After so many starts and stops in the first month of the season, the Giants are looking forward to settling into the same old dull routine.
It raises the comfort level exponentially.
"We know we've got 13 straight games,"
Brandon Jacobs said Wednesday after practice. "We are creatures of habit. We know what's coming every day now. It's the same thing over and over, the only thing changing is the opposing team."
After opening the season on a Thursday in front of a national audience, the Giants had to kill a little time. They came back from a long weekend and quickly got into a rhythm. And before any real momentum built, the bye week interrupted.
"It's funny,"
Shaun O'Hara said. "I think the first few weeks we'll be talking about getting into a rhythm then we'll be talking about the grind, so it depends on how you look at it. This really is the season. One of the things we did well last year was really crank it up in December when it counts."
They do have an opportunity to get a running start.
Of course, there is a downside to playing every week through Dec. 28. There is no more time for little bumps and bruises picked up along the way to heal.
"It's a double-edged sword,"
Danny Clark said. "It's always good to know where you're going to be, what time you've got to be there. It starts to become clockwork and you can build on that. But also, when you get a break, I want it. Anytime you give me a break, I'll take it."
Giants coach Tom Coughlin might have to build in rest stops down the road.
"That is well out in front of where we need to be right now,"
he said. "It depends on what the circumstances are as we move forward, and basically you have to get your work done no matter what. We really have had unusual scheduling issues pretty much throughout, but it will settle in now certainly."
Coughlin, though, isn't one to complain.
"Behind closed doors, to myself, when I see the schedule, I say and do whatever I feel and then I accept the position. There is not a whole lot I can do about it, so let's play it as it is dealt,"
he said with a chuckle.
The comfort level comes from always knowing what's next.
Seattle is coming in this week, so the Giants spent Monday on corrections, and Tuesday was a day of rest. They began to game plan Wednesday, and will continue to fine tune the Xs and Os Thursday and Friday.
The feet go up again Saturday, and kickoff is 1 p.m. on Sunday.
"I think these next couple of weeks are going to go by quickly,"
Chris Snee said. "There's one Monday night game (at Cleveland on Oct. 13), but there's no more layoffs after Thursday games or anything like that, so hopefully it will allow us to get into a groove and get some momentum. You want to keep everything the same every week from the practice schedule to meeting times."
"We like routine."
And it hasn't been a major ordeal to fall back into step after the long weekend, but the Giants are 4-15 coming off the bye week.
"I thought Monday we had a great practice, a lot of energy," Eli Manning said. "It can usually be the most sluggish practice of all, that first day back from the bye week. So it was good to kind of run around a little bit."
Now the goal is to avoid running out of steam.
NOTES: WR Mario Manninghan was again unable to practice because of the flu. He spent part of Wednesday in a local hospital for tests.
K Lawrence Tynes is up to full speed after missing three games with a knee injury, butCoughlin has not declared him the starter over John Carney for Sunday's game against the Seahawks.
DE Jerome McDougle was again limited in practice because of a knee injury.
