David Diehl was back o💎n the practice field yesterday, feeling more like a coach than a player. His surgically repaired thumb will sideline him for another month, so his focus this week is getting rookie Justin Pugh ready mentally and physically to face the Cowboys in Sunday night’s season-opener in Arlington, Texas.
The first-round p༺ick from Syracuse will start at right♍ tackle for Diehl, an 11-year staple on the Giants offensive line. Pugh, 23, figured to be his heir apparent, but not this soon.
“I’m a mentor now for Justin,” said Diehl, who was limited to conditioning drilꦡls yesterday. “I’m a player-coach currently. I 🌼can go out there and help him with different things, give him different looks and work over alignments; anything to help our guys get ready for Sunday.”
Diehl m༒ight be able to school Pugh on the playbook, but there’s little the veteran can do to properly prepare him for the crowd and the atmosphere of an NFL season-opener on ꦫthe road against an NFC East rival. It’s a long way from playing at Syracuse.
“There’s nothing that’s going to be able to simulate that,” Diehl said. “We’ll have loudspeakers in practice, but during the game he has to have confidence in himself and I think that he will because of the way he works and the way he approaches things. He’s got a professional attitude. He’s a blue-collar guy that works hard. That’s how you play ﷽your best in your own stadium or on the road.”
Pugh looked confident yesterday, but admitted he mꦕight have some anxiety before the game and might even lose his lunch before kickoff. There’s no shame in that. He’s allowed to be nervous as lon▨g as there’s no stage fright.
“Obviously, they’re great players, but you just have to go out there and play,” Pugh said. “You can’t let the hype get to you because at the end of the day football is football and you’ve got to line up against that 🦩guy and go.”
Solid offensive line play has been critical to the Giants winning their last four visits to Cowboys — now AT&T — Stadium. Eli Manning was sacked just twice in those four games. Keeping the heat off the Gꦺiants quarterback will be a priority again Sunday against a Dallas defense that has switched from a 3-4 scheme to a 4-3 under new defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin.
Former outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware, who had 11¹/₂ sacks last seaso🍷n, has been moved to defensive end. Ware figures to line up primarily opposite Giants left tackle Will Beatty. But expect Kiffin to test Pugh with his best pass rusher.
“Yes we believe he’s going to be on our left side,” Beatty said of Ware, who has 13¹/₂ career sacks on Eli Manning. “But they could swit༺ch him over. We know what he can do. We know how he can d🅰estroy a team. We want to make sure we try to prevent that.”
It would be irresponsible foಌr the Cowboys not to target the rookie, though Dallas coach Jason Garrett wasn’t offering any hints🥃 yesterday.
“We have a real healthy respect for everybody 🌌on the Giants, particularly the offensive line,” Garrett said. “We try to look for the best match-ups tꦕhroughout the team.”
Maybe it’s a good thing Pugh is being thrown into the fire. He’s viewing the entire season as a learning experience. The Giants like his work ethic. He has proven hims💯elf coachable and willing to learn from his peers. Those are ♏all good signs. But he’s still a rookie.
“He’s doing a great job of picking things up on the fly and not only understanding our philosophy as an offense, but understanding their defense,” Diehl said. “He’s going to do a great job on Sunday. I have no doubt, just by the way he’s working. We’ve all been a rookie before. Nobody’s going to be perfect. But he’s going to be ✤the type of guy who lea♏rns from his mistakes and moves forward.”
That’s all you can ask.