Toeing the line between when Giants rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart should slide at the end of a run and when he should fight for extra yards has now become all about toeing the sideline.
Dart was leveled by the Patriots’ Christian Elliss during the last game, which led to Theo Johnson shoving Elliss and drawing a personal foul that turned a manageable third down into a field-position play before a punt.
“He has to get everything he can and make sure he’s clearly out of bounds so he’s not exposing himself,” offensive coordinator Tim Kelly said. “That was a clean hit. Our guys went to protect him, which you love to see. Obviously, it hurt the team because of the penalty, but if we can do a better job of being able to get out of bounds there, we’re not exposing ourselves to that penalty because we’re not going to get that reaction from the defense.”
Kelly praised Dart for his decision-making in terms of protecting the ball. He is near the NFL leaders in interception rate (1.3 percent of his passes).
But there are other decisions to make on the run.
“When is the journey over?” Kelly said. “And that’s clear as day when the journey was over. The guy’s got you dead to rights. You’re on the sideline already. Just duck out of bounds 6 inches earlier and we’re not having this conversation right now. We don’t get flagged. It’s a third-and-2 instead of a third-and-17. It changes a lot of things.”
Kelly had an eventful two weeks since the airing of the first episode of “Hard Knocks,” when he, Dart and Johnson had a long geographical debate over the direction of the Atlantic Ocean, the Hudson River and Long Island from the practice field.
“I got myself to second-guessing it after that,” Kelly laughed. “Holy smokes. I heard that from my family, from everybody. And I was like, ‘Guys, come on, I’m a football coach.’ I’m sure somebody will give me a map [for Christmas]. My smart-ass family, there’s no doubt about it.”
RG Greg Van Roten (shoulder) and KR/PR Gunner Olszewski (concussion) returned to practice on a limited basis.
EDGE Kayvon Thibodeaux was outside for practice as a non-participant along with DT D.J. Davidson (illness), OLB Victor Dimukeje (Knee), P Jamie Gillan (left knee), CB Nic Jones (shoulder) and DT Rakeem Nunez-Roches (ankle).
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