, but I still think Tynes is the better option going forward.

Last year, Tynes was 8-8 on field goals 40-yards or longer in the regular season.  Carney was 2-5, not a good sign for a 44-year old.  Of course, Tynes was 5-8 from 30-39 yard field goals, while Carney was 5-6, but it still seems like the 44-year old who struggles with the long ones presents a bigger risk going forward.

Interestingly, Carney’s kickoff length average was more than a yard longer than Tynes’, 62.8 to 61.8.

Well you need a punter and Jeff Feagles is a good one. The Giants gave him a new two year contract, so the kicking situation has been sorted out for 2008.

Here’s the Bergen Record:

Jeff Feagles, maybe the NFL’s best punter ever, and NFC championship hero Lawrence Tynes re-upped.

Punter Jeff Feagles, who turns 42 next month, signed a two-year contract extension Tuesday to return for a 21st season. That came one day after placekicker Lawrence Tynes agreed to a reported five-year, $7 million deal that he is scheduled to sign sometime next week.

Feagles, who also serves as the holder for Tynes’ kicks, became the oldest player to appear in the Super Bowl when he punted in the 17-14 win over the New England Patriots, his first appearance in the big game after two decades in the NFL.

 “I still have some years left in me and I think I proved it this year,” said Feagles, who dropped 25 of his 71 punts inside the opponent’s 20-yard line in 2007. “And I just love being on this team now. I can’t say enough about the organization, either.

 “The decision was really a matter of if the team wanted to sign me back, and they did, and I wanted to play, and then it was just a matter of getting together, working some numbers, and then doing it.”

 Read more here.