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Giants at Eagles, Week 6: Giants looking for some big plays on offense

The Giants have been terrific on offense in recent weeks. The one thing they would like to add is more field-stretching big plays.

Ron Antonelli

New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin said this week that he would like to see more big plays from the Giants' offense, which has produced 35 points per game the past three weeks even without a plethora of field-stretching plays from the passing game.

"We need to make some big plays ourselves," said Coughlin, who was actually responding to a question about the number of big plays the Giants have given up defensively. "You want to go to the other side of the count. We didn't have but three last weekend. We need to get into that category."

So, offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo, how are you going to give the head coach what he wants?

"We believe big plays are a product of execution. Doing it crisply and extra effort," McAdoo said. "We need to take care of those. We do a better job in both of those areas and big plays will come."

For the most part the Giants have looked for big plays coming from wide receivers taking short throws and creating yards after catch. They got one of those against the Houston Texans Week 3 when Victor Cruz turned a short slant into a 61-yard play.

The debut of wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., the team's 2014 first-round draft pick, last week against the Atlanta Falcons, hinted at the possibility of more "over the top" big plays to come from the Giants' passing attack. Beckham twice beat Falcons' cornerbacks deep, once being overthrown by quarterback Eli Manning and once creating a field-position changing pass interference penalty.

McAdoo said Thursday that "it is too early to tell" how much different the Giants will look offensively once Beckham is able to play a full game. "Next couple weeks will tell," McAdoo said.

The Eagles' defense has struggled this season, particularly against the pass. Philadelphia, however, has three defensive scores. The Giants are -6 in takeaway/giveaway ratio after their 0-2 start. They are now at +/- 0 and did not have an offensive giveaway against the Falcons.

"They are very opportunistic as a team. They have a lot of good athletes and they have a good scheme across the board," McAdoo said. "When the ball is on the ground, they usually seem to wind up with it. We have to do what we can to keep the ball out of their hands and have no giveaways."