Remembering the beat helps Giants' Trevin Wade make plays
New York Giants wide receiver Julian Talley can't catch a pass while being defended by Trevin Wade during training camp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, N.J. on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015. Credit: Brad Penner
Most NFL cornerbacks are so focused on having a short memory that they lose track of how many times they recite the mantra. It's almost as if the ability to put the recent past out of mind -- and talk about it -- is issued with a uniform and a playbook. Get beat? Miss a tackle? Mess up a coverage? As we like to say in this part of the world -- Fuhgeddaboudit!
Trevin Wade is not from this part of the world. Nor is he like just about every other corner in the NFL when it comes to moving on quickly from mistakes. So when he was beaten on a 42-yard deep pass to Greg Little in the third quarter of Friday night's preseason opener against the Bengals, he didn't scrub his memory of the play like a hard drive. Instead, he dwelled on it.
And it paid off.
"I actually was thinking about it the whole time because I knew they would come back at me," he said on Sunday. "I knew that I was going to make them pay for coming back at me like that. You get beat on a play and that's all you think about it."
Later in the game, Wade came up with the Giants' first interception of the preseason.
"Some people forget it, but I can't forget it," he said of getting beat (with what was an uncalled push-off by Little). "I just take it and use it as fuel to keep going."
It could be fuel to help him climb the depth chart, too. The Giants are thin at cornerback because of a rash of injuries, and Wade, a fourth-year pro who was on the Saints and Lions practice squads last year, is not only healthy but productive. He's had two interceptions already in training camp practices with the Giants and was the first on the team to pick off Eli Manning before they headed to Cincinnati for the week. He has a knack for being around the ball, which a lot of players exhibit, but more importantly, he seems capable of making the plays when he gets there.
"I know a lot of people are excited because in college I got my hands on the ball and had a lot of interceptions," he said of his 12 in four years at Arizona. "I really like to be the person who can make a play on the ball. I know PBUs [pass breakups] are great, but I want to try to catch the ball so we can get the ball back."
If he can do it without getting beat deep first, that would be nice, too.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
