If the situation deteriorates even further and bad crumbles into worse, Will Allen insists he will stay the course and will shun anyone who starts trouble or stops playing. This season has been a total mess for the Giants, but out of the rubble they’ve found a franchise-type player in Allen.
Few Giants have had a truly excellent season; Allen at cornerback is the exception. He’s blossomed in his third season, fulfilled the high expectations heaped on him as a 2001 first-round draft pick out of Syracuse. He’s a very good player getting better, standup in the locker room and shut-down on the field when it comes to blanketing receivers. Plus, he’s developing into the sort of young leader every team needs.
“It shouldn’t be tough to get up,” Allen said of today’s game against the Bills, a meeting of two 4-7 teams that weren’t supposed to be in such dire straights. “I’m in desperate need of a win, no matter what may happen as far as [the] postseason. You still have pride, you still want teams to respect you. Going out there and fighting hard each week is fine and dandy, but at some point we’ve got to come up victorious at the end of the game.”
Through good times and bad, Allen’s demeanor is a constant: upbeat, casual but serious. He lost his buddy and running mate at cornerback, Will Peterson, after five games to a stress fracture in his lower back, and with Ralph Brown and Frank Walker forced into the starting lineup, opponents rarely see the need to test Allen.
As the season has gone to pot, Allen continually shuns the bleak playoff forecasts by insisting “stranger things have happened,” but he’s no wild-eyed idealist. He knows the Giants aren’t headed to the postseason but he vows that won’t change his approach.
“I don’t know about everybody else; my pride is high, I’m not going to step on the field and let somebody just walk all over me no matter what the circumstances may be,” Allen said. “You’re going to get my all every week, it doesn’t matter. I can’t say I’m going to give extra effort if we were 10-1 compared to what our record is right now. I’m going to go out there and fight like I do every week.”
Thus far, Allen said, he’s seen no signs of the team fracturing and he dismissed a recent salvo from return specialist Brian Mitchell as no big deal. Allen’s antenna will be raised, though, for players quitting in the final month of the season.
“Right now I haven’t seen that; I’m cool with everybody in here,” Allen said. “Whenever you see a guy doing things that losers do, you don’t want to be around that type of guy, because he’s a front-runner guy. I don’t think we have any of those guys in here.”
The Bills come in today with a suspect offense. Quarterback Drew Bledsoe has faded after a fast start and is coming off a concussion. Buffalo’s top receiver, Eric Moulds, is hobbled by a strained hamstring, and top running back Travis Henry will play despite a hairline fracture in his leg.
“Any time you’ve got a team that’s losing games, you don’t know how much a team may respect you,” Allen said. “You better get up for it. Nobody’s going to line up in front of a guy and let the guy just whip their butt.”
WHY THE GIANTS WILL WIN
A step down in class should benefit the Giants, who figure to be able to generate enough offense and force a few turnovers on defense. Kerry Collins will be better than he’s been. Bills are in worse shape than Giants, with Travis Henry and Eric Moulds playing in pain and Drew Bledsoe coming off concussion. Someone has to win, right?
PREDICTION
Giants 20, Bills 13
