GIANT NOTES
Giants offensive line coach Jim McNally yesterday stated, “I don’t think it was anybody’s fault, I really don’t,” when asked about the depleted state of the Giants’ line and refuted the notion that he dissuaded the team from signing any veteran linemen.
Injuries to Luke Petitgout and Rich Seubert have riddled the line, and another starter, rookie Wayne Lucier, is also out for the season. Tomorrow against the Redskins, Jeff Hatch will make his NFL debut and untested Scott Peters will try his hand at left guard.
The Giants have been highly-criticized for rolling the dice with the line, and McNally is on record as saying he prefers working with younger players he can mold. But, he insists, he did not tell the front office not to sign any experienced free agents.
“The one’s we looked at, they couldn’t pass a physical or they cost too much money or they weren’t any better than what we had,” McNally said. “You name me an NFL free-agent lineman who we could have got.”
As for the challenge of dealing with this group of novices, McNally added, “Challenges are when you have an off-season to work with guys. There’s no challenge when at the 14th game you got to put three young guys in there.”
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Petitgout (back) and TE Jeremy Shockey (knee) won’t play tomorrow. Jim Fassel says he thinks Shockey will play again this season, but he isn’t sure . . . The last time the end of a lousy season, a late home game and loads of snow at Giants Stadium all intertwined was the final game of the 1995 season, when the Giants lost to the Chargers 27-17 in the now-infamous snowball game. Fans pelted the field with snow and ice balls, leading to several arrests and an injury to a San Diego assistant coach. With this weekend’s blizzard, the Giants are adamant about getting the snow out of the stadium to prevent a repeat. “We cannot guarantee that all the snow will be gone, but I do think they’ll get most of the snow out of there,” said John Mara, the Giants’ executive VP.
A serious accident near the stadium caused many players and coaches to get stuck in traffic yesterday morning, prompting Fassel to push the team’s schedule to be pushed back 30 minutes.
