Ben McAdoo wants Giants to show defiance against the Broncos
Giants head coach Ben McAdoo walks onto the field before a game against the Los Angeles Chargers at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Oct. 8, 2017. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Giants’ receiving corps is decimated, they have six players listed as out this week, one of their best defensive backs has been suspended and they face a prime-time road game against the formidable Denver Broncos on Sunday.
Given all that, what has coach Ben McAdoo’s message been to his team?
Defiance.
“We have a great opportunity,” he said Friday. “There is nobody giving us a chance in hell to go win this ballgame. People don’t think we can score a point without 13 [Odell Beckham Jr.]. They think our defense has lost its stinger, special teams isn’t important in the whole locker room.
“So we’re going to find out what we’re made out of on a big stage, and I think we have a good football team . . . I believe in the guys in the locker room.”
One guy not currently in the room is Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. McAdoo said he will review the cornerback’s “indefinite” suspension “at the beginning of next week.”
For now, DRC is out for “violating team rules,” a punishment that took effect Wednesday when he left the facility after learning he would be benched against the Broncos. “There was a lot that went into it,” McAdoo said. “We like to handle things in-house on a case-by-case basis and not broadcast it.”
On Friday morning, McAdoo said he had not yet addressed the situation with the team, citing the “timing of matters.” By the afternoon, defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul said McAdoo “addressed it, but I’m pretty sure DRC and him will work it out.”
Asked if he has a sense of how things will play out, Pierre-Paul said, “As far as I know, he’ll be back next week.”
On Tuesday, McAdoo decided to bench Rodgers-Cromartie after he left the field in the second half against the Chargers. On Friday, McAdoo said he had no intention of sharing that plan with the public until Sunday. When Rodgers-Cromartie left the team Wednesday and was suspended, the Giants had to address it.
As difficult as the situation at wide receiver has become, the team has not reached out to former Giant Victor Cruz, whom the Bears cut before the start of the season.
“I’ve been literally thinking to myself of reasons why they wouldn’t and I can’t think of any,” Cruz said on his Uninterrupted podcast, “The Victor Cruz Show.”
Cruz, who will turn 31 on Nov. 11, reached out to the Giants through his agent after the four receivers left Sunday’s game with injuries.
Instead, the Giants decided to fill their void by bringing back Tavarres King and promoting Travis Rudolph and Ed Eagan from the practice squad.
Notes & quotes: S Landon Collins (ankle) is questionable. LB Jonathan Casillas (neck), DE Romeo Okwara (knee), RB Paul Perkins (ribs), C Weston Richburg (concussion), WR Sterling Shepard (ankle) and DE Olivier Vernon (ankle) are out . . . Offensive line coach Mike Solari on the challenge of facing Denver LB Von Miller: “Unbelievable, unbelievable. He’s one of the best. It’s exciting to be able to play against him; it’s exciting to coach and prepare against him. He’s dynamic . . . He’s got it all. It’s awesome. He’s special. It’s fun to watch.”
With Tom Rock
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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