John Greco: “Heightened sense of urgency” for offensive line

The New York Giants’ loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday wasn't the team’s only loss. During the 20-13 loss, the team lost center John Halapio for the season with a broken ankle. With Halapio out for the season, the Giants will look to 12-year veteran John Greco to start in his place. On Wednesday, Greco spent some time with the media, talking about his first start on Monday. Here are some takeaways from those talks.

On starting at center after playing guard most of his career

“No, I wouldn’t necessarily say strange because if you’re kept on the roster, it’s because you can play multiple positions, and when you’re a backup that’s what you have to be ready to do, and that’s the situation were in right now,” Greco said. “Just have to be ready to rock and roll.”

On losing Halapio and the early OL struggles

“Any time you lose your partner in crime, one of your buddies in your room, you feel for him and we know that he’s going to come back stronger than ever,” Greco said. “But at the same time we just have to do everything we can this week to try to get a win. It’s going to be a tough road game, awesome atmosphere down in Houston, so we are excited about the challenge and opportunity. We’ve just got to work hard. If everybody just gets a little better each day, that’s all we can ask.”

On his career looking like it might be over a year ago

“A year ago this time, I was at home,” Greco said. “So, yeah, but I knew I still had enough gas in the tank that I could’ve been playing and I was just happy I got the opportunity here last year and then again this offseason, and here we are. So, that really hasn’t entered my mind. It’s more of a laugh thing I can do at myself but yeah, I’m excited about the opportunity.”

On the need to get better quickly

“I think there’d kind of a heightened sense of urgency this week. Every week there’s going to be a good defense. There’s no bad defenses, there’s no bad defensive players, so every week there’s new challenges and new opportunities.

“We have the skill set and we have the talent on our side of the ball. Once we start firing on all cylinders it’s going to boost everyone’s confidence and I think that’s what we need. IWe’re working our best to do that during the week, to try to put together a complete game