Justin Tuck yesterday said he wants to get his ailing neck to “cool down” before he tests it again in a game and possibly set himself back.
“You want to try your best to kind of let this thing cool down,” the Giants defensive end said on his weekly WFAN radio spot. “That’s tough because you want to be out there playing, but you try to be smart about it. Your pride and your ego sometimes get in the way and you do some things you maybe shouldn’t have done. But we’re going to try to be smart about this thing and make sure I’m healthy, or as healthy as I can be for the long run.”
Tuck missed the season opener in Washington as well as Sunday’s 31-27 comeback victory over the Cardinals due to lingering stiffness in his neck. It sounds as if he will not rush himself back this Sunday against the Seahawks.
“The thing we don’t want to do is what we did in the Philadelphia game, go out there and have episodes throughout the entire game,” Tuck said. “I really wasn’t a factor in that game and experienced a setback for at least one more week.”
Tuck did not rule himself out for this week.
“We’ll take it to the weekend,” he said. “Hopefully we have no setbacks.”
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Given he hadn’t played in the first three games coming off arthroscopic knee surgery Aug. 19, the Giants penciled in Osi Umenyiora for 25 to 35 plays in his season debut in Arizona. Coach Tom Coughlin said Umenyiora was on the field at defensive end for 39 plays, a heavier than anticipated workload.
“As you can imagine, the game was tight in the fourth quarter, he wanted to go,” Coughlin said. “He wanted to get in there, he was able to lobby out a few more.”
Umenyiora got his first sack of the season in the first quarter, separating Kevin Kolb of the ball for a forced fumble. Umenyiora came up big on the final defensive series, dropping Kolb for a 10-yard sack in the closing minutes.
“Thank God he’s like he is,” Coughlin said, “because that big sack was huge in knocking them back out of there.”
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Center David Baas, forced out in the second half because of a burner, yesterday went for a series of tests on his neck. “Have to wait on that one,” Coughlin said. This is a recurrence of a neck burner Baas previously experienced this season.
If Baas can’t play Sunday against the Seahawks, backup Kevin Boothe gets the call. Boothe started five games last season at left guard and has never started an NFL game at center. One of Boothe’s first plays against the Cardinals resulted in Eli Manning getting sacked and losing a fumble when rookie defensive tackle David Carter beat Boothe with an inside move.
“He’s played in lots of games and done a good job for us,” Coughlin said of Boothe.
Coughlin said he did not believe defensive tackle Rocky Bernard (ribs) was hurt badly.
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What could go unnoticed amid all the late highlights was Aaron Ross‘ 18-yard punt return in the fourth quarter to set up the Giants for their game-winning drive at the Arizona 48-yard line.
“Probably as big a play as any,” Coughlin said. “One of the only punts [Dave] Zastudil didn’t hit the way he wanted to, Aaron recognized that right away, grabbed it and had a nice 18-yard return which gave us excitement and momentum about taking the ball and going in for that last touchdown.”
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The Giants and cornerback Corey Webster figured on fourth-and-2 in the final minute, the Cardinals would look to Larry Fitzgerald and they did, but Kolb’s pass was batted away by Webster, who reached around Fitzgerald for the deflection.
“He’s a big body receiver, so they like to get him inside and let him box you out,” Webster said. “They did that a couple of times. It was fourth down and I owed the team one, so I thought that was a good time to come through and I made a play on the ball.”
Coughlin called it “a very good veteran play, because I think he had been beaten on that route a couple of times during the game.”