reporters & analysts preview the GIANTS game

Things could get heated between Odell Beckham and Rams in London

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/giants/giants-odell-beckham-rams-don-cheery-history-article-1.2834484

Odell Beckham is a hot-head with a nasty history against the over-the-edge Rams defense coached by Bountygate mastermind Gregg Williams and sanctioned by holier-than-thou Jeff Fisher.

If Roger Goodell wants to avoid an international incident when the Giants play the Rams on Sunday in London, he needs to encourage Queen Elizabeth to be peacemaker and invite Beckham, Williams, Fisher and the cheap shot Rams players remaining from the ugly brawl game in St. Louis two years ago over to Buckingham Palace for pregame tea and crumpets.

This is a volatile mix of Beckham’s explosive personality and the dirtiest team in the league. Things could get so ugly passports might be revoked. The reputations of Beckham and the Rams have only taken further hits since they last met.

“He’s an outstanding player. He’ll learn. I think he’ll learn because there’s clearly a lack of respect for his opponents at times,” Fisher, who has mastered the art of going no better than 8-8 every year and keeping his job, said after the game two years ago. “He’s a great kid. We spent a lot of time with him prior to last year’s draft. He just needs to settle down and just catch balls and score touchdowns and just play. There were a number of incidents previous to our game where there were spikes at the opponent, spikes on the sideline, intentional forceable straight-arms and things that weren’t called.”

Beckham vs. the Rams late in the 2014 season was the precursor to Beckham vs. Josh Norman late in the 2015 season. This season, the receiver attacked the kicking net during the Washington game the third week and it rebounded to gash his face. Beckham was penalized the next week after he retaliated after an out-of-bounds hit by Minnesota’s Xavier Rhodes, hugged the kicking net after a score in Green Bay even though the Giants were losing by seven with just under three minutes left, then was out of control off the field and unstoppable on the field against the Ravens.

Odell Beckham Jr. and the Rams did not get along so well last time they met. (CHRIS LEE/AP)
He scored on touchdowns of 75 yards in the third quarter and then 66 yards to win the game with less than two minutes remaining. He was The Man. Then he was The Child. He removed his helmet after the second TD, penalizing the Giants for what could have been a game-costing 15 yards, then proposed marriage to the kicking net.

I hope they will be happy together.

On Sunday in Detroit, Williams’ defense nearly started a brawl after going against the unwritten rule by playing all-out on the final two plays when the Lions were in the victory formation. Greg Schiano did that against the Giants in 2012 when he was coaching the Bucs — Eli Manning was sent flying on the final play — and infuriated Tom Coughlin.

Last year, after Rams cornerback LaMarcus Joyner hit Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater in the head as he was sliding and caused a concussion, Vikes coach Mike Zimmer said, “If we were on the street, we probably would have had a fight.” He called it a cheap shot and said Williams’ defenses “are all like that.”

Williams was forced to sit out the 2013 season following the Bountygate scandal with the Saints. Fisher had hired him in St. Louis after Sean Payton let him go in New Orleans and before he was suspended. He brought him in as defensive coordinator in 2014, the same position he once held under Fisher in Tennessee. Fisher is the co-chairman of the competition committee, which in recent years has focused on making the game safer, but it’s not the way his team plays. Does Williams have any bounties — not the paper towel — packed for London?

He would never be foolish enough to use that term to his players, but is he above getting his guys worked up about Beckham, to encourage them to intimidate him and emphasize he can be thrown off his game with a couple of chippy hits?

Beckham was a rookie when he faced the Rams in 2014 and it was the first time his antics really angered an opponent. He picked up a taunting penalty after spinning the ball at the feet of safety T.J. McDonald after catching a nine-yard TD in the first quarter. McDonald was later called for taunting when he got in Beckham’s face after hitting him. Beckham finished with eight catches for 148 yards with two TDs, the second an 80-yarder in the third quarter.

Late in the first half of the Giants 37-27 victory, Beckham grabbed a short pass, ran toward the Giants sideline and then out of bounds. Linebacker Alec Ogletree drove him into the turf. Ogletree landed on top and Beckham tried to shove the ball in his face. Ogletree then pushed Beckham in the face when he was still on the ground, sending him crashing onto his back.

“He tried to pick me up and dunk me,” Beckham said after the game. “I just kind of lost my temper for a split second.”

Now, where have we heard that before?

All hell broke loose on the Giants sideline. Damontre Moore and Preston Parker of the Giants and William Hayes of the Rams were ejected. Hayes, Ogletree and McDonald are still with the Rams. Six Giants and three Rams were fined including $10,000 for Beckham, $8,268 for Ogletree and $10,000 for Hayes throwing a punch.

Fisher claimed the next day OBJ had first grabbed Ogletree’s facemask. He placed the blame on Beckham:

Fisher indicated his defense was aggravated with Beckham before the game. “Someone said he came out and said he was going to set an NFL record today against the defense early this morning,” he said. “I was told that. I don’t know.”

Case Keenum wants to finish what he’s started in turning around the offense

Gary Klein

http://www.latimes.com/sports/rams/la-sp-rams-keenum-20161019-snap-story.html

Rams quarterback Case Keenum likes the surroundings. He’s enjoying the luxurious, sprawling, tree-lined resort where the team is encamped outside the city.

“We’ve got a good pitch here,” Keenum, affecting the appropriate vernacular, said Wednesday after practice on the resort’s field where England’s national rugby team trains.

The Rams just had completed the first day of preparation for Sunday’s game against theNew York Giants at Twickenham Stadium.

Keenum is focused on another kind of finish. The elusive kind. The kind that wins games.

Consider: Last week against the Detroit Lions, Keenum produced perhaps the best statistical performance of his NFL career.

Jeff Fisher said. “The game slowed down for him.”

Said offensive lineman Rodger Saffold: “Nobody knew how well he was doing until after the game…. He didn’t even know it — and he was the one throwing ’em.”

Keenum passed for 321 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed for a touchdown.

“I thought I gave guys chances to make plays down the field,” he said.

It was all for naught.

Keenum had a pass intercepted with a little more than a minute left, sealing the Rams’ 31-28 defeat.

“I’ve got to — we’ve got to — finish,” Keenum said. “To have the ball in your hands with a chance to tie or win the game with a minute-and-half left, you’ve got to do it in this league.”

“It’s something I want to do and I know I can do and know this team can do.”

The game against the Lions was not the first time Keenum came up short.

In the previous week’s defeat against the Buffalo Bills, the Rams had the ball twice in the final minutes. They went three-and-out and then tried an ill-fated fake punt that led to a Buffalo touchdown and an 11-point lead.

Keenum, 28, had been a career backup until Fisher anointed him the starter going into offseason workouts.

He did not flinch when the Rams traded up to the top of the draft to select quarterbackJared Goff. Keenum played well during the exhibition season and kept his job. And his performance in defeat Sunday quelled some of the calls for the Rams to turn over the offense to Goff immediately.

Keenum is still learning about himself, he said.

“I never want to feel like I’ve arrived or gotten ‘there,’ wherever ‘there’ is,” he said. “I think that’s what all the good ones do — they continue to get better, no matter how much they’ve played or how many games they’ve played or how much experience they have.”

But Keenum would like to add to his resume by leading the Rams to victory with a late-game drive.

“All the great ones, they’re known for never being out of a game,” he said. “That’s definitely something that I want to take pride in.

“No matter what the situation is, I want to be able to go down and score points.”

Getting defensive

It’s been several days — and several thousand miles — since the loss to Detroit, but middle linebacker Alec Ogletree still feels responsible.

So there’s a new goal for the unit he leads.

“Play 10 times better on defense,” he said. “It started with me just talking to the guys and getting everybody’s mind right.

“We’re going to have a different approach this week. It’s the same thing we’ve been doing but we just need to just focus in a lot more and make sure we get back to what we were doing.”

The Giants feature quarterback Eli Manning and receivers Odell Beckham Jr., Sterling Shepard and Victor Cruz.

“They can put up 40 points in a matter of seconds if you’re not careful,” Ogletree said.

Quick hits

Defensive tackle Michael Brockers did not practice because of a thigh injury. Brockers was sidelined against Buffalo because of a hip injury but returned against the Lions and suffered the new injury. Defensive end Robert Quinn (shoulder) was limited…. Former Rams cornerback Janoris Jenkins has two interceptions for the Giants.

This week’s Rams opponent: Giants

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/20161019/this-weeks-rams-opponent-giants

The Rams haven’t faced the Giants since December 2014, but they’ll see a few familiar faces this Sunday in London.

New York signed cornerback Janoris Jenkins this offseason, rewarding him with a five-year contract worth up to $62.5 million after he spent the first four years of his career in St. Louis. He has seven passes defensed to go along with two interceptions, and Rams coach Jeff Fisher said Wednesday that the former second-round pick is playing as well as any corner in the league.

That the Giants successfully pried Jenkins away from the Rams — who exercised their franchise tag on Trumaine Johnson — also delayed the arrival of another cornerback.

Coty Sensabaugh arrived in Los Angeles this offseason on a three-year contract worth up to $15 million, and was drawn to the Rams in part because of defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, whom he had played for in Tennessee.

In doing so, Sensabaugh had spurned the Giants, the first team to contact him in free agency. Part of the reason? Jenkins’ presence.

But his stint in Southern California lasted a month into the regular season. The Rams benched Sensabaugh in the middle of his second game, deactivated him for his fourth, and cut him shortly thereafter. That freed him up to join the Giants, who signed him last Tuesday.

“Ironically, I ended up being here,” he told local reporters recently.

WHO’S COACHING THE GIANTS?

Even two Super Bowl rings only buy you so much time.

The Giants forced out Tom Coughlin this past offseason, ending a tenure that produced two championships over 12 years. Despite those thrilling peaks — including an upset of the then-undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII — that span featured just six winning seasons, and ended with back-to-back 6-10 records.

His successor is Ben McAdoo, the 39-year-old who is getting his first shot as a head coach. Promoted after two years as the Giants offensive coordinator, McAdoo provides schematic consistency for quarterback Eli Manning, who is coming off the best statistical season of his 13-year career.

BY THE NUMBERS

35 — TD passes thrown by Manning in 2015, tied for second in the NFL

8 — TD passes thrown by Manning this season, tied for 12th in the NFL

420.3 — Yards per game allowed by the Giants defense in 2015, most in the league

363.7 — Yards per game allowed by the Giants defense this season, 14th-most in the league

114 — Millions of dollars that the Giants guaranteed to four free-agent signings on defense

1 — Sacks by Olivier Vernon, who signed a five-year contract worth up to $85 million

PLAYER TO WATCH

Barring a surprise recovery, the Rams will be without top cornerback Trumaine Johnson for the second week in a row.

That’s particularly worrisome given their looming matchup against Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr., the two-time Pro Bowler who broke out of a slow-ish start to the season with 222 yards and two touchdowns against the Ravens. But Beckham might not be the Rams’ only concern. New York could very well try to pick on cornerback Troy Hill rather than E.J. Gaines — a tactic that could mean big numbers for Sterling Shepard or Victor Cruz.

Drafted 40th overall out of Oklahoma, Shepard is currently the most targeted rookie receiver in the NFL, and has turned his 26 catches into 302 yards and two scores.

In last week’s 31-28 loss to Detroit, the Rams gave up just 10 receiving yards to Marvin Jones — who entered the game as the league’s leading receiver — but allowed 165 to Golden Tate.

WHAT DID HE SAY?

“I’m sure there’ll be some naps.”

— Manning, on the Giants changing their body clocks before flying to London on Thursday

QB Manning

QB Eli Manning feels prepared for matchup with Rams

http://www.giants.com/videos/videos/QB-Manning-feels-prepared-for-matchup-with-Rams/f7f3f287-42b9-42d8-baaf-83b4a5e9d38f