GIANT NOTES
The first five times the Buccaneers got the ball yesterday, they went one-two-three and punted. It rarely got much better, as the Giants on defense nearly pitched a shutout in their 17-3 victory.
The Bucs didn’t get a first down until 8:30 remained in the second quarter and wouldn’t have scored at all if not for a rare special-teams gaffe by David Tyree.
Tampa in the second quarter was set to punt the ball from near midfield when Tyree jumped across the line too soon, giving the Bucs the ball on the Giant 49-yard line. Rookie quarterback Bruce Gradkowski was able to muster up enough positive yardage to set up last week’s hero, Matt Bryant, for a 43-yard field goal to cut the Giants lead to 14-3.
Other than that, there wasn’t much of anything, as the Giants limited the Bucs to 40 rushing yards and 174 total yards.
Linebacker Antonio Pierce thinks he knows why.
“Last week they played in 105 degrees,” Pierce said of the Bucs. “They come up here and it’s freezing. It’s ice age. They were talking about it on the field, how cold it was. It was one of those things where we practiced all week in it and they didn’t. They were in Tampa. Welcome to New York.”
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The Giants lost another member of their starting defense late in the first quarter when LB Brandon Short was forced out with a strained quad muscle. The unit already was thrown for a loss with last week’s season-ending injury to LaVar Arrington, who late last week had surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon. That moved Carlos Emmons – back after missing two games with a partially torn pectoral muscle – in as the starting strongside LB. Rookie Gerris Wilkinson moved in on the weak side for Short.
“It felt sore and they wanted to make sure I didn’t injure it further,” Short said. “I don’t think it’s anything that is that severe.”
Wilkinson played well. He made a strong tackle on WR Alex Smith for a one-yard loss in the third quarter. Later in the same quarter, Wilkinson forced a fumble on TE Anthony Becht.
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Rookie DE Mathias Kiwanuka started for injured Osi Umenyiora and notched his first career sack, dropping Gradkowski on the first play of the second quarter.
“It felt good to get up and see the quarterback down there,” Kiwanuka said. …
Michael Strahan, needing one sack to pass Lawrence Taylor for the franchise record, was shut out.
“I hit the cat several times,” Strahan said. “They weren’t going to make it easy. Nobody wants to be the guy to give me the sack.”
As expected, CB Sam Madison (hamstring) was not in uniform, as R.W. McQuarters made his first start for the Giants. … RB Derrick Ward, recovered from a broken foot, was activated for the first time and was used on special teams.