New York Giants Official Website

Giants fall to Jets, 10-7
DE Osi Umenyiora leaves game with injury
By Michael Eisen, Giants.com

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AUGUST 23, 2008

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - The Giants have had better nights.

Their first-team offense didn't score a point. The starting defense didn't allow any but lost its lone Pro Bowl player to a knee injury. Oh, and they fell in their annual preseason game to the Jets, 10-7, in Giants Stadium.

Perhaps the most significant event of the evening was the injury suffered by defensive end Osi Umenyiora. He was helped off the field after hurting his left knee with 10:48 remaining in the second quarter. Umenyiora later said his knee locked up on him. X-rays were negative and Umenyiora will undergo an MRI Sunday as part of a more comprehensive evaluation.

On a third-down play, Umenyiora was rushing quarterback Brett Favre when he was pushed by Jets tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson. Umenyiora briefly followed the play, then went down. He did not put weight on his left leg as he was helped off the field by members of the Giants medical staff. After being examined on the bench, Umenyiora hopped to a cart and was driven off the field. He was replaced by Dave Tollefson.

"I am thinking it is going to be okay," coach Tom Coughlin said of Umenyiora, the Giants' sack leader each of the last four seasons. "We won't know until tomorrow what exactly they will have to do, if they have to do anything. We are just going to have to wait and see."

Moments later, responding to another question, Coughlin said, "the doctors told me there was no ligament damage."

The Giants close preseason play Thursday night at home against New England before opening the regular season a week later vs. Washington. Umenyiora's teammates are hopeful he will be ready for the Redskins.

"I hope he's in practice by Monday and that it was just a little tweak," said middle linebacker Antonio Pierce, who missed the Jets game with a sore back. "The regular season is September 4; we're not worried about the fourth preseason game."

A reporter then mentioned that the Giants defense overcame the loss of strongside linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka last year.

"You say 'loss' like he (Umenyiora) is gone," Pierce said. "I don't think he's going anywhere. The game is in 11 days after today so he has 11 days to get better and 11 days to get healthy. Hopefully, he can get healthy in 11 days."

Most of the postgame questions posed to the defensive players concerned Umenyiora.

"He definitely means a lot to this team and anytime a guy like that goes down it kind of hits you right in the throat," said fellow defensive end Justin Tuck. "Hopefully it's nothing that serious and hopefully he can get back here.

"I haven't had a chance to talk to him. He's been in the training room. Hopefully, it's nothing serious and hopefully he won't miss any time."

"You never want to see that," defensive tackle Barry Cofield said. "Especially with a guy like Osi, who's a Pro Bowler and a team leader. But it is part of the game."

Umenyiora's condition is not Coughlin's only concern. The starting offense took almost the entire half to establish any rhythm as the Giants fell to 1-2 this month. The Giants punted on their first four possessions. They finally mounted their only sustained drive of the half after taking possession at their own 13-yard line with 3:09 remaining. They got as far as the Jets' eight-yard line. But on third-and-goal, Eli Manning was sacked for a 16-yard loss by Calvin Pace. Josh Huston then attempted a 42-yard field goal, which hit the right upright and fell to the ground as the half ended in a scoreless tie.

"I didn't think offensively we played very well," Coughlin said. "We came in here knowing full well that it was a half and a half and that it would be a good go for our team as well as the Jets playing their starters for a half. We went ahead and followed through with that plan offensively and we had a chance. We were down there in the tight green zone and didn't come away with any points at all. Anytime you do that you are pretty much going to regret that toward the end of the game." Coughlin later said, "I wasn't very pleased offensively."

Manning played the entire first half and completed 10 of 17 passes for 113 yards, with a long throw of 22 yards to Domenik Hixon.

"(I'm) disappointed we didn't get any points on the board," Manning said. "I don't think we made many mistakes. We just didn't convert on some third and short yardage situations. Missed a pass here, tried to run and didn't get it. It's something we need to work on. When you can't convert those third downs, it is hard to maintain some long drives."

Manning preferred to focus on the positive aspects of the Giants' offensive performance.

"It was good to get a two minute drive at the end of the half," he said. "We drove down there and did pretty well in the two minute offense, but we didn't get any points off of it. I put David Diehl in a bad position by dropping way back on that last pass. It was good we got that drive. We've always been good in the two minute, and you want to have an opportunity in the preseason to go with the no huddle. We had a good scoring opportunity, we just didn't capitalize."

David Carr relieved Manning at the start of the second half and completed both of his passes - but he was sacked four times for 26 yards in losses.

"We didn't get any points," Coughlin said when asked to evaluate Carr. "We had one touchdown and that is really what has to happen - the ball has to get put in the end zone. Again, he was pressured and we didn't respond very well to it, so I am disappointed in that. We work as much and as hard as anybody against a team...our own defense blitzes and has a tremendous pressure package and we work against that all the time, so for me to see us have trouble tonight with the holding up protection-wise doesn't make a whole lot of sense. We are back to work."

Mike Nugent of the Jets broke the scoreless tie by kicking a 24-yard field goal with 5:42 remaining in the third quarter. The Giants took a 7-3 lead on Ahmad Bradshaw's three-yard touchdown run with 13:32 left in the fourth quarter. That capped a 30-yard drive set up by defensive end Renaldo Wynn's interception of a Brett Ratliff pass. But the Jets scored the winning points when Ratliff threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Paul Raymond with 6:08 remaining in the game.

The Giants had two more possessions, but the first ended with rookie Andre' Woodson throwing a fourth-down incompletion and the second concluded when Woodson was intercepted by Drew Coleman with 1:06 remaining.

NOTES

*Favre, the object of so much pregame attention, completed nine of 12 passes for 96 yards. He was sacked once, by Tuck.

"Favre looked good tonight," Tuck said. "He can still play this game at a high level. He made some throws that only he can make. We were fortunate on a couple plays that were called back. He's definitely going to help the Jets this year."

*Chase Blackburn started at middle linebacker for Pierce and had three tackles (two solo).

*Wynn, a 12-year veteran, has two career regular season interceptions, one with Coughlin's 2001 Jacksonville Jaguars and one with the 2005 Washington Redskins.

*For the second game in a row, no Giants tight end caught a pass.

"It is not the way it is intended to be, but obviously we have to improve some there," Coughlin said. "I don't know how well we blocked at that position as well."

*Rookie receive Mario Manningham caught three passes for 41 yards in his debut.

*Kevin Boothe was the right guard for the game's first play because Chris Snee had an equipment issue.

*The Giants' game captains were guards Rich Seubert and Snee, Tuck and Kiwanuka.

*Weakside linebacker Danny Clark left the game with a groin strain and was replaced by Gerris Wilkinson. Safety Craig Dahl (knee) and backup lineman Na'Shan Goddard (concussion) were also injured.

*In addition to Pierce, Giants players who missed the game because of injury included wide receiver Plaxico Burress (ankle), linebacker Jonathan Goff (back), quarterback Anthony Wright (back) and kicker Lawrence Tynes (knee).