New York Giants News

New York Giants' news, 10/19: Giants prep for Vikings

New York Giants headlines for Saturday, 10/19.

By Ed Valentine@Valentine_Ed Oct 19, 2013, 8:35am EDT

Good morning, New York Giants' fans! Here are some of the Giants-related stories making headlines today.

Giants' middle linebacker Jon Beason admires the way star Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson plays.

"Everybody knows that Adrian Peterson is a special player. I like to tell people that he should be playing on the defensive side of the ball with his determination, the way he plays every down like it’s his last," Beason said. "I love to watch him play football. It’s a big challenge, but it’s an opportunity to do something great."

Minnesota's Cordarrelle Patterson is second in the league in kickoff returns with a 33.8 yard average, including a 105-yard return for a touchdown.

"What makes him so good is that he is big, strong and fast," special teams coordinator Tom Quinn said. "He’s bigger than most returners and he can stick his foot in the ground and get vertical in a hurry so you have to make sure you don’t give him a bunch of open windows because his vision is outstanding. He sees it, he hits it, it looks like a team will have him bottled up and he sticks his foot in the ground and comes back out the other side. We have to be really disciplined against him."

Offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride is glad to have starting center David Baas back, but does worry about disrupting a group he says has played "very well" the last two weeks.

"Jimmy Cordle has played very, very well. Obviously David is the starter, so you hope when your starter comes back you’re going to continue to play as well, if not better, and that’s what we will expect and I think David gives you some more experience and a guy that has earned the starting position for us," Gilbride said. "You’d like to think you’re going to get better, but part of the thing is the changes. All the changes just keep hurting the cohesiveness and the coordination, but David has been there with those guys before. He’s had David Diehl next to him. He’s had Kevin Boothe next to him, so I think the transition will be fairly seamless and fairly quick."

Defensive coordinator Perry Fewell is not expecting the Vikings to simplify their offense for new quarterback Josh Freeman, who has only been in Minnesota for two weeks.

"I don’t think they’ll be vanilla. I don’t know what they’ll be. Yes, he’s been there a couple of weeks. He’s a veteran quarterback. He’s had enough starts. The head coach feels comfortable enough to give him the reigns," Fewell said. "I don’t think he wants to come in and run a vanilla offense. I think he feels comfortable enough that he has enough offense to come in and compete."