A menacing pass-rusher is charging at you, all muscle and speed and quickness. The natural reaction is self-preservation with the most basic physical movement: You reach out with your arms.
This, more than anything else, is what is holding back Ereck Flowers from developing into a top-notch left tackle.
“When you get out in space with one of those athletes, I mean, they’re all over the place,’’ guard Justin Pugh told The Post after Wednesday’s practice. “Your hands just naturally go wide. I have the same issue sometimes. So I know what he’s going through, and I know it’s tough to play tackle in the NFL. I was out there and I had my struggles, too. Just got to keep working, keep throwing effort at it, and it will get better.’’
Flowers, a 2015 first-round pick from Miami, is not the most-penalized player in the NFL — that dishonor goes to Redskins cornerback Josh Norman, with 15 total flags against him. Flowers, though, is up there. Rams offensive tackle Greg Robinson has 13 penalties, and Flowers is tied with four players with 12 — an ignominious list that includes Raiders cornerback D.J. Hayden and offensive linemen Taylor Lewan (Titans) and Demar Dotson (Buccaneers).
Averaging one penalty a game is not desirable. Flowers has been called for eight holding penalties, and one of them came in last week’s 24-14 loss in Pittsburgh, when he was flagged in the end zone, giving the Steelers a safety and a 2-0 lead.
“Hmm, I thought it was borderline,’’ Flowers told The Post. “Man, it’s whatever, I’m not even worried. I’m thinking about the next game right now.’’
Flowers is a mountain of a man, at 6-foot-6 and 329 pounds. He does not say much, and discussing his technical flaws is not his favorite subject. When he came out of college, scouts decried his hand placement as sloppy and wondered if he could cut it as a left tackle in the NFL. The results have been unsettling in his 27 starts for the Giants leading into Sunday’s game against the first-place Cowboys — a team with the finest offensive line in the league.
“As we all know, it’s tough to develop linemen in this league,’’ Giants coach Ben McAdoo said. “It takes time. It’s a fundamental issue that he’s working hard to fix. He’s keeping his elbows tight. That helps keep your hands down and tight. It’s something that we’re working on.’’
It has not helped Flowers that four different players have started alongside him at left guard with Pugh’s knee injury causing a revolving door — Marshall Newhouse, Brett Jones and Adam Gettis each have taken a turn. Pugh expects to return Sunday.
It is not a matter of effort or attention to detail, Pugh said.
“He’s putting in the work, he works hard,’’ Pugh said. “Everyone thinks this stuff happens overnight. He’s going to keep learning from mistakes, correcting them, trying not to make the same mistake twice and keep working on getting his hands inside, that will help eliminate the penalties. We got confidence in him, he’s a great dude.’’
Flowers said, “Just got to continuously work on it and it will come.’’
Asked if his problem is mostly a lack of hand-placement fundamentals, he said, “I don’t know, you can look at clips of some of them, I don’t know. I don’t have an answer for that.’’