Antrel Rolle: Giants the better teamEmailPrintComments17By Ohm Youngmisuk
ESPNNewYork.com
Archive Antrel Rolle admits that the New York Giants defense has a lot of work to do after the Redskins won the season opener. But the safety believes that if the two NFC East rivals played each other 100 times, New York would prevail at least 95 times.
"As a team and organization, we know that the Washington Redskins is not a better team than us," Rolle said in his weekly spot on WFAN radio. "We know that hands down. If we played them 100 times, they might win five. They won that day. It never leaves a good taste in your mouth when you lose to an opponent that you know you are better than."
When asked by WFAN hosts Joe and Evan if he was impressed by Rex Grossman or thought the Redskins were better than he thought, Rolle replied, "No, not at all."
Week 1: Redskins 28, Giants 14
Get all the details from Big Blue's loss in the opener: Giants Center » Blog »
"We'll definitely prove that next time around," Rolle said. "He is going to feel the Giants come the next time around. We will take care of that when the time comes."
Grossman completed 21-of-35 passes for 305 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday to lead the Redskins to a 28-14 win over the Giants at FedEx Field. Playing without defensive captain Justin Tuck and with a depleted secondary, the Giants defense failed to rattle Grossman and had a six-game winning streak against Washington snapped. The Giants had won 9-of-10 meetings between the teams prior to Sunday.
Rolle finished with six tackles but was flagged for a costly 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty in the fourth quarter after the Giants defense should have gotten a stop. On a third-and-9 at the Washington 45, Grossman hit tight end Fred Davis for a 7-yard gain but Rolle's penalty gave the Redskins a first down at the Giants' 33 before they eventually scored to make it a 14-point lead with 5:04 remaining.
The Giants, who face the Redskins again on Dec. 18 at MetLife Stadium, now have to bounce back against former defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and the Rams on Monday night.
They hope to have Tuck back this week from a neck injury that kept him out of the season opener.
"I definitely feel there is a lot of work to be done," Rolle said of the defense. "We have a lot of guys playing different positions we have to fill in for some key areas. We still haven't found that chemistry yet. It is getting close."
"We understood where things went wrong," Rolle added. "I don't think we played a good game as a team. I don't think we played good on special teams, on defense or on offense. The Giants will come out there and we will show the world what we are all about and we will come play."
Ohm Youngmisuk covers the Giants for ESPNNewYork.com.
Perhaps Mr. Rolle's problem is that he was too focused on what the redskins used to be rather than preparing for the team that actually took the field. I suspect this will be the case for quite a few teams this year.
