If you read the New York Giants media’s take on Day 1 of joint practices with the Detroit Lions, most believed New York—at the very least—hung with the gritty Lions.
But the tone out of New Jersey was a little different for Tuesday’s practice. While things certainly remained high-intensity, it certainly sounds like the Lions may have taken the edge back on Day 2.
Let’s take a closer look at observations from Tuesday’s practice by looking around the Giants webosphere and seeing what they had to say. Before we do that, here’s where you can find some of the local Detroit coverage of practice;
And here are some resources from the Giants perspective:
Lions defense rebounds
It was a bit disheartening to hear that the Lions defensive line struggled on Monday against a Giants improved—but still rebuilding—offensive line. However, it sounds like Detroit’s defensive front bounced back in a decent way.
These tweets were corroborated from Ed Valentine’s observations.
“The Giants’ offensive line was a bit leakier today than on Monday, and there weren’t as many big completions,” Valentine wrote.
By no means was it a dominant day from the Lions defensive line, and a few Giants reporters suggested New York starters had the edge during one-on-ones, but it was a step in the right direction.
The Lions still had their troubles with rookie receiver Malik Nabers, but here’s you can see both a loss and a win from rookie cornerback Terrion Arnold, the latter of which resulted in a big scrum and punches thrown by Kerby Joseph and Nabers:
Lions offense has a productive day, particularly on the ground
Justin Rogers of Detroit Football Network called the Lions’ day of offense “quietly efficient,” Essentially, not as many big plays as Monday, but effective nonetheless. That seems to be the general consensus from Giants writers, as well. Take this recap from Nick Falato.
“Ed and I both got to witness the red zone periods and the Giants defense did surrender too many quality plays against Jared Goff, David Montgomery, and Jahmyr Gibbs,” Falato wrote.
Detroit’s running game—which ranked fifth in yardage last year—sounds like it has picked up where it left off.
“The Lions quickly scored in the red zone period and seemed to run the football with ease against the Giants’ first-team defense,” Falato said.
On Monday, Jameson Williams found the end zone at least twice, and coach Dan Campbell was encouraged by his performance.
“We have high standards, but it was good to see, it was definitely good to see,” Campbell said.
Tuesday, he had another nifty play where the Lions got him in space thanks to some pre-snap motion:
Perhaps most importantly, the Lions were able to take care of the ball during all of practice. Per Dan Salomone of Giants.com, the Lions didn’t turn the ball over a single time during team reps of practice.
More kicking struggles
This is not an observation from the Giants’ point of view, but it’s certainly worth including here. Per Colton Pouncy of The Athletic, Jake Bates went just 6-of-9 on Tuesday, although two of those were from 50 yards:
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