Practice report: Lightning crashes, Nassib runs hurry-up, Prince in a fog

At 3:03 this afternoon the Giants were practicing on the field and just finishing up their 7-on-7 drills. It had been drizzling a bit throughout the afternoon, but at that time it suddenly started to rain heavily. The Giants’ weather equipment also picked up a lightning strike that was 4.5 miles away. So the entire team sprinted into the field house. And by 3:06 Eli Manning was dropping back in an 11-on-11 drill and hitting Louis Murphy on a deep pass down the right sideline.

Three minutes. That’s all it took to move the entire training camp practice indoors. And it’s one of the big reasons why the Giants are here at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center this summer and not at the University at Albany.

“We really did think we were going to get it in,” Coughlin said of squeezing the entire workout into the weather window. “To be able to come inside and finish practice on a day when we would have lost some very good opportunities, that meant a lot to us.”

You can read about the injury report here on a separate post.

I will note that Deon Grant, who announced his retirement as a Giant yesterday, showed up for practice. Coughlin said it was good to see him, but he wished that Grant had told him he was coming ahead of time so he could address the team. Maybe next time.

Not a lot of action in the early stages of practice as the team was in shells – not even shoulder pads – and working off cards. Most of the work was just focused on run fits and blocking and trying to get ready for the preseason opener in two days.

Even in 11-on-11s, the action was about 80-percent speed and one side was working off the cards. No surprises in personnel; Brandon Mosley was at right guard with the ones to start out with and Cullen Jenkins was at defensive end in place of Justin Tuck who missed a second straight practice.

The most noteworthy play came about halfway through when the first defense was working and Eli Manning threw a mid-range pass down the left sideline to Hakeem Nicks with Prince Amukamara in coverage. Kind of. Prince was running alongside Nicks but never made an effort to disrupt the pass or try to intercept it even. He just allowed Nicks to catch it. Maybe he was confused and not sure whether it was an offensive or defensive period. Or maybe he just had a brain lock for the moment. Either way, it was odd.

A few notable plays from the first set of 11-on-11s: Carr threw an incompletion to Murphy as Adrian Tracy beat Chris DeGeare on an edge rush … Larry Donnell dropped a pass from Carr … Michael Cox did a nice job of picking up a blitzing David Caldwell on a play-action fake … The offense tried two direct-snap plays off the Steelers’ cards. Both of them were dropped by Da’rel Scott.

The pace picked up a bit in 7-on-7s. Brandon Myers dropped a pass from Manning … Antrel Rolle and Stevie Brown did a good job of avoiding a collision with each other on a pass down the middle to Victor Cruz that fell incomplete … Donnell made up for his earlier drop with a nice catch down the seam behind Keith Rivers … Da’rel Scott made a juggling catch … Bear Pascoe dropped a pass from Ryan Nassib on the sideline … Nassib hit Julian Talley on a pass with no defender in the area. It looked like Junior Mertile was supposed to be there but was giving Talley a huge cushion … David Wilson, who impressed with his hands yesterday, dropped a pass today.

Once inside, the team finished practice with 11-on-11s. Jayron Hosley did a nice job wrestling the ball away from Keith Carlos for an interception … Nassib hit a wide-open Talley deep down the left sideline on a broken coverage by Charles James and Laron Scott.

It was hard to see the goal-line plays that the Giants ran because we were moved inside and the players were blocking our view (Wah! Wah!) but I was able to jot down a few notes: The first play the Giants lined up with both Cruz and Nicks on the same side of the field … Cruz later caught a touchdown pass from Manning with Corey Webster covering … Curtis Painter hit Murphy on a fade over Trumaine McBride … Kevin Hardy caught a TD from Nassib, as did Bear Pascoe.

Finally, the Giants ran a two-minute drill (1:16) with the third string offense. That meant it was Ryan Nassib’s first chance to engineer the drill. He started out ok, completing a pass to Jamie Childers for a first down. Then he completed a short pass to Hardy, threw an incompletion (with Frank Okam beating Michael Jasper to apply pressure up the middle), and on third down scrambled for a first (Marvin Austin provided the pressure on that one, beating Matt McCants). After the scramble the offense called time out with :27 remaining. Nassib’s next pass was intended for Hardy but broken up by Charles James (Adewale Ojomo had pressure on Nassib), and on second down Nassib threw the pass away out of bounds to stop the clock with :17 left. That gave the Giants third-and-10 and Nassib tried to find Hardy but Laron Scott was there to jump up and intercept the pass and end the drill. And the practice.

See you in Pittsburgh! Bands!