Antrel Rolle sees the offensive and defensive lines coming together and dominating. He sees the secondary making plays and getting contributions from reserves such as Trumaine McBride. He sees Peyton Hillis “making an amazing blasting hit’’ to set the tempo on special teams. With all he sees, Rolle cannot contain his enthusiasm for what awaits the Giants.
“When we’re in sync like that it’s gonna be extremely hard to beat us,’’ Rolle said Tuesday on his weekly WFAN spot. “You got to go in believing, and right now this team is believing, we’re believing we are as good as we think we are. We’re a very, very talented group, and once you put that confidence in that group, man, watch out.’’
Isn’t it remarkable what two victories can do to energize a player and a team? After the mistake-laden 25-14 Week 2 loss to the Cardinals, Rolle said, he spotted several signs he liked, signs that gave him confidence that the season at 0-2 was not lost. Getting early leads to beat the Texans and overwhelm the Redskins affirmed what Rolle was feeling.
“I don’t have a crystal ball or anything like that, but one thing I do pay close attention to is my teammates,’’ Rolle said. “I like to oversee pretty much everything. I know the vibe of this team and how we react to certain things. I can tell when we’re excited, I can tell when we’re a little bit on the edge. I saw a little bit more fight than I’d seen definitely in the previous game [Week 1] in Detroit. We gave that game away ourselves, there wasn’t nothing that the Arizona Cardinals did, not taking any credit away from them, but we gave them everything but a gift basket.’’
Rolle asked Giants coach Tom Coughlin if the team could pipe in music during the early stages of practice the Friday before the Texans game. Coughlin obliged, and the tunes were well-received.
“Just go out there and free your mind of trying to be so perfect and putting so much extra pressure on yourself,’’ Rolle said. “It was something, just a hunch to do, ‘Let’s see the outcome, Coach, if it don’t work, don’t ever do it again.’ It’s been working, so hopefully we have more music planned.’’
Rolle did not need a lengthy discourse to explain what has turned the Giants around.
“Just one word, just: belief,’’ he said. “The mind is a powerful thing. If you go into a game hoping to win, it can go either way, but when you go into a game expecting to win, believing that you will win, believing that you will dominate, this is the outcome that you get. That’s the only thing that’s changed, we haven’t done anything significantly different.’’
Some other tidbits from the interview:
Rolle on the motivation before the Redskins game: “I think he deserved all of the attention he was getting, Kirk Cousins, but that’s all we kept hearing about all week, how good Kirk Cousins was and this, that and the other, and I took that personal. I’m just speaking for myself and I was going out there to prove a point and let him know, yeah, he’s a great quarterback, the guy put up over 70-something points in the previous two weeks before playing us, so obviously he’s been doing something right. They’re not going to just tell us this guy is going to rip us apart like that. That was my mentality going into the game. I think he’s going to be a great quarterback once he gets more opportunity, but it wasn’t going to be that night.’’
Rolle on tight end sensation Larry Donnell: “He’s a very laid-back guy, he’s very quiet, but he loves to go to work, he practices like he plays and I couldn’t be more excited for this guy. He’s a star in my eyes. I love the way he approaches the game. He doesn’t say much, very humble guy, but he goes out there and he means business. More importantly, you can tell Eli [Manning] is very comfortable with him, and I just want to keep having him have continued success.’’
Rolle on Trumaine McBride: “To me he’s the MVP in the backfield right now. Him along with Prince [Amukamara], both of those guys have been playing phenomenal. Trumaine McBride stepped in for us last year, became our most dominant corner we had last year, and with the injury to Walter Thurmond, he stepped into a position he never played and he’s been doing an exceptional job. The job he’s been doing is remarkable, man, he’s been making plays, he’s a scrappy guy, more important he flies around 100 percent each and every down, and you can’t ask for much more.’’
Rolle on the Falcons: “They have a lot of weapons on the offensive side of the ball, you just go down the list, they have ‘em. For a lot of teams, their receiver corps is a huge physical matchup disadvantage, you have Julio Jones, you have Roddy White, you have [Harry] Douglas and [Devin] Hester, who has been playing phenomenal. They have a lot of matchup problems for a lot of teams, but I feel we’re gonna match up extremely well with them. It’s gonna be a tough battle, a which team wants it the most.’’