David Wilson. Brandon Jacobs. Da’Rel Scott. Now, Michael Cox, or maybe Peyton Hillis, D.J. Ware, or Ryan Torain. Soon, Andre Brown. These are your running backs for your 2013 New York Football Giants. Not ideal, but a host of injuries have forced the Giants to look to the scrapheap to find depth for their running game.
The only good news for now appears to be that Wilson’s neck injury has been looked at by doctors who have determined that he should be good to go in three to four weeks, which would put him on track to return at roughly the same time as Brown, who is nursing a fractured leg.
Doctors originally thought Wilson was afflicted with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal cord, which would’ve been a career-threatening injury, according to a report by Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News.
According to a statement released on Wilson’s twitter account (@4stillRunning), he is currently feeling no pain and feels “perfectly fine.”
Perfectly fine could also describe the way the Brandon Jacobs ran the ball against the Chicago Bears Thursday night[1].
Jacobs had his best game in terms of total yardage (106) since December 13, 2010, when he rushed for 116 yards in a 21-3 Giants win over the Tarvaris Jackson-led Minnesota Vikings.
Fun fact about that game: Matt Dodge punted seven times including a 59-yard punt. Against all odds, he would only average 33.4 yards per punt in that game meaning his other punts averaged a robust 29.1 yards. Honestly I think I could do better. But that’s all beside the point.
Jacobs looked rejuvenated against the Bears, running in the way that he did in his prime.
Perhaps it was the addition of fullback John Conner, who paved the way for Jacobs all night with key lead blocks. Perhaps it was the extra adrenaline that came with being the starter for the first time in years. Whatever the reason, Jacobs was excellent Thursday.
Unfortunately, the question now becomes is there any reason to believe that Jacobs is capable of repeating his performance in the coming weeks.
While I’m no fortune teller, nor have I ever played one on television,3 what we saw out of Jacobs last Thursday seems like a mirage.
You have a guy who has been utterly terrible for the past three seasons have a big game, and as Jerome Harrison proved to us all in 2009, crazy one-off performances are not uncommon in the National Football League.
A more concrete reason for my suspicion is that Jacobs was held out of practice Monday nursing a hamstring strain, which he suffered against the Bears.
So what of Scott?
He was waived/injured by the Giants Tuesday night, who also injured his hamstring on Thursday night, just one week after being resigned by the team.
With the way things have been going for Big Blue this season, there’s no reason to believe he won’t see a third look.
So that leaves Cox as the lone healthy back on the Giants roster. Cox, a 24-year-old rookie from Massachusetts was the team’s seventh round draft pick in 2013 and has yet to touch the ball.
Obviously nervous about having a rookie be the only healthy back, the Giants worked out the one-time Madden cover boy Hillis, and former Giants Ware and Torain, and are expected to sign one of them on Wednesday.
Time to preorder the Clowney jerseys.
Joe Vasile | Featured Columnist
Joe Vasile is a play-by-play announcer for Widener Pride football and host of “Ball Four” on WTSR in Trenton. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeVasilePBP.