Colts may be vulnerable to Giants' running game

Running backs notice other running backs. So when Arian Foster rushed for 231 yards last week, it was hard for anyone in the league not to spot it.

"That opens everybody's eyes," Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw said Thursday. "But for it to be against the team we have this week, I'm sure it opens a lot of the coaches' eyes and the players' eyes to show what we can do.

"We're hungry every game, man," Bradshaw added. "With that happening last week, it just makes us even more hungry."

Foster and the Houston Texans provided the blueprint for beating the Colts in Week 1, running for 251 yards as a team and cruising to a surprising 34-24 victory. Now it's up to the Giants to take those plans and construct their own dominating performance.

After a week in which the Giants struggled at first to get their running game going against the Panthers before clicking in the second half, facing the Colts' battered defense could be just what they need.

Or it could be their worst luck. The Colts also noticed Foster's running, and they've watched the same film the Giants have. They know where their weaknesses were. And they're spending this week correcting them.

Remember last year when the Giants gave up 251 rushing yards to the Cowboys in Week 2? That just happens to be the same number the Texans hung on the Colts. And in 2009, that performance slapped the Giants awake. The following week they held the Bucs to 28 yards on the ground, pointing to the embarrassment of the previous week as inspiration.

"They're going to make corrections from last week to alleviate those problems," Giants tackle David Diehl said. "Just like with anybody in this profession, there's pride on the line. They're saying that they're not going to let this happen two weeks in a row, and for us, we're working to do whatever it takes to control the ball and make sure the run game gets going."

Against the Colts that's especially important. Tom Coughlin said that having a ball-control offense allows teams to play "keepaway" from Peyton Manning. But as Coughlin also pointed out, it doesn't always work. Last year the Colts were 14-2 and went to the Super Bowl. They ranked last in the league in time of possession.

There's reason to believe that the Giants will be able to exploit the Colts on the ground. The linemen and backs gained confidence in the second half against Carolina, working out first-game glitches.

"We did play ourselves into a better form of football," Coughlin said. "And the longer we played, the better we played."

Then there is the Colts' defensive philosophy itself.

"They're a hard-flowing team linebacker-wise," Bradshaw said. "[The Texans] got a lot of cutbacks and they hit the seams pretty well and were able to use Foster's speed to get around the corner."

That sounds like it fits perfectly into Bradshaw's agile strengths. But as Brandon Jacobs pointed out, it doesn't mean the Colts will play that way this week. "You can't take one team lightly because they come in and lose Week One," Jacobs said. "It's the first game of the season. Things like that have happened in the first game of the season every year in this league. You have to go in there and expect something different than what they did last week."

And hope for similar results.