Tuck's a two-winged duck

One of the players who showed up last night was Justin Tuck. He had two sacks – one on the second play of the game and another on the second-to-last play of the first half (his second-to-last play of the game) – and has looked very quick and disruptive for two weeks in a row now. Remember him in the Steelers’ backfield last week? It’s the Justin Tuck that Giants fans were used to seeing but missed out on for most of the 2009 season. What’s different?

“I have two shoulders this year,” he said.

Tuck didn’t miss any games but he did play most of the year in a shoulder harness and had offseason surgery after being tripped by Flozell Adams in Week 2 last season. He was never quite the same player. Now, even though it’s only preseason, he’s showing that ability to be in the backfield.

It didn’t seem as if Tuck’s shoulder had anything to do with his first sack. He was lined up at left defensive end and swung around behind the two defensive tackles and up the middle for a clean shot on Joe Flacco. But Tuck said that even though there was no contact, a healthy shoulder still made the play possible.

“When you’re running like this, you can’t get a burst,” he said, dropping his right arm and holding it limp. “You ever see a duck fly with one wing? That’s kind of what it was last year.”