There weren’t many positive takeaways for the New York Giants on Saturday night. Their offense once again look anemic, their O-line remains a legitimate concern, their pass rush is lacking and entirely too many players missed tackles.
But that’s not to say there were no bright spots.
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Second-year linebacker Carter Coughlin was among those who “flashed,” says head coach Joe Judge. And he would be correct. Coughlin felt like an impact player during the 12-7 loss to the Jets, and that’s good news for Big Blue because they’re not exactly deep at the position.
“I thought Carter did a good job for us overall tonight. He had a couple of things that we have to clean up and nothing was perfect with him, but in terms of a motor, Carter plays with a motor. He’s got good athleticism, he has good play strength, he shows some instincts and obviously with us moving him back and forth inside and outside — the inside is new to him,” Judge told reporters after the game.
“So there’s a lot of things that for him he’s experiencing for the first time, but I’d say he’s flashed positively throughout camp. He did a lot of things tonight that flashed positively. We have to watch the tape from a breakdown to see exactly how he did, but he’s one of the guys that we wanted to really see come into this game and see how he responded to some different situations, both on defense and the kicking game, and he was a positive for us tonight. So, he’s definitely a guy that showed up tonight to play and made an impression.”
Coughlin has been kicked inside this summer, learning a new position from the likes of Blake Martinez & Co. And the transition has gone well, but Coughlin also demonstrated his ability as a pass rusher on Saturday night, recording the team’s only sack (and a forced fumble).
“It’s awesome that they’re moving me around and allowing me to try out different things. It’s been, like I said at the beginning, it was a challenge moving from outside to inside,” Coughlin said. “But the coaches and the other inside linebackers have been helping me a lot and that allows me to play fast and pick up on different things. Guys like Blake (Martinez) have been really helping me out and it’s been a blast.
“I really, really like being off the ball. It’s been really, really fun to work on. It was fun to do that on the scout team last year and get kind of a feel for it and then really dig into it during camp and get those off-the-ball reps. But it’s just like anything, whatever my role is, whether it’s special teams, whatever, I want to make the most out of it. I’m continuing to work on my skills every single day and Coach Judge preaches on the fundamentals, so just making sure that I continue to attack my fundamentals.”
Both Judge and Coughlin acknowledged there were some areas of his game that must be cleaned up, but Saturday’s performance is extremely encouraging.
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