GIANT NOTES
ALBANY – If you closed your eyes and simply listened, it sure would have sounded as if the Giants were at each other’s throats yesterday afternoon.
Off on the side, tackle Barrett Brooks was shouting, directing his verbiage at Michael Strahan and the starting defense. No one was laughing or joking as a live goal-line drill was underway, with the defense, predictably, dominating much of the action. This is when training camp gets hot and heavy.
The two sides barked at each other over the ball throughout the drill, which starts on the 3-yard line and mostly is pound-it-out rough. “We wanted to mainly run the football,” coach Jim Fassel said. “I’m not real big when it’s our offense against our defense in either side doing trickery. It was a pretty much a head-on-head deal, which sometimes gives the defense an advantage.”
Linebacker Micheal Barrow crushed running back Delvin Joyce on the first play and the fight was on. Joyce was stopped two more times. Ron Dayne managed to score on one run but was stopped short twice. The most impressive moments came when Dorsey Levens, signed as a short-yardage back to help preserve Tiki Barber, showed his savvy, first scoring on a sweep to the left (helped by a block by fullback Jim Finn) and then using a nifty cutback to score again.
“He can run,” Fassel said. “I like the one he ran in, it was a stretch play and he planted his foot and headed to the goal line and put his pad level down, so I like that.”
* First-round pick William Joseph figures to be in soon, likely in time for practice early next week. “It was real close, then faded then back real close,” Fassel said of negotiations. “It’s time to pull the trigger. We should be there.”
Fassel reiterated that he has no desire or plans to keep two kickers, which means the Giants may have to live with short kickoffs by Mike Hollis. “I should be able to find a guy who can kick off,” Fassel said. “We’re not talking about some unusually multi-talented skill.”
WR Tim Carter rested in the afternoon because his right Achilles tendon, which he tore last season, was sore.
