They were long-time teammates and champions on the New York
Giants' Super Bowl team in February 2012.Eli Manning and Jason Pierre-Paul will
add a new dimension to their eight-year friendship Sunday when the Giants (2-7)
host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-6) at MetLife Stadium.They'll be opponents for
the first time.As he has been the past 15
seasons
Jacob
McQuaide Jersey , Manning will be quarterback for the Giants. Pierre-Paul
will be playing defensive end for Tampa Bay in his first game at the Meadowlands
since New York traded him to the Bucs in March to clear salary-cap
space.Pierre-Paul has had this date checked since the schedule was
announced."Eli is Eli, man. I know one thing: If he's hot, he's going to
continue being hot," Pierre-Paul said of Manning, who took some heat off himself
by throwing three touchdown passes and engineering a late TD drive in the
Giants' win over San Francisco last Monday night. "We've got to get after him
early and he knows I'm coming. I'm coming Eli, I'm coming. Just letting you
know."Pierre-Paul didn't get the best sendoff after the trade. Not many
teammates called him, although Manning did."He's a leader. I actually learned
this from him, he comes in every morning real early," said Pierre-Paul, who has
eight sacks this season, two less than the entire Giants team. "He started that
as a rookie. He never changed. Eli's a great guy. But I ain't falling asleep on
him. That's for sure."Manning laughed saying, he hopes JPP takes it easy on
him."He's getting a lot of sacks and making plays," Manning said. "I expect him
to be fired up. Hopefully we've got a game plan for him, and make sure we try to
control him."Here are five things to watch Sunday:CONTROLLING PIERRE-PAULThe
Giants' offensive line, which added waiver-wire pickup Jamon Brown at right
guard
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had one of its better performances Monday. Manning, who has been sacked 32
times, was taken down once. Left tackle Nate Solder will probably go against
Pierre-Paul most of the time.Since Pierre-Paul lines up at different spots,
right tackle Chad Wheeler also will go against him. Expect a tight end or a
running back to chip him.EXPLOSIVE OFFENSETampa Bay has the NFL's top-ranked
passing attack and is also No. 1 in total offense. With 3,251 yards passing, the
Bucs have thrown for the second-most yards through the first nine games of a
season in NFL history behind the 2000 St. Louis Rams (3,330).They've had over
500 yards total offense four times this season, but are 1-3 in those games,
including last week's loss to Washington. Turnovers are the biggest reason. They
are a league-worst minus-19 and have gone six consecutive games without a
takeaway.CLASSMATESTampa Bay's Mike Evans and New York's Odell Beckham Jr. were
part of an outstanding class of rookie receivers who entered the NFL in 2014.
The group included Brandin Cooks, Jarvis Landry, Devante Adams, Sammy Watkins,
Allen Robinson, Jordan Matthews, John Brown and Kelvin Benjamin. Evans
(5
Womens
Rob Havenstein Jersey ,416) and Beckham (5,282) rank 1-2 among the class
in career yards receiving, while Beckham is first with 42 TD catches, followed
by Evans with 36. Beckham has 24 100-yard receiving games, tops in the class.
Evans is next at 17.LACK OF PRESSUREThe Giants have 10 sacks. Rookies Lorenzo
Carter and B.J. Hill lead with two apiece. The Bucs had allowed 26 sacks, but
they also throw the ball an average of 41 times."We've got to find a way to get
some more pressure," Giants defensive coordinator James Bettcher said. "We've
got to win some more 1-on-1s, we've got to beat the back when we get on the back
in protection. If we get a free runner, we've got to time up our pressures a
little bit better. We had a couple of those this past week when our timing just
wasn't good enough. We were a little late in the pressures and we've got to
clean that up, and play better on third down."A RETURNMANThe Giants seemingly
have found someone to return kickoffs. Corey Coleman handled the job for the
first time in his NFL career, averaging almost 31 yards on three returns.Special
teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey was confident the 15th overall pick in the
2016 draft (Cleveland) could handle the job after being signed to the practice
squad on Oct. 18. He had been waived by the Patriots."He did it in college,"
McGaughey said. "That's part of our job as coaches, we've got to do our
research. I worked with Art Briles, so I always followed Baylor kind of closely
so I knew about him and I knew about his past. Kid can run."AP Sports Writer
Fred Goodall in Tampa,
Florida
Cory
Littleton Jersey , contributed to this report. ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) —
Broncos general manager John Elway continued his latest coaching search Thursday
by interviewing Zac Taylor, the Rams‘ 35-year-old quarterbacks coach who’s long
on football pedigree but short on experience.Elway and player personnel director
Matt Russell flew to Los Angeles to interview Taylor near the Rams’ headquarters
in Thousand Oaks, California, a day after meeting with former Colts coach Chuck
Pagano in Denver.Elway also plans to speak with Bears assistant Vic Fangio,
Patriots assistant Brian Flores and Steelers assistant Mike Munchak.With the
Rams off this weekend, Taylor also is expected to meet with the Arizona
Cardinals about their head coaching vacancy.Elway is searching for his fourth
head coach in six seasons after firing Vance Joseph on Monday with two-year
record of 11-21.“This is no fun going through this. It’s not something I want to
do, but then again, I understand what my job is,” Elway said. “My job is to give
us, the Denver Broncos, the best chance to win.”That could be by hiring Taylor,
a high-risk/high-reward outlier on Elway’s short list of candidates .Taylor has
never been a coordinator much less a head coach. But the son-in-law of former
Green Bay Packers head coach Mike Sherman has a strong track record working with
quarterbacks and has earned praise in his two years on Sean McVay’s staff.He
also has football in his blood: Taylor was the 2006 Big 12’s Offensive Player of
the Year at Nebraska; his father, Sherwood, was a defensive back and captain at
the University of Oklahoma; and his younger
brother
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Press, 30, is the QBs coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.While Elway’s other
candidates either have deep defensive roots or lots of experience, Taylor is the
only one who boasts strong credentials in the run-pass option craze that has
filtered from colleges to the pro ranks in recent seasons.And Elway concurred
with cornerback Chris Harris Jr.’s assessment this week that the Broncos have
fallen behind by not adapting on offense or defense in the three years since
they won their last Super Bowl title.“Yeah, no doubt, especially if you look at
where the rules are going,” Elway said. “The rules are getting shifted to the
offensive side, too. We’ve relied on our defense for a long time. I think that
we’re still going to rely on the defense, but we definitely have to get better
on the offensive side.”Taylor tutored the Rams’ receivers in 2017 and was Jared
Goff’s position coach this season, when the 2016 top overall draft pick threw
for 32 touchdowns and 4,688 yards while leading the Rams to a 13-3 record and
the NFC’s No. 2 playoff seed.After college, Taylor served as a graduate
assistant and tight ends coach on Sherman’s coaching staff from 2008-11 at Texas
A&M, where he worked alongside current Broncos offensive assistant Klint
Kubiak.Taylor jumped to the NFL in 2012 as a member of Joe Philbon’s Miami
Dolphins staff and tutored Ryan Tannehill during the quarterback’s most
productive seasons from 2013-15.He served as the Dolphins’ interim offensive
coordinator for the final five games in 2015, then returned to the college ranks
for a year as offensive coordinator at the University of Cincinnati.
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