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Good morning, New York Giants fans! Let's check your Thursday morning headlines.
Ogletree: Replacing Cruz a Group Effort
Wide receiver Kevin Ogletree has the spot on the Giants roster that belonged to Victor Cruz until a few days ago. The veteran knows he can't replace everything Cruz did for New York.
"First of all, Victor is a good friend of mine and you never want to be forced into a situation like that because of an injury," Ogletree said Wednesday. "But that is inevitable. Those things happen. What a great player he is and you are not going to find a guy anywhere that is going to come in and do what he did. Really great player, really good friend and it is going to have to be a group thing. (All the receivers) are going to have to do something better to pick up the slack."
Cruz, incidentally, briefly visited Quest Diagnostics Training Center on Wednesday. He did not speak with the media, nor have the opportunity to interact with teammates or coaches.
Homecoming for Weston Richburg
Rookie guard Weston Richburg grew up six hours from Dallas, in Amarillo, Texas. He is looking forward to playing in front of family and friends.
"This one's been on my calendar for a long time," Richburg said. "I'm excited to come play in a stadium that I've been aware of and seen games in as a kid. It's a dream come true to play against a team that you watched as a kid.
"I'll have a little more family there, so there may be 50 people that will be rooting for me and not against me.
"I didn't have to buy any tickets," he said. "Actually, most of them bought them shortly after I was drafted. They've had this on their calendars for a long time."
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Are the inconsistent 3-3 Giants really an NFC contender?
Are the 3-3 Giants good enough to contend for an NFC playoff spot? After six confusing games that is a good question. The Giants have to answer it in a hurry.
"They didn’t have the amount of respect that I’m sure they do now," Kelce said to CBS Sports. "They didn’t jam the box as much as other teams have against us, they didn’t put an emphasis on stopping the run, the way other teams have. They thought they could beat us man-to-man and that obviously didn’t happen."
Kelce is not the first player on the Eagles to say the Giants gameplan was a poor one. Running back LeSean McCoy, who had a season high 149 yards, said he was shocked at the Giants not respecting the running game.
"Surprisingly, they kind of played a lot of two high and they left the safety out of the box, which was different," McCoy said after the game. "They paid for it. Then when they tried to move the safety down it was too late. The guys were in the groove, you are hitting running lanes."
New York Giants' offensive linemen eager to redeem themselves - ESPN
Three days ago, New York Giants offensive lineman Justin Pugh played about as bad a game as an offensive lineman can play.
New York Giants getting briefed on Ebola before trip to Dallas | Fox News
"On the Ebola issue, no, nothing out of the ordinary other than providing background and info on the disease,’’ Pat Hanlon, the Giants’ senior vice president of communications, told The Post Wednesday in an e-mail. "Our athletic trainers and team physicians have been briefed on the scope of the Ebola virus disease. We have distributed a fact sheet to our employees and distributed similar information to our players electronically this morning.’