Giants story lines

BY TOM ROCK

tom.rock@newsday.com

Rolle: 'Skins not better

The Giants lost to the Redskins in the opener on Sunday, a game in which safety Antrel Rolle said the defense did not play with "urgency." But, he said, it was not a case of the better team winning.

"We, as a team and as an organization, we know that the Washington Redskins [are] not a better team than us," Rolle said Tuesday in his weekly radio spot on WFAN. "We know that hands down. If we played them 100 times, they might win five."

Rolle added when the teams play again in December, it will be one of the 95 times and not one of the five.

"We'll definitely prove that the next time around," he said. "We will prove that. And we will get after Rex [Grossman]. He's going to feel the Giants coming next time around."

Phillips in the box

Last week, defensive coordinator Perry Fewell said he didn't see the kind of leaps he was hoping to see from safety Kenny Phillips during the preseason. The second year after knee surgery, Fewell had said he was hoping to have the dynamic player the Giants thought they drafted in 2008. On Sunday, perhaps he got his first glimpse of that player.

Phillips had a team-high 10 tackles and two pass breakups -- one on a hit that dislodged the ball from Anthony Armstrong and another to deflect a deep pass intended for Armstrong. But the biggest change may have been the time Phillips spent at the line of scrimmage.

"Last year they were protecting me from my injury, they didn't want me to get banged up. This year I'm taking on a bigger role."

Beckum hamstrungTom Coughlin grimaced when asked if TE Travis Beckum will be able to practice this week. "I would hope so, but I don't have the answer for that," he said on Monday. Neither did Beckum, whose hamstrings tightened on him during Friday's practice causing him to miss the game on Sunday. Beckum said that he's had issues with his hamstrings that haven't gone away since he was a senior at Wisconsin. He said he suspects that it stems from compensating for another muscle, but he has no other soreness and doesn't know which muscle that might be.

"I know the coaches want to get me back," Beckum said, "but when you sit down and think about the best way to heal a hamstring, it's rest. It's one of those injuries that you don't want to keep trying to hurry back from."

Coughlin said one of the reasons the Giants' offense was ineffective on Sunday was because Beckum was not available after having practiced all week.