Giants plan to vary pass coverages

ALBANY - It's not just new attitude and energy that Perry Fewell has brought to the Giants' defense. It's also a new technique.

That's particularly true for the Giants' cornerbacks, who since the days of Steve Spagnuolo have been utilizing press coverage to their advantage. With big sluggers at the position such as Corey Webster and Terrell Thomas, the Giants were in press coverage about 85 percent of the time last season, according to Thomas' estimate.

How'd that work out? Ask the Eagles' DeSean Jackson, who had three receptions of more than 40 yards against them.

This year, Fewell will have the Giants' secondary mixing things up a little bit more. The Giants always talk about being balanced on offense. Now they'll be striving for more equilibrium on defense as well.

"In the past, we were always playing man, man, man," cornerbacks coach Peter Giunta said Tuesday. "This year, we are going with more of a read the quarterback and see him with the ball and get to the ball."

The big issue is how they will respond to such a change. In particular, how will Webster, who could not get comfortable with the technique when he came into the league in 2005, adjust to going to back to it?

"It's not something we're used to," Thomas said. "Me and Corey both came from institutes [USC and LSU] that were both pretty much press teams. That's how we did it. I heard Corey, when he first got here, they played off and he struggled a lot. But you can see that he's developed over the years, and being a veteran you'll see him come back real strong this year and be able to play press and off."

The key for the players won't be so much what they do with their bodies but how they use their vision. They have to find new cues on when and when not to peek at the quarterback. In press coverage, it's easy to look back at the passer because you are in contact with the receiver. When playing off, the receivers can slip away into space if a corner focuses for too long on the quarterback.

"You have to get your eyes trained," Webster said.

At the same time, the Giants will have more of a chance to force turnovers from their new vantage point. They'll be able to break on passes they otherwise would not have had a shot at.

The Giants see their new techniques as a changeup from their pressing fastball. They won't use it all the time, but they won't press all the time, either. They'll disguise coverages and have a few different looks that they can rely on in the backfield.

"We're not abandoning the press, but we're definitely mixing in a lot more off-coverage techniques," Thomas said. "It gives us more flexibility and I love it. It's bringing out the better athletes in all of us and you're seeing how we can really cover these guys."

That, ultimately, is the key. They may give up more receptions this year because of it, but the trade-off will come in the passing yardage that the Giants hope to trim dramatically.

"If we shut down the big plays and stop the big plays," Tom Coughlin said, "we would be much further ahead than we were last year."