The defense played well for a half, at least, but there wasn’t much good for Jermaine Eluemunor to say about the Giants’ offense in Week 6, as they scored just three points in the loss to the Eagles, but he did give BT & Sal some praise for left tackle Josh Ezeudu, who stepped in for Andrew Thomas against a fierce Birds pass rush.
“I think he did a good job; obviously, the sacks were little technique things, but if you go back and watch the tape in the second half, it was really quiet on his side, especially going against a great player like Josh Sweat,” Eluemunor said. “A lot of times with a young guy, it’s kinda like trial by fire, and you have to go in there and get burned to realize what you have to do and what you have to work on in order to be better. In the long run, I think this will be good for him and his confidence – obviously, as a line, we didn't play up to our standard and we can do better to give DJ way more time in there, so we just need to try to be better.”
There wasn’t much talk of Eluemunor moving over to left tackle, as he told the guys it’s harder than people think to switch sides at that spot, and that would hurt the team more than it helped – even as Bill Belichick gave Pat McAfee an earful of how bad the Giants’ line actually is.
“Bill was my coach before, and you know, I talk about how much I disliked New England. So, whatever Bill thinks is what Bill thinks; everyone's free to have their opinion and I don’t really care about his,” Eluemunor said. “We’ve been one of the best when it comes to pass blocking in the league, and when we get the opportunity to run block, we've been pretty damn good, too. So, I couldn’t care less what a coach outside the building who's not even a coach right now has to say; that's not a shot towards him, obviously he's a legendary coach, but I couldn’t care less what someone outside the building has to say about our unit when there’s a lot worse situations than ours right now.”
That said, the Giants’ line has to face the Steelers and T.J. Watt on Monday Night Football, and Eluemunor made a prediction: it’s a game you’re gonna wanna sit and watch, especially if you’re Bill Belichick.
“I don't always make comparisons, but you look at the Packers last year, I think they started 2-5 and they made it to the playoffs, so it's definitely doable,” Eluemunor said about turning the season around. “I’m gonna go out there each day and give it everything I got, and I'm excited to go against TJ Watt this week – I’ve been going against him for three years now, so if Bill wants to watch someone play on the offensive line, tell him to watch me.”