It looks as if the position for the Giants lacking depth more than any other is about to get thinned out, with right tackle Marshall Newhouse hobbling around with a bad right calf.
Newhouse sustained the injury in the fourth quarter of the 16-13 victory over the Saints Sunday and second-year player Bobby Hart filled in for the last 12 offensive snaps. Newhouse after a solid opener in Dallas did not play well in Game 2, allowing two sacks. Now it will be up to Hart, or veteran returnee Will Beatty, to fill in on the much-criticized right side of the offensive line.
Newhouse left the locker room wearing a bulky gray boot on his right leg.
“Right now we’re going to evaluate him as the week goes on,’’ coach Ben McAdoo said Monday. “See how he does and recovers. We don’t know how significant it is or how long he’ll be out at this point or whether he’ll be able to play or not this week. It looks like he’ll be out of practice, especially early on.’’
The Giants have only eight offensive linemen on their roster. Beatty was unsigned before he asked back in and the Giants obliged, missing all of training camp after missing the entire 2015 season with surgeries on his pectoral and shoulder. Beatty, in catch-up mode, was not active the first two games of the season. McAdoo said Beatty “will compete to be up this week.’’
Hart, a 2015 seventh-round pick from Florida State, started one game as a rookie, against the Jets. Beatty was the Giants’ longtime left tackle and has not started a game at right tackle since his 2009 rookie year and not played at all since December 2014.
“I see a guy that’s getting his legs underneath him, his football legs underneath him,’’ McAdoo said.
RB Rashad Jennings was not effective versus the Saints (13 carries for 27 yards) and McAdoo said Jennings “had his right hand banged up a little bit’’ in the second half. McAdoo expects Jennings will be limited in practice early this week. Jennings was on the field for 34 of the 79 offensive snaps. … Second-year safety Mykkele Thompson will be out a few weeks with a knee injury.
The Giants became the fourth team since the 1970 merger to win with no offensive touchdowns and a turnover differential of minus-3 or worse. The last time it took place? Oct. 16, 2006, when the Bears on “Monday Night Football” beat the Cardinals 24-23, prompting the now-famous rant from the late coach Dennis Green, lamenting a blown 20-point lead by his Cardinals. “They are who we thought they were! And we let ‘em off the hook!’’
Through two games, the Giants are the only team in the league that has not allowed a pass play of 30 or more yards. The longest pass reception against them is 23 yards.
“We may not be getting the sacks, but we’re getting some pressure on the quarterbacks,’’ McAdoo said. “We’re doing a nice job challenging receivers in coverage. They may have to hold it a tick longer with some pressure in their face. It’s hard to be explosive that way.’’
LB Deontae Skinner was signed to the practice squad, replacing QB Logan Thomas.