Injuries forced Giants to shrink playbook vs. Jags

The Giants didn't just go into Sunday's game against the Jaguars without some of their top playmakers; they had to perform without some of their better plays.

Because of injuries that sidelined receivers Hakeem Nicks and Steve Smith and three starting offensive linemen, the Giants had only a fraction of their offense available each time they gathered in the huddle.

Usually, the next player would step in and things would move forward with very little change. But because the players stepping in this time were relative newcomers - Derek Hagan at least had experience with the Giants last year and in the preseason; Michael Clayton was signed by the team last Tuesday evening - everything was compacted. The entire scheme was boiled down to its essence.

"It wasn't a change in the offense. It's really just kind of getting down the stuff that we really knew," Eli Manning said. "We just didn't do quite as much and it helped us execute a little bit better."

The keep-it-simple philosophy was enough to give the Giants a win over Jacksonville, even with one hand tied behind their play-calling back. But with no clear signs that any of the injured players are going to be available for the upcoming game against the Redskins, how crippling will the diluted offense become? Boiling something down, after all, leaves a lot of nuance floating away in the vapors.

Tom Coughlin said there is no question that with several of the pieces becoming more comfortable, the offense can grow this week. Hagan will be in his third week back with the team. Clayton and even-newer receiver Devin Thomas have had a couple of practices with the Giants.

"Once a guy has had some degree of familiarity with your offense and what you plan on doing, you can expand some," Coughlin said. "It becomes the idea of how to structure how far out to go and what do you need to win and what, within the framework of the offense, do you need to win and who is going to be able to execute it? It grows and it develops, and that will be the case this week."

There were, of course, some benefits to the condensed-soup version of preparation. Time generally spent on some aspects of the game plan could be devoted to making sure that the simple things were taken care of.

"Watching film, you don't have to prepare as much for, like, four wides," Manning said. "Well, we don't have any four wides, so if four wides comes up, you don't have to watch that."

It also made it very easy to get personnel groupings straight. "You're putting your best players on the field," Manning said, "and that's what you want."

Well, Manning was talking about the best players available. The best players remain sidelined. Smith is optimistic about returning this week, but a more realistic time for him is the following week against the Vikings. Nicks will be out for at least the next two weeks. On the offensive line, David Diehl and Shaun O'Hara were able to do some drills late last week and might make a push to be ready Sunday.

Even if they're not, the Giants believe they can hold out with their abbreviated audibles and fractured formations until the cavalry arrives later next month.

"I don't know that it's any different than anything else that you do in terms of who you decide on, who gets the ball and how they get it, and how many times, etc., how the people are going to be used," Coughlin said. "I think that we were very specific with that, knowing full well that we gave ourselves plenty of offense to win with, but I don't think we overdid it."