Assessing Jason Pierre-Paul: DL coach Robert Nunn -- "They know he is out there"

Jason Pierre-Paul has not made any significant "splash" plays in his two games back since his July 4 fireworks mishap. He has no sacks, three quarterback hits and just two tackles in 109 snaps. He has made a difference, though, with Pro Football Focus crediting him with 13 pressures. The attention paid to him is also helping the other defensive linemen.

What does Giants' defensive line coach Robert Nunn think of what he has seen from Pierre-Paul thus far?

"When he is out there, they know he is out there and it helps everyone else, so he has had some really good pressures and he had the sack that was taken away yesterday on a tough call, but if he continues to do what he is doing right now, things are going to work out," Nunn said on Monday. "He got a lot of chips yesterday (against the New England Patriots) and even in Tampa he was getting chipped and they were helping out there and once again that opened up some things for Robert and Cullen inside and when that happens, then they have to step up to the plate."

Pierre-Paul, of course, has played most of those two games with a large club protecting the right hand that was disfigured in his fireworks mishap. Nunn admitted that he has seen some plays Pierre-Paul has been unable to make, and occasionally a bit of hesitation in using his damaged hand.

"There have been a couple of plays in each game where it really was a factor of him not making the tackle, which he had an assist on one, but the old JPP would have shed the tight end and come off and made the play, but for the most part there have not been that many opportunities," Nunn said. "He just needs to continue to work, using that thing and he does --- you see him every once in a while shy away from it and I ask him if it hurts, and no it doesn't hurt. It is just hard to get used to using. We just have to continue to work on blow delivery and things that we work on in practice until he gets more and more comfortable. There were a couple times yesterday where he used both hands and just shocked people at the line of scrimmage, but he was inconsistent."

Nunn said working with a player in Pierre-Paul's circumstance, having had his right index finger amputated and missing a portion of his thumb, is uncharted territory for everyone.

"This thing did not come with a set of instructions," Nunn said. "How to use his hand as much as we can is the biggest thing we have tried to work on. It would have been nice to have training camp to work on those techniques -- you really don't have a lot of time to work on technique with the way practices are structured during the season, so we [have been using] a little bit of trial and error but his attitude could not be better. He has come in here with the right frame of mind and he is working through everything we have put out, so he has done a good job with that.

"The thing that we have to do is keep working on his technique with his hand and he is going to keep -- Ronnie is going to keep altering his glove until he gets more and more comfortable, which will only help, and getting more comfortable of putting his hand in there and he does it at times and he doesn't at times, so we just have to keep working through that."