Giants might need replacement kicker, and more takeaways from Pat Shurmur

Placekicker Aldrick Rosas popped up on the New York Giants’ injury report on Monday with a right quad issue. Coach Pat Shurmur admitted that the Giants will likely need to make a roster move to protect themselves in case Rosas can’t kick Thursday night against the Philadelphia Eagles.

“We probably will make a roster move to bring somebody on the practice squad just in case,” Shurmur said. “We’re hopeful that he’ll be back, but I think it’s worthy of talking about.”

Rosas, in his second season, has gone 11-of-11 on field-goal attempts this season after making only 18-of-25 as a rookie. He made three kicks on Sunday vs. the Carolina Panthers, including a career-long 53-yarder.

Here are more takeaways from Shurmur’s time with the media on Monday.

On his team’s state of mind at 1-4

“I love my team. I love our team. I think our guys are competitive, they fight, and I think our improvement was on display yesterday. There’s no moral victories, so we’ve got to improve this much more. We’ve got to improve 63 yards more and get that victory. That’s what it is. I watched a bunch of guys battle from the first play to the last, I watched a bunch of guys make more plays on both sides of the ball, I watched when we didn’t make it on fourth down our defense go in and stop them, I watched a couple of turnovers on their part, I watched the offense score points, I watched contributions in good ways, but not to the point where we won the game. So, we just keep trying to get in this case, 63 yards better.”

Winning the division still the goal

“The key is to win your division and then give yourselves a chance to compete, and then go on from there. That’s what we’re battling for. That’s why I think we as coaches and players understand that there’s – I think the question was asked last week – there’s no panic, it’s urgency to win every week, and that’s what we’re fighting to do. Along the way, every team goes through stuff. We’re in it, so we’ve just got to go win a game.”

On the increased number of downfield throws

“They played us differently. I would say I probably made as many calls to get the ball downfield the week before but we faced different coverage. I thought Eli (Manning) did a good job of getting the ball down the field, our guys did a good job of executing and catching it. Forget the downfield throws. We scored 31 points, that’s the message. So whether you walk it across, you crawl it across, you roll it across, you throw it across – give me something else – you swim it across, it doesn’t matter. Getting it across the end zone is what matters, and that’s important.”

On who becomes the swing tackle with Ereck Flowers gone

The Giants said Monday that they will cut Flowers on Tuesday if they are unable to trade him.

“We’ll have to make a move and we’ll figure that out, but we’ve got guys in there that have played tackle. We’ve got Spencer (Pulley) obviously that’s played tackle, we’ve also got (John) Greco who’s played a little bit of tackle, so we’ll just move guys around,” Shurmur said. “That’s the way it works.”

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