5 New York Giants Players to Watch vs. the Arizona Cardinals

The New York Giants will attempt to even out their 2014 season record this weekend when they host the Arizona Cardinals in their regular-season opener at MetLife Stadium.

The Giants didn’t look very good in any one phase of the ball in last week’s 35-14 blowout by the Lions, but as noted in our preview of the game, the Cardinals, as scrappy as they’ve shown themselves to be so far this season, are coming in with some key injuries.

Those include quarterback (Carson Palmer), running back (Andre Ellington), not to mention a defensive front that’s been decimated by injuries as well.

So which Giants figure to be key in New York’s quest to start their 2014 home season off on the right foot? Read on to find out.

DE Damontre Moore

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Last week, Moore only played in 10 of the defense’s 67 snaps, a surprisingly low number that even caused head coach Tom Coughlin to question the lack of snaps.

“We had several packages for him, but we never got back to those packages because of the state of the game,” defensive coordinator Perry Fewell explained to reporters.

“It was not an oversight or anything like that. We had several specialized packages for not only him but some other players. One of the other guys got dinged in the game, so we had to put that package to shelf.”

Fewell’s explanation was even more curious considering that it came not long after Moore just missed sacking Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, and that earlier in the week, Fewell had praised the second-year defender.

“I hate to give him a good compliment because he might go the other way on me,” Fewell said prior to the Detroit game. “He really has performed well in that stat sheet. He has been very productive from that standpoint.

“Can we convert that preseason to the regular season when the marbles are on the line and we need you to be productive? Each and every week we need you to be consistent for us. So we like that growth that we have seen. Can he take the next step now? He has been here before.”

The coaches often speak of players as being interchangeable within the scheme. If this is indeed true, then there should be no reason why Moore, who has actually shown some life when it comes to the pass rush, should be kept under wraps. Especially if Carson Palmer, a known pocket passer who’s questionable with a shoulder injury, does play this week.

If that happens, Moore said he plans to learn from his mistakes from last week and keep on working to show the coaches that he can be trusted.

“The only thing I can do is control what I can control. Get in there, play my schemes, do what they say, and everything will take care of itself, which it has so far in the past. Keep trusting those things, don’t stray away from it because when you stray away from it, that is when things go bad and wrong things happen.”

OL Brandon Mosley

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The Giants' offensive line didn’t do much of anything very well in the regular-season opener, especially when it came to run blocking.

While the struggles were across the board, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), right guard John Jerry had the worst run-blocking grade of the linemen, finishing with a minus-3.3, which as PFF noted, was right in line with Jerry’s 2013 performance, when he finished with a minus-8.0. 

Head coach Tom Coughlin did not announce if there would be any changes to the starting offensive line for this weekend, but given Jerry’s struggles combined with the fact that Brandon Mosley was removed from the injury report after dealing with a back ailment for a couple of weeks, such a move would not be surprising.

In 117 snaps, Mosley, who missed the Giants’ preseason finale against the Patriots, earned a minus-0.9 run-blocking grade from PFF, allowing three pressures in the preseason. Mosley is a bit more of a mauler who can get more of a push up front to open a crease. 

To be fair, the Lions' defensive front is one of the toughest to play against regardless of the linemen. However, if Mosley is healthy, it makes no sense to not put him in there and at least see if he can help reverse the offensive line’s fortunes.

WR Rueben Randle

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If the Giants are going to win games this year, they simply cannot have Randle, their No. 2 receiver, posting single, yes, single digits in receiving yardage, as he did in Week 1.

Randle, who quite frankly has been inconsistent all summer, finished last week’s game catching two passes for one yard.

If that’s not frustrating enough, the official game book had him playing in 58 of the team’s 62 offensive snaps, and he was targeted just three times in the entire game.

As we saw last year, the lack of a solid No. 2 receiver to take some of the attention away from Victor Cruz hurt the Giants' passing game.

The good news, potentially speaking, is that Randle seems to understand what it’s going to take to get untracked against the Cardinals’ corners, Patrick Peterson and Antonio Cromartie.

Of Peterson, Randle said the key to thwarting the Pro Bowler is timing. “You have to try to get him on his heels,” he said. “You can’t let him get back there and be comfortable to where he can be the athlete that he is and break up the ball and create interceptions.”

Cromartie? “He is longer, so our job is to get his hands off of us. We can’t let him jam us up at the line of scrimmage and we have to get him running to open up his hips.”

When it comes to confidence this week, Randle says it’s there, noting, “I think as a receiver, you have to confident to go against man-to-man. If not, you are already offset behind the eight ball. You just have to be confident in yourself that you are going to go out there and get the job done.”

If he can’t get the job done this week to help draw some of the extra attention Victor Cruz typically receives, the Giants could be facing a very long day.

TE Larry Donnell

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Larry Donnell did his best to quiet down some of the preseason concerns fans had about the tight end position. As such, he finished as the Giants' leading receiver, catching five (out of eight pass targets) for 56 yards and a touchdown.

While the hope is that Donnell will continue to flourish in the passing game, the Giants would no doubt like to see him improve as a run-blocker.

Last week against the Lions, Donnell played 21 run-blocking snaps, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), finishing with a 0.0 grade in that area.

“Yep, sure. Keep getting better, keep getting better,” head coach Tom Coughlin said when asked if he was hoping to see Donnell take another step forward in his new starting role.   

P Steve Weatherford

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Quarterback Eli Manning might be viewed as the team’s “iron man” in terms of consecutive games played, but punter Steve Weatherford, who last week suffered what Conor Orr of The Star-Ledger reported to be four torn ligaments in his left ankle (his plant foot), is on the verge of redefining the word if he plays this weekend.

The gritty Weatherford, who rested his ailing plant foot on Wednesday and Thursday, told reporters on Friday that he was able to kick 25 balls in practice, leaving him optimistic that he’ll be able to go on Sunday.

“I feel that I punted well enough to punt Sunday. I felt consistent. I felt stable. I felt strong,” he said.

“We are going to see how it feels [Saturday] because you never know, knock on wood, you might wake up and it could be swollen.”

Assuming all systems are a go, the only limitation Weatherford anticipates is if he has to chase down the punt returner.

He’s optimistic, though, he won’t have to do much running.

“Our coverage has been spectacular this year. Coach [Tom] Quinn has put a lot of time and effort into getting some synergy on the punt team and getting everybody on the same page. They have done a great job up to this point.”

Patricia Traina is the senior editor for Inside Football. All quotes and information obtained firsthand, unless otherwise noted. Follow me on Twitter, @Patricia_Traina.