Eli's Ready

Eli Manning just said he suffered no setbacks to his injured right heel yesterday, and hopes to take a full week of practice in prelude to the Saints game this week.

"It felt good," Manning said. "I didn't have a setback by any means."

As for taking a full week of practice, he said, "I think so. That's the goal. I'd like to be in there and take every rep at practice and be out there with the guys making sure we're getting better each week. That's the thought process right now."

In the meantime, Manning will be taking more rest and rehab as he prepares for Wednesday's first practice. If he does make it back fulltime, it will be a pleasant change for a team looking to solidify its identity as one of the NFL's top three or four teams, if not THE best. The fact that the offense not only held together, but thrived, despite the uncertainty surrounding the quarterback situation during the week indicates a much-needed resiliency that should serve them well as the schedule progresses.

Keep in mind that the 4-0 Saints are simply the first of 11 opponents that hold a collective 33-15 mark. Keeping their quarterback intact from an injured heel can only help the collective psyche going forward, even though Manning downplayed that aspect.

"I don't know if it did much," Manning said. "We know whatever situation we face week by week, whatever new challenges or things are going on, we make sure we stay focused. We have to make sure we know what's going on and playing at a high level. Things go right and things go wrong. It's about adjusting and playing good football."

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Looks like Lawrence Tynes is safe, for this week, at least.

Tom Coughlin said he has no plans to bring in another round of kickers for tryouts. But that didn't mean he was totally pleased with Tynes. There was an issue with one of his extra points that didn't go through quite as Coughlin would have like, and a couple of his kickoffs.

"I thought he did okay with the exception of one extra point," Coughlin said. "I still have to find out from Lawrence, Jeff (Feagles, holder) and Zak (DeOssie, snapper) exactly what it was. One of the balls wasn't struck and didn't go through the way you'd expect it to go through. It certainly made it, but it wasn't high and it didn't have the normal end-over-end.

"But when called upon, Lawrence did a good job. As for kickoffs, he had a couple that weren't pretty to the eye, but tied the opponent up. That's something we continue to evaluate. But he stepped up and hit his field goals and hit his extra points."

Coughlin said Tynes' success wouldn't keep them from further developing the short list, though he has no plans for tryouts this week.

"You keep asking this question, and I suppose it's for the right reason," Coughlin said. "All we want is the best. Lawrence is capable of that. Whatever the issues have been, we'd like to think we've worked on eliminating them.

"As we go along here, we need to rely on certain aspects of our game, especially when they're in that very makeable area. Yesterday, our coverage teams picked it up where we had three (tackles) inside the 20 and probably could have had five. That's a huge plus for us, especially since we're trying to make progress along those lines.

"We're just trying to make sure everything is in place. We do our due diligence with players around the league, and we'll continue to do that. But in an area where we needed to exercise some concern, yeah, we did that. And Lawrence performed well yesterday. I'm hoping he'll continue."

He'd better. The Saints, coming off a bye, have one of the better defenses in the league. So Sunday's game could well come down to Tynes' leg.

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Coughlin hesitantly reported that his team came out of the game with no major injuries. Hesitant because last week, "we had no idea and we ended up with two surgeries (Michael Boley and Bryan Kehl)," Coughlin said. "As of this morning, everyone on the list should practice with the exception of Boley (knee), Chris Canty (calf), and Aaron Ross (hamstring)."

Coughlin said Kehl is scheduled to practice, and TE Kevin Boss (ankle) will be worked out tomorrow to determine if he can practice Wednesday. Coughlin said S C.C. Brown hurt his shoulder but should be good to go. He said nothing about WR Mario Manningham, who came out before halftime with a chest injury and did not return. Manningham, however, said after the game that someone sat on him, and he would be fine.

EP