Giants running back David Wilson’s first game was memorable for the wrong reasons.
An early fumble took the first-round pick out of the offensive picture for New York, and while coach Tom Coughlin insisted Wilson is still in the offensive plans going forward, the Giants coach wasn’t afraid to state the obvious to the media on Thursday.
"Everybody says ‘Well, you didn’t play him after that,’” Coughlin said. “Well, we’re playing the opening game of the year. It’s a divisional game. We had just driven the ball. We’re going to be a bit reluctant. This is not preseason. Let’s go for Stage 2 here. This is serious business now.”
To his credit, Wilson, who had seven fumbles in his final season at Virginia Tech, seemed to grasp the gravity of the situation. Coughlin said it was good to see how seriously Wilson handled everything. (There were reports Wilson was crying on the sideline. He denied that but admitted he was very upset).
More important, Wilson understood why he was being benched.
“I mean, after you don’t get back on the field because of that, you kind of put one and two together,” Wilson said. “It is not hard to understand that.”
One of Wilson’s preseason goals was to not have any fumbles this season, and while he can already toss that one out the window, he seems eager to learn the things that helped other Giants backs -- specifically, Tiki Barber and Ahmad Bradshaw -- beat their fumbleitis.
“I am definitely going to be thinking about it more in practice,” Wilson said. “There are a lot more things to do [to think about], but you can’t do it if you don’t have the ball.”
Wilson said it wasn't an issue of hand position -- Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee appeared to put his helmet on the nose of the football -- while Coughlin believes Wilson may not have seen the tackler coming from the side.
“They’re coming for the football,” Coughlin said of the play. “No matter whether it’s loosey goosey, high and tight, or whatever, you’ve got to hang onto the ball. You’ve got to be aware of where the enemy is as he closes in on you. And you’ve got to get two hands on the ball, not just one. It came out and quite frankly that was a drive where some decent things for happening.”
The one thing that isn't in dispute is that the fumble killed a promising 59-yard drive.
The good news for Wilson was that he felt he was close to breaking two separate kickoff returns for a touchdown.
Wilson’s first return was somewhat disappointing, but he felt he was one or two moves away from a big gain on his second and third attempts -- and that’s an assessment Coughlin agreed with.
“He certainly has earned some confidence in the kickoff return,” Coughlin said.
Wilson still has packages in the offense and he’s not in danger of losing carries to Da’Rel Scott and Andre Brown yet, so the carries should still be there in Week 2. Coughlin accepts mistakes, but he expects his players to learn from them, so in a way, this is really an opportunity for the former ACC Player of the Year.
Follow the Giants and Alex Raskin @CBSSportsNFLNYG and @AlexRaskinNYC.
