Giants Need To Use Sinorice Like the Skins Use His Brother

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The New York Sun

When the Giants host the Washington Redskins on Sunday, a top priority will be stopping Santana Moss, the receiver who torched them for five catches, 160 yards and three touchdowns the last time the teams played. But if they can’t stop him, they can use the game film as an instructional video for his brother.

The Giants drafted Sinorice Moss this year in large part because they think he can turn into a similar player to Santana, his older brother by four years. So far Sinorice hasn’t done that. Hobbled since training camp by a leg injury, he has played in only one game and will sit out Sunday.

When Sinorice gets healthy, the Giants could improve their offense by exploiting his talents the same way the Redskins use Santana. Giants offensive coordinator John Huffnagel calls more deep passes than any other NFL play-caller, and although that has resulted in a lot of long completions (the Giants’ receivers averaged 12.8 yards per catch last year, thirdbest in the league), it has also resulted in quarterback Eli Manning struggling to develop accuracy (the Giants completed 52.7% of their passes last year, ranking 29th).Where Santana Moss has excelled, and where the Giants think Sinorice can follow in his footsteps, is in picking up yards without sacrificing completion percentage. Santana this year is averaging 19.2 yards a catch and catching 70% of the passes thrown his way. The Giants’ Plaxico Burress is averaging 19.7 yards a catch but has caught only 52% of the passes thrown to him.The difference between them is that Burress gains his yards on long routes, while Moss catches shorter passes and uses his speed to pick up yards after the catch.

That speed could cause serious problems for the Giants on Sunday. Their secondary has struggled this year, and their starting cornerbacks, Sam Madison and Corey Webster, are too slow to keep up with Moss. That means the Giants will need to align their safeties farther back to help out if Moss beats the corners, and keeping the safeties farther back will open up the middle of the field for the Redskins’ running game.

The Giants want Sinorice to cause opposing defenses to face the same dilemma. The Mosses would be similar players even if they didn’t share the same DNA. Both are short, both are fast, and both excelled in college at Miami by lining up as slot receivers, catching passes over the middle and outrunning opposing defensive backs. After struggling through his own injury-plagued rookie year with the Jets in 2001, Santana has made good use of those skills in the NFL, twice leading the Jets in receiving yards and making his first Pro Bowl last year in Washington.

For the first time in his life, Sinorice won’t want Santana to display that Pro Bowl form on Sunday. If rooting against his brother makes him feel strange, he’s not alone on his team. Two Giants have already seen their brothers on the opposing sideline this season: Quarterback Eli Manning saw his brother, Peyton, in the opener, and backup quarterback Tim Hasselbeck watched from the sidelines as his brother, Matt, tore apart the Giants last month in Seattle.Running back Tiki Barber will play against his brother, cornerback Ronde, when the Giants host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on October 29. Sinorice will get another chance to play against Santana when the Giants and Redskins play again in the last game of the season on December 30. By that time, the Giants need him at full speed.

Mr. Smith is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.


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