EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — New York Giants edge defender Abdul Carter is “disgusted” by the team’s pass rush over its first three games, he told Big Blue View this week in an exclusive interview.
“Honestly, seeing where we are with our pass rush, I’m honestly disgusted at it, but at the same time, we can’t let it discourage us,” Carter said. “Me and Kayvon [Thibodeaux] talked about how better we got to be and how we can be more impactful, just coming in each week, attacking each week harder, doing whatever
it takes to get better. At the end of the day, we can’t get discouraged.
“Obviously, teams are going to scheme against us and plan for us not to wreck the game, but we’re going to have to find a way.”
The Giants will, of course have to find that way without star edge defender Brian Burns, lost for the season due to a knee injury said to include both a torn ACL and meniscus.
“It hurts a lot,” Carter said. “Ever since I came in, Brian, he’s always been that guy in our defense we can look at. He does everything right. He practices hard. He plays hard. He makes sure he doesn’t miss his games.
“Even when he came back, he played hurt and obviously ended up getting hurt. It shows his character and what type of man he is.”
Carter has the Giants’ only sack of the season. He believes the pass rush will make its mark.
“We pride ourselves on being able to get to the quarterback. That’s what we get paid to do,” he said. “I’m going to keep saying we can’t get discouraged. We can’t lose our confidence.We have to keep rushing, keep playing hard, and it’ll open up.”
Defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson has not lost faith.
“It’s there. It’s going to come. Be patient,” Wilson said. “And when it comes, it just keeps coming, okay? Just like interceptions, just like takeaways. Once you get one, you start to feed off of it. The guys start to have that feeling, and it will come. Be patient. It’s coming. And maybe the dam breaks this week. You don’t know.”
Wilson said the coaching staff is tinkering with ways to find better matchups.
“We’re looking at it, we have to put them in better positions for them to go ahead and take off a little bit,” he said. “Right now, obviously, the production hasn’t been there with the sack totals and everything like that, and we take full responsibility as a coaching staff to get that going. A lot of it is moving pieces around, trying to get different players in different spots so they can have more success, being able to dent the pocket in the A and B gaps.
“Those are things that we’re working on and we’re still chasing it. It’s still early in the season, and early in the season it’s not where we want it, but we still have a lot of games to go to get where we want in terms of that.”
Carter said players need to look in the mirror.
“I think that’s where you got to start,” he said. “I think whenever you’re struggling with something, first you got to look in the mirror and look at yourself and see what you can do better first. I think you should start there and then I feel like everything else should come after that.”
