The Sports Xchange

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — It’s only the preseason and the games don’t count toward anything. Still, one of the objectives of all teams is to show marked improvement as the days on the calendar inch closer to the regular-season opener.

For the New York Giants, they have had more than their fair share of instances where they have taken a step forward followed by two steps back. In particular, their new defensive scheme, orchestrated by coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, has seen far more valleys than peaks.

The Giants, currently ranked 15th in the league after allowing opponents an average of 324.3 yards per game, have struggled to maintain any kind of consistency.

In their most recent game, against the Jets, the Giants starting defense not only spotted their stadium neighbors 21 first-half points, the Giants simply couldn’t stop the Jets’ first-team offense.

Gang Green exploited the Giants’ soft run defense on the edges to the tune of 136 yards on 30 carries, including 35 yards on five carries by Chris Ivory on the Jets’ first scoring drive of the game.

“I think we all have a ways to go,” head coach Tom Coughlin said. “I had the feeling they were running the ball and running it with consistency, and they did a good job of that.

“We didn’t make as many stops as we wanted to make, and so from that standpoint, we have work to do,” he added. “There weren’t a lot of points scored, but there was some run yardage out there that you think you could stop.”

“I felt like we kept beating ourselves with leverages; when you have to stay inside, stay inside; when you have outside contain for the run, you stay outside, and we just hurt ourselves,” cornerback Prince Amukamara added.

The defensive performance also included some communication breakdowns and missed assignments, some of which were back-breakers.

One such example came on a second-quarter 24-yard touchdown catch by Jets running back Zac Stacy. On the play, a screen pass, three Giants defenders — linebackers Jameel McClain and Devon Kennard, and safety Jeromy Miles — all went to cover the tight end, which left Stacy wide open to run to daylight.

Run to daylight he did, as safety Brandon Meriweather made a feeble attempt to cut Stacy at the ankles, the running back simply stepping over the safety’s lame tackle attempt.

“Yeah, it was a mistake,” Coughlin said. “Whoever was supposed to be responsible was not there. There was no coverage on the screen.”

All new systems take time to jell, but when a unit has had as many injuries necessitating the shuffling of different guys into the lineup, Coughlin admitted that any chance of building continuity to where a team can add to the foundation previously established the week before becomes a challenge.

“Well you don’t have a lot of continuity when you have a lot of people missing and you have to change, and you have to create it and it takes a little bit of time to do that,” Coughlin said. “Now there’s no excuse; we’ve been practicing long enough but there’s no question that when you’re constantly changing parts, it’s not quite as smooth as you’d like to be.”

The hope for Coughlin and the defense, then, is for the players who do have to miss time to be able to reach back into their memory to where if something comes up that they saw before, they can reach back and recreate the scenario, even though they haven’t physically practiced it.

“Our game is a game of continuously building on the previous week,” Coughlin said. “Over the long haul, you have to build and build and build and allow that what someone experienced two weeks ago if it comes back in a game, and perhaps it’s something new that you can reach back into your memory bank to understand why those things take place.”

With little choice but to keep on plugging away while they wait for injured players such as middle linebacker Jon Beason, defensive ends Robert Ayers and George Selvie, and others to return to action, about all the Giants can do is hope for the best.

“You know it’s preseason and we continue to build, continue to work on what we need to work on and be on the same page as a defense,” said safety Landon Collins, who missed practice and game time with a knee injury before returning this past week. “All we can do as a whole and make sure we go on and dominate the next team we play.”

–The Giants and Jets, who face each other every year in the preseason, will meet again this year in just under 100 days.

Besides the battle of bragging rights, one of the battles that both teams gave a glimpse of in their preseason game is the matchup between future Hall of Fame cornerback Darrelle Revis and dynamic receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

Beckham, who was matched up against Revis on some pass plays, caught his first receptions of the preseason, going five of six for 31 yards to lead the Giants in receptions. The newly crowned Madden cover boy brimmed with excitement and anticipation when asked about seeing Revis again when the Giants host the Jets on Dec. 6.

“I think it’s going to be a very good matchup during the season. He’s one of the best out there,” Beckham said. “I think it’ll be better once we all watch film and we really see how he’s going to play and reach our game plan for a team. It was great to be able to just get out there, get into the offense a little bit, and have fun.”

One of the highlights of the Beckham-Revis matchup was on a free play that came once the Jets had jumped offside. Beckham ran a pattern along the sideline, but got a little too close to being out of bounds.

Revis, who has made an art of using the sideline to his advantage, managed to guide the receiver out of bounds as Beckham came up with one of his signature one-handed receptions that wowed the crowd even though it was ruled incomplete.

“I knew I was close to out of bounds, and I was just trying to make sure that I caught the ball first,” Beckham said of that play.

“By the time I looked down, I couldn’t get my other foot in, but there was another ball down the sideline that I have to make the play; it’s just plays that we need made. We need big plays, and we all have to do it, so on my behalf, it’s just one of those balls that I’ll be thinking about.”

In his short career so far, Beckham has made plenty of cornerbacks look foolish. Last year as a rookie, he got the better of Seattle’s Richard Sherman, who praised the young superstar after their epic battle. Moving forward, Beckham realizes that opposing defensive coordinators are likely to assign their top cornerback to cover him exclusively throughout the game.

“That’s what you play for; you play to go against those guys: Joe Haden, (Richard) Sherman, Pat Pete (Patrick Peterson),” Beckham said. “All those corners who are known for being the best, that’s what you play for; to be able to go against them. So it was definitely a lot of fun, and much respect to (Revis).”

Beckham smiled and shook his head when asked if it meant anything to him to be able to get his first preseason receptions against Revis.

“None of those catches count for anything really, so it doesn’t really matter as much, but it’s still great to be able to come out here and run routes and get open in the game and be able to catch passes,” he said, adding, “There’s still so much we need to improve on that it’s kind of irrelevant.”

–With the Giants searching for that dynamic pass rusher to fill the void left by defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul as he recovers from a July 4 fireworks accident, head coach Tom Coughlin said he has liked what he has seen of third-round pick Owa Odighizuwa.

“He has done a good job to this point in time and we are obviously thinking more and more about how we might be able to utilize him to a further extent, so he is a young man that we have high expectations for,” Coughlin said.

Odighizuwa, who initially missed parts of the spring practices due to knee soreness, has made significant progress since the start of the summer that has Coughlin encouraged.

“Obviously he has had a chance to practice and he has had a chance to learn more in the system and look at himself on tape and his coach has been able to make the corrections with him,” Coughlin said.

“Again, that cumulative effect is what you are trying to accomplish in professional football even throughout the course of the entire season so he definitely has improved — there is still of course a lot of work to be done, but he has improved.”