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With Brandon Jacobs doubtful for Sunday's game against the Philadelphia Eagles it appears running backs Peyton Hillis and Michael Cox will again have to carry the load for the New York Giants.
Hillis, playing his first game of the season less than a week after being signed, carried 18 times Monday vs, the Minnesota Vikings and also caught five passes. He played 48 snaps. He admitted to being sore afterwards.
"I expect that it (soreness) is going to be here for a couple more weeks but I have to work through it and try to produce," Hillis said.
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Does he worry that such a heavy workload after not playing for a while leaves him vulnerable to injury?
"I don’t know if that’s good for me or bad for me. But I’m here, I want to contribute, I want to help this team win, and no matter what the results are in the end, I’m happy to be here," Hillis said. "I’m very blessed to be put in this situation and to have the coaches rely on me."
Cox, a rookie seventh-round draft pick who had never carried the ball in a regular-season game, carried 11 times for 23 yards.
"I feel better, especially after getting my first real game at running back out there," Cox said. "I didn’t really make any mistakes so I feel like they saw that and feel more confident in putting me in the game."
Stopping LeSean McCoy a priority for Giants
Eagles' running back LeSean McCoy leads the league in rushing with 685 yards. The Giants, who held him to 46 yards on 20 carries the first time the teams met, will be focused on limiting him again Sunday.
"We’ve done a good job of stopping some of the premier runners in the game and, of course, it’s an objective for us every week. It was an objective coming out of last season, so it’s very important to us. Now, on the other hand, Michael Vick ran for 79 yards (against us last time), so there you go," head coach Tom Coughlin said.
The Giants are surrendering only 3.7 yards per rushing attempt this season after allowing 4.6 yards per attempt in 2012. Monday night Minnesota's Adrian Peterson got only 28 yards on 13 carries.
"I just think it confirms that the big bodies we have inside are paying off for us," defensive coordinator Perry Fewell said. "I think that it confirms that the addition with Jon Beason at linebacker can help us be more effective and better in the run game and everybody bought into we had to stop number 28 (Peterson). He was the focus of our week and so that was a solid effort by all the players that we had to do that. We’ll have to have that same type of solid effort this week because they have a dual, triple threat with not only Vick but McCoy. They’ve got a host of guys. We need that same type of focus this week."
Around the Inter-Google
LeSean McCoy not only had a rough game against the Giants three weeks ago, but had only 55 yards rushing last Sunday vs. the Dallas Cowboys. He said this week that "I just wasn't myself."
Jim Cordle, starting at center for the Giants with David Baas on IR, recognizes the opportunity he has.
Eagles.com says center Jason Kelce is one of the keys to their rushing attack. Eagles.com also says the Giants are better than they were three weeks ago.
Giants' defensive end Justin Tuck fired back at NBC's Rodney Harrison after Harrison said Tuck was "on his last legs."
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