June 2, 2009
I got married in Florida a couple weeks ago. Tia and I have been together for a while but now it’s official, it’s on paper. It was a big day in both of our lives and a lot of teammates from Minnesota and New York were there.
It will be a new experience for both of us and we’re looking forward to planning a family.
I’m ready to get back to work and we have OTAs this week, but I’m being held out to get my knee healthy and strong again after surgery. We’re taking our time with it, just making sure I’m at my best health for training camp. I don’t want to rush it and it’s getting stronger and healthier each day.
Last year I hurt my shoulder and broke both hands after a great start. Right now my hands are totally healed, my shoulder feels good and we’re just taking it slow with my knee.
I’m looking forward to getting back out there on the field. I think we report for training camp around August 2. Football is in the air, finally.
We beefed up our D line by adding Chris Canty and Rocky Bernard. Toward the end of last year we got worn down by injuries, but now we have a lot of depth. These guys have started for different teams, and with them and Barry Cofield and Jay Alford we have a great rotation.
These guys can play multiple positions across the line, a little defensive tackle, nose guard. They give us a lot of depth.
Rotating guys in and out will keep us fresh and make us all better. The sky’s the limit. This line is going to be a force to be reckoned with.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com. Follow him on Twitter as fredrobbins.
July 9, 2009
This last month before we report to training camp on August 2nd I’m trying to train twice a day to get ready for two-a-days. You’ve got to get your body in the routine of working out in the morning and then working out again in the afternoon.
You want your body to be ready for the season, the long haul, and you want to be in the best shape physically.
But it’s also important to be in the right state of mind mentally. Before training camp you want to spend a lot of time with your family and friends because once training camp starts that’s all over for a while. Just try to do your day to day activities, some of your hobbies, prepare yourself and get your mind prepared.
Training camp is far more intense than mini camp and OTAs. At mini camp guys are just getting a feel for football again. They’re getting together for the first time since the season ended and there are a lot of new faces, rookies and free agent guys, and it’s a chance for everyone to come together and start putting the pieces together.
Mini camp is where a team starts building the foundation for the season, but training camp is a step above and guys really start going all-out. Training camp is when you build on everything you learned in mini camp.
Training camp isn’t a fun time but it’s not supposed to be. It’s the worst part of the season but it’s supposed to be hard so when it’s time to play the games you’re ready.
A lot of guys dread training camp but also look forward to it because this is where the team comes together. Day in and day out the guys really bond because you’re together on the practice field, in the cafeteria, and when you’re just relaxing. It builds camaraderie.
There’s great leadership on this team, a lot of guys who work hard and have fun doing it. And Coach Coughlin and all the coaches do a good job of not wearing our bodies down in training camp. They work us hard but keep us fresh enough to get through the preseason and the regular season and hopefully through the playoffs.
Fred Robbins is a defensive tackle for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.
Written By Fred Robbins
January 6, 2009
We can’t make mistakes against a team like Philly. They’re hot and they’ve really been claiming the line of scrimmage, so it’s going to be a typical Giants-Philly game and could come down to who has the ball last.
A lot of people have been saying that we could be rusty after a couple weeks off, but I don’t think so. We got in a lot of good work this week and last week. We haven’t relaxed, or taken the foot off the gas pedal. It’s playoff time! There’s no tomorrow and no get ’em next week. Each play really counts, and if you lose you have to wait a whole year to play again.
We’ve worked too hard for this to be the end of our season. We’re still hungry.
I didn’t take the day off against Minnesota even though I’ve been banged up because it could have been tough to get back in the groove going into the playoffs after not playing for 3 or 4 weeks. I wanted to sharpen my technique.
My shoulder is feeling healthy, about 95 percent. I’m finally able to do the things I was able to do at the start of the season, and I’m ready to pick up where I left off before I hurt my hands and my shoulder.
When we played Philly last time I had missed the week before with the shoulder injury and I think I rushed back too soon. My shoulder was not healthy enough for me to have been out there playing. I didn’t want to miss that game, but I wasn’t able to perform up to my capabilities.
On another note, it was a great holiday season for me and my fiancée, Tia. We had friends and family up from Florida and just spent a lot of time chilling with friends and teammates for the holidays.
Of course, I have two nephews who think I’m Santa Claus for real. It’s a good thing, though, I get joy out of seeing my family and friends happy. That’s what it’s all about.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.
August 13, 2009
It’s been frustrating to not be able to get on the field because of my knee, when everyone else is out there working hard, doing things to make the team better. You want to get out there and go to work again, get some of that camaraderie with your teammates. This is definitely one of the toughest things I’ve had to go through, just sitting back and waiting. I was pretty anxious to get back out there.
Now I’ve been back for a few days and everything feels good. I’ve had a couple days to get back on the grind and it feels good just to participate.
The knee feels fine and I haven’t had any problems with it. Being out the whole off-season and not being able to do anything but rehab was tough, now I can finally show what I can do and have some fun. There’s been no soreness, I’m participating in all the drills without limitations and practicing full speed. I’m just glad to be able to come back from an injury like that and not have any problems with it.
I’m ready to get this season started.
The rookies have been singing for us, and honestly pretty much all of them have been bad. A couple guys did OK. We’ll probably make a few more of them stand up tonight and sing for us like little birds.
Coming down the last week and a half, two weeks of camp we’ll definitely have a little more fun with the rookies.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.
Written By Fred Robbins
January 20, 2009
I’m back home in Pensacola now, I’m going to just relax and chill for a couple of weeks. Maybe after the Super Bowl I’ll get back into the swing of things, start working out again and get ready for the off-season program. Nothing too rigorous, just stay in the swing of things, some running, a little lifting, until I go back to New York.
We just had a bad day against the Eagles man, we couldn’t get anything going and they made the necessary plays. We gave up some points early after some bad field position. We played them tough, but in the end it was just one of those things where we couldn’t get anything going.
I thought the defense played pretty tough, particularly in the first half, but the Eagles made some big plays to keep drives going. We gave up some key third down plays and a couple of penalties hurt us.
On that 3rd and 20 play they caught us in a blitz and we got confused on the back end. There was no pressure, we gave McNabb too much time to throw and he made a big play. We gave up some key plays in the second half and missed some tackles.
I had a big play with that interception, but Kevin Curtis made a good play to trip me up.
It’s going to be an interesting and exciting off-season. I’m getting married to Tia Watts on May 23. The Giants have a new defensive coordinator with Spags in St. Louis. Spags is a great guy, he interacted with the players. He was more than just a coach and mentor, also a friend. He works hard and has fun doing it, so I think that will translate into success as a head coach.
Our new D coordinator is Bill Sheridan, who was the linebackers coach. He’s been around a couple years and we understand him. That will make it easier because we’ll have the same system, no new scheme. I think everything will run smoothly.
I hope everyone checks back here during the off-season, I’ll try to check in, too, and let everyone know what is happening.
My Super Bowl prediction: Steelers 28, Cardinals 14.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.
Written By Fred Robbins
December 16, 2008
We’re just not playing the type of football we’ve been playing since the beginning of the season. We have to make more plays, stop making penalties that kill us and get off the field on third down. All the teams we’re playing are geared up for the playoffs now, so we have to play better football all-around. Offense, defense and special teams, we have to play in sync with each other, which we haven’t done the past couple of weeks.
We’ve got two good teams coming up, first Carolina on Sunday for home-field advantage in the playoffs. They’re a good team so we’ve got our hands full. We have to get back to doing the small things that made us great during the season.
Carolina has two excellent running backs and the last two weeks we’ve been struggling to stop the run, so I’m pretty sure they’re going to try to run the ball. Steve Smith is one of the best receivers in the game, they’ve got a good O-line and a solid quarterback so our work will be cut out for us.
I definitely want to play. That’s the thing, the players always want to be out there on the field, but I don’t want to go out there too early and have a chance to reinjure my shoulder. I want to make sure I’m around for the playoffs, take some time as far as the healing process. I started having problems with it after playing last week.
What happens when you have an injury is that you talk to the team doctor, they ask for your opinion, the doc says his opinion and the coach makes the final decision. Coach Coughlin said he wanted to make sure I was around for the playoffs. Health is a big issue and you want to make sure you don’t reinjure yourself.
I’m definitely starting to feel better but it’s too early to say for sure whether I’ll play against Carolina. The strength in my shoulder just isn’t there yet, I can’t protect myself on the field and that’s not a good thing. I’ll probably know by the end of the week. Friday I’ll go out there and do some work on the practice field and see how it feels.
By the way, I was named Pro Bowl second alternate for the NFC … could be my first trip to Hawaii. I want to thank my family, friends and fans for their votes and their continued support.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.
Written By Fred Robbins
December 9, 2008
For some reason we just didn’t play well against Philly, we didn’t play up to our capabilities. If we do everything right, there’s not a team that can beat us on our best day.
Philly came out with a good game plan and caught us off-balance and we never could get in a rhythm. They made the big plays and we didn’t, we made a lot of simple mistakes and good teams capitalize on that. The whole ballgame they made the plays when they needed to make them.
When we had that blocked field goal that gave us a touchdown right before halftime it was a big momentum swing for us, but we came out flat for the second half. We didn’t do a good job of tackling. Lots of times when the offense can’t get going we’re there to pick it up, but we didn’t do that this time. We didn’t do a good job of reading our keys on third downs and had too many penalties. Eliminate those and we win the ballgame.
We’re still 11-2, we’re still a good football team, we’ll be ready to go against Dallas. You can’t dwell on losses in this league, you’ve got to move past it. We’re NFC East champions and we want to go out and win our last couple games to get that bye week, that would definitely help heal some guys.
Down the stretch, this is when teams start to make that playoff push and teams on the bubble are going to give it their all. We definitely have our work cut out for us.
My hands are better and my shoulder feels OK, the last few games every season you have to gut it out with some soreness. It’s nothing I can’t play with and it’s getting better day by day. That’s why we want to get that bye week and have time to heal.
Dallas has 3 or 4 Pro Bowlers on their O-Line, a Pro Bowl QB, Pro Bowl running back, Pro Bowl receiver. They’ll come out fired up, we got the best of them the first time around without Romo. They’ll be amped up for a Sunday night game in Dallas.
If we play Giants football, we’ve got no worries.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.
Written By Fred Robbins
December 2, 2008
I’ve got to tell you, I really don’t know that much about the situation with Plaxico and I don’t listen to hearsay. I don’t get caught up in it.
All I can tell you is that right now it’s out of our hands, and we still have a season to play. It’s an unfortunate and sad thing that it did happen, but we’ve got to stay focused on what we’ve got going on. We’ve got to look forward and keep pushing. He’s a teammate and I’m here to support him, but I’ve still got a job to do.
This team will not be distracted. We’re big on overcoming adversity and staying focused. There’s always a lot going on and you can’t get caught up in it. We’ve got a good group of guys, and not just the older guys, who lead the team and stay with the job at hand.
Coach Coughlin keeps us all level headed, we have one loss but every game we go into he makes it seem like we just lost last week. The guys know how to follow and know how to lead.
We know what it takes. We had a taste of success last year and we know we can’t let outside distractions get a hold of us because that could break the team apart.
We know what it takes and we’re just going to keep doing what we do best.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.
Playing with two broken hands is a piece of work, man. I broke them a couple weeks ago against the 49ers, both times making tackles.
It’s hard to tell what happened, guys are flying to the ball, hustling hard, flying around, and things happen. You don’t even realize it until after the game when they start swelling up.
That’s just bad luck, man.
When it happened adrenaline just took over, you’re always having bumps and hits and bruises. I’m not going to make any excuses, though, the swelling goes down every day and our trainers are doing an excellent job. The last two games adrenaline kicks in and lets you do your job.
There’s extra adrenaline when you’re playing the Cowboys, anyway. Anytime you beat up on the Cowboys it’s always a plus. It was a big win for us, they’re a team in our conference and our division. We’re halfway through the season and this is the time teams make an extra push for the playoff hunt.
Next we’ve got the Eagles in Philly and they’re always a good rival for us, right down the road. Our games with them are always decided at the end, whoever gets the ball last. They’re a good football team with excellent weapons, we need to go out and play flawless football against a team as good as the Eagles.
I usually match up with Shawn Andrews on their O-Line, but he’s been hurt lately. It’s a big game, though, so I’m sure he’ll do everything he can to get on the field. He’s a strong player, real physical and aggressive, he stays in it the whole play and doesn’t let up.
I just have to counter with my intensity, match intensity with intensity and keep plugging away. He’s a Pro Bowl guy, and any time you go up against a Pro Bowler on the offensive line you have to bring you’re “A’’ game.
I’m looking forward to it.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at www.fredrobbins98.com.
Written By Fred Robbins
December 2, 2008
I hurt the AC joint in my shoulder in the Arizona game. I don’t know the exact play it happened on. I think a couple of plays after I tried to block a field goal, I got a hit on the quarterback and fell on it wrong. I started to lose strength in the shoulder in the second half and got X-rays.
I couldn’t lift it at all last week but it was getting better day by day, so I thought I might be healthy enough to play against Washington. It was a game-time decision, and when it came time to play the strength just wasn’t there. I worked out before the game but the shoulder didn’t come through. I had every intention of playing, but now it’s getting time to rest and heal.
It’s getting better now, I’m able to lift some weights and get some movement in it.
I am DEFINITELY playing this week.
The guys really stepped up against the Redskins. Barry Cofield always does a good job and Jay Alford started in my place. Jeremy Clark came off the practice squad and did an excellent job filling in.
That’s the way this team is. One guy going down can’t hurt us on defense. That’s what separates us from other teams in the league, it’s never about just one guy, we can bounce back from injuries and stuff like that.
You never plan for an injury to happen. I’ve had some bad luck with my two broken hands and now my shoulder, but you’ve got to stay positive and my spirits are high. It’s slowed me down a bit but the key is not to get down about it and do different things out on the field. Your hands are your weapons when you’re a lineman, without them you have to resort to technique, technique becomes more of a factor and you become a smarter player.
I’m not complaining. My hands are healed up and my shoulder is coming along. No one wants to sit on the sideline and watch the team play.
We’ve got the Eagles this week, coming down the stretch, we know they’ll be ready because they’re fighting for a playoff spot. They’ve got one of the best quarterbacks in the game and one of the best running backs, and some good young receivers.
They’ve had some injuries on the O-line, they lost Shawn Andrews and some other guys, so I’m not sure who I’ll be going up against because they might move some guys around. Probably Nick Cole.
We know it will be a tough game because the Eagles are ready to make their playoff push, and when you play a team in your division you can throw the records out the window.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.
Written By Fred Robbins
November 25, 2008
We’re going into Thanksgiving coming off a good win. It was nice to be back in Arizona where we won the Super Bowl, but this is a new season, a different team, and the Cardinals were undefeated at home, so this was a good win for us.
With a team that throws like that, with the Pro Bowl guys they have, you know they’re going to make some plays, but we did a good job of keeping them out of the end zone. The running game was not a major concern, we were able to shut it down and make them one-dimensional and our secondary did a good job of holding them up all day.
Kurt Warner is in the same situation he was in when he had success in St. Louis, a lot of good receivers. He has the same kind of system where he’s comfortable throwing the ball 50 times a game. When he was with us we didn’t do so much passing, the focus was on the running game and passing off the run instead of straight-up passing all day long. He was never comfortable in that situation.
We play the Redskins on Sunday and I’ll be going up against Randy Thomas. He’s a good athletic guy, a good offensive lineman, good hands, good feet, he move-blocks well and we’ve had our battles over the years. The main thing for us will be to stop the run against Clinton Portis, but they also have Chris Cooley, Santana Moss and a good quarterback.
It never changes for us, though, we have to shut down the run and make them one-dimensional, because we’ve got enough guys on the line and in the secondary who can play the pass. Our front seven takes pride in shutting down the passing game.
For Thanksgiving, I’ve got some family coming to town and a friend coming down, about eight people coming over to my place and my fiancé, Tia, is going to cook. Her macaroni is off the chain!
It means a lot to spend a couple days with family and friends for the holiday. During the season you don’t get to do that and I was brought up very family-oriented, so I really look forward to it.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.
In the off-season, I like to hang out, go fishing, play video games, chill with my friends.
One of my favorite things to do is drive around in one of my cars.
I have a nice collection, about 12 or 13 cars, a couple old-school muscle cars, a couple new-school cars, a couple of tricked-out cars. I like variety.
Mostly I keep them down in Florida and I drive them when I’m back home. I definitely keep a high-end car up here in New York, but mostly it’s something to do when I’m home in Pensacola.
The one I love the most right now is a ’96 Chevy Impala, black.
The most tricked-out car I own is a Cadillac Escalade ESV Keller, with four 15-inch TV monitors, rear-view cameras, suede seats, big-time speakers, PlayStation and DVD, it’s got everything in there. It seats six and almost everyone in the car—even the driver—can pretty much watch their own TV.
That’s one of the things I like to do when I’m not playing, just relax, drive my cars, forget about playing football for a while.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at www.fredrobbins98.com
It’s definitely a good feeling to go back to Arizona, man, because the last time we were there we won the Super Bowl.
But this is a different year, it’s a good team we’re playing, so we have to stay humble and stay focused.
My broken hands are getting better every day and that’s a key to the way I play. Every day I get treatment so I can get them healthy and use them a lot more. The pain has been going away, I can’t complain.
There were a couple times against the Ravens when I broke through the line untouched. It’s funny when that happens, at first you feel surprised because you don’t expect that to happen. Then you get the “big eyes” because you think you’re going to get the quarterback. But anything can happen, the quarterback might make a big play, move out of the pocket, what have you, and your sack is gone.
My top 5 goals for the rest of the season:
1) Keep winning.
2) Stay healthy. This time of the season you really have to take care of your body. We had an early bye week this year and we have a run of 13 straight games to finish the season out. Lots of games you get nicked up, so this time of year you get extra treatment from the trainer, hot tub, cold tub, massages. That cold tub is full of ice water but it keeps your body healed and healthy.
3) Make it to the playoffs.
4) Try to keep a strong relationship with my fiancé and my family. I’m getting married in May down in Florida.
5) Being thankful and appreciative of family and friends, and being thankful for what we have, not what we don't have. That's not really a goal but it’s something I think about as a personal goal of mine.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at www.fredrobbins98.com.
The Eagles were a real good football team, man, but we’re happy to be 8-1 and 3-0 in our division. People are talking about the Giants going back to the Super Bowl but we don’t feel that kind of pressure.
This is what you work for, to be in position to go to the Super Bowl. That’s our goal, and the team is staying hungry. We know that first we have to get into the playoffs, so we’ve started our playoff push. Things are looking good but there are some key games coming up, so we just want to take it one game at a time.
The Eagles are a good team and they made some adjustments against us. We went in wanting to stop Brian Westbrook and I think we did a pretty good job of that. You have to know where he is at all times, he lines up in the backfield or out wide, he can hurt you in so many ways. Guys rallied to the ball and made tackles. He always makes one or two guys miss, so you have to get multiple people to the ball and tackle well. We put some pressure on McNabb early and forced him to make bad throws.
My two broken hands are getting better each day. They’re coming along fine and I’ve been able to use them a little more, though I have to wear braces on both of them. You have to get used to playing with them, it limits you in some ways. It’s not as easy to grab onto someone when you’ve got braces on both hands.
I haven’t had many sacks lately but that’s not because of my hands. Teams have been keeping 6, 7 or 8 guys in to block against our front four.
Next we’ve got Baltimore at home. They’re an intense team with a solid offensive line so we have to go in there hard and match their intensity. We want to use our home-field advantage, get the crowd into the game early with a big play, a tackle for loss or a sack. That always helps, gets the crowd screaming and yelling on third down. I like to raise my hands up, try to get the fans involved. I think they like that.
We can’t look past anybody. You can’t look ahead, once you do that you end up getting beat. We need to take control of the season. We’re focused on going out there and getting a victory.
Fred Robbins is the starting defensive tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at www.fredrobbins98.com.
In the off-season, I like to keep it simple, have fun and relax. Do some video games, go fishing, hang out with my family and friends and get to do the things I don’t normally do during the season.
During the season the team is my family, and I make sure the defensive line goes out at least once a week or so, grab dinner together, go to guys’ houses. We get to know each other more outside of football, on a more personal friendship level instead of just on a teammate level.
When you do that, you definitely develop a greater respect for each other on the field, because you know more about somebody. And we have a lot of fun together, someone’s always laughing, joking, going on about stupid things. There’s never a dull moment, there’s always something to laugh about.
The rookies this year are a great group and they fit right in. Osi probably thinks he’s the funniest of the bunch, but every day someone different is the joker.
Once game time rolls around, though, every guy has his routine and fun time is over. Some guys read, some get real quiet, some listen to music with headphones on. Then we go to work.
I was named defensive captain this year and that means a lot to me, that your teammates consider you a team leader and look up to you. Respect from your peers means a lot in this league. To know that they consider you a captain and a leader, you know you’re doing something right.
I have 5½ sacks through six games, and that matches my career high already. I’m really not doing anything different, it’s just a lot of hard work paying off. I’m getting a better feel for what’s going on and making my presence known more. I’m just trying to get better all the time, that’s what it’s all about. Especially with Michael retiring and Osi injured, everybody on the front line has been doing a great job. There’s still room to improve, but we’re getting better and ready to take it to the next level.
The Steelers are up next in Pittsburgh. We approach every game the same, you can’t get caught up in anything because we’re pushing to make the playoffs and we can’t look past anyone or we’ll end up with a loss.
Against the Steelers I’ll be going up against Darnell Stapleton. He’s a good player and Pittsburgh works well together as a unit. They have solid pass protection and are a good team overall.
Fred Robbins is the starting defensive tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at www.fredrobbins98.com.
September 22, 2009
Beating Dallas was a good win for us. It was a nice new stadium, but we’re not out there to be distracted. We had a game to play and we had to focus as a team. We couldn’t get caught up in all the extra stuff that was going on. The ex-president was there, there were 100,000 fans, but it was just another football game to us and we were able to keep our composure.
We made some mistakes as far as our run defense, guys missed gaps and that hurt us. They made some big runs, when you make mistakes against the good teams they are going to capitalize. Marion Barber is a good back with good vision, he was able to hit the right gaps. And they have a very good front line. They did a good job keeping us off-balance with some misdirection runs, play-action, some bootlegs and a few screens. They never let us get in a rhythm for a pass rush. Luckily we were able to come up some big plays of our own like the interceptions.
When two good teams play each other it always comes down to a couple plays here or there.
I wasn’t upset when their coach called that timeout on the final kick. There’s no rule against it. It was just a good thing that Tynes came back and kicked the winner, that’s all I’m concerned about.
Tampa Bay is next and we have to make corrections and adjustments because Dallas ran for a lot of yardage, so you know Tampa is going to try to run it, too. They have a good O-line and good backs, so we have to go out there and shut down the run and give our pass rushers a chance to pass rush.
We’re not down on ourselves, we know what we have to do. The mistakes we made are easily correctible with a few adjustments.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.
September 16, 2009
It’s always great to beat a division opponent, so it was a good win for us against the Redskins. It was our first win of the season and it came in the division so it feels good.
We still have a few wrinkles to iron out, some cleanup to do, but overall we did a pretty good job. They started with a big run against us but we bounced back, didn’t get down on each other and finished strong.
In the NFL you can only enjoy a win for about a day. We have another tough game coming up at Dallas, so you can’t dwell on your win the whole week before. You’ve got to keep moving forward, getting ready for a tough division opponent in their new stadium. There will be a lot of hype and a lot of emotions going wild. We have to go in with our A game and improve on what we did last week.
We got the first game out of the way with a win but we can’t be satisfied. Our D could be better, you always have to improve.
I felt good, healthy. I didn’t get a sack or a lot of tackles but that’s just one of those things. They didn’t run the ball that much and we kept pressure on Campbell all day, plus our offense had the ball a lot of the time. Stats don’t always show how you play. I did some good things, I’m feeling good and healthy.
Dallas will be big. A Sunday night game in Dallas is definitely going to be a primetime game.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.
October 1, 2009
It feels good to be 3-0. I feel like we took another step in the right direction when we shut out Tampa Bay but we still have a ways to go, there’s still room for improvement. We have a long season ahead of us.
It’s hard to shut out any team in the NFL but we played well in all three phases of the game, offense, defense and special teams. The offense did a great job of controlling the football. That really makes our job easier when the offense is on the field for a long time sustaining drives. Any time we’re not on the field, it’s a good thing.
Now we’ve got Kansas City. They’re a good team even though their record doesn’t indicate that. They have a solid offensive line. We can’t go in there relaxed and feel cool and calm just because we’re 3-0. Last year we were 4-0 and headed into Cleveland and they gave us a tough game. The Chiefs have guys getting paid to play, too, and each week is different so you can’t ever relax.
We’ve really been grinding it out this season. Long hours at work trying to get better, studying film. I spend the off days with my wife, sometimes we catch a movie or something, but it’s grinding time. We have all of our fun in the off-season, during the summer.
I love the New York area. It’s a very different atmosphere from where I grew up in Florida, but my wife and I love it up here. This is our second home.
Back to football, we have to get some sacks against the Chiefs on Sunday. We’ve gotten a lot of QB hits the last couple of weeks but not a lot of sacks. We have to start getting them, we pride ourselves on that. We up front have to stop the run to give our guys a chance to hit the quarterback.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.
October 13, 2009
Against the Raiders we showed that good things happen when we put all three phases of the game together, offense, defense and special teams. There’s still room for improvement but overall I think we played a heck of a game. We came out fast on defense, had some three-and-outs and put pressure on the quarterback. We played the run well and really shut them down.
Still, I think we could do a better job of tackling, and we did let up a few big runs.
We have our toughest game of the season up next with the Saints in New Orleans. Against Drew Brees everything has to go hand in hand for the defense because he gets rid of the ball quick and on target. The D-line has to get pressure, even if we can’t get sacks we have to harass him and keep him in the pocket. The linebackers have to stop the run and take care of their assignments and the D-backs have to do a good job in coverage.
With Brees, if a D-back is just a couple yards from the receiver, he’s going to complete that pass.
One goal is to stop the run to make them one-dimensional. That will give us more control out there. The Saints have a solid offensive line as a group, and obviously a quarterback who’s been throwing for a lot of yards the last couple years. They can run the ball and they’ve got an old friend at tight end in Jeremy Shockey and we call know what he can do. It’s a potent offense across the board.
Any time you face a team like that in their home stadium you have to play flawless. The last couple weeks we played good football, but not flawless.
I know Shockey’s going to come out with something to prove. Anytime you play a former team it gets you fired up. He still knows a lot of guys on this team, so there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s going to come out and give his best effort.
I’m really looking forward to going to New Orleans. I’m going to have a lot of family going there to see me play. It’s about a 3-hour drive from Pensacola, so it’s a good opportunity to have them come out.
Fred Robbins is a defensive tackle for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.
October 27, 2009
After two straight losses we have to bounce back. It’s a long season and you can’t get down on yourself. We play a good Philly team this week and we have to get back on track.
Every season is not perfect. We have to get on a roll, find our sweet spot. It starts with everyone doing more than they’re asked to do. We have to play better, and we have to stop getting penalties. That can hurt you against a good team.
We didn’t capitalize on our opportunities and Arizona did. Whenever we had a chance we would hurt ourselves with a penalty or a turnover. On defense I know we can play better, make more stops in the red zone and get off the field on third down.
We have to turn it up a notch now because it’s crunch time. We can’t fall apart.
We have to do the little things better. Up front we have to make our moves quicker because teams have adjusted to us, they’re getting rid of the ball quicker. We have to do our job and the secondary has to do its job, we all work hand in hand. The other team figures they’re not going to give us a chance to do what we do best, which is get to the quarterback. They’re keeping extra guys in to block, getting the quarterback to the edge and getting rid of the ball faster on little 5-6 yard passes.
It’s a good time to play the Eagles. A win would cure everything. We’re playing a division opponent, a good rival and it will be an intense game. That’s a good way to get back on track, stop all those sad faces in the locker room. And you can’t let the losses pile up, especially in the division.
Teams are starting to make their push. We have nine games left and we have to keep moving on. Beating the Eagles would definitely get our spirits up.
Fred Robbins is a starting defensive tackle for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.