Tight ends coach says “One play doesn’t define Evan”

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Evan Engram “shouldn’t be” lacking confidence

Giants tight ends coach on Tuesday Freddie Kitchens defended tight end Evan Engram, who dropped a critical pass in Thursday’s one-point loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, saying his confidence “shouldn’t be” suffering.

“Evan’s fine. You make some plays, you don’t make some plays. Evan’s confidence is fine and he’ll be fine moving forward,” Kitchens said.

Kitchens said the Giants will continue to make the 2017 first-round pick a focal point of the offense.

“The rearview mirror is a lot smaller than the front windshield. So we’d like to look through the front windshield,” Kitchens said. “Evan’s definitely a guy we’re going to continue to feed the ball to. One play doesn’t define Evan and it doesn’t define our offense. Evan’s going to have plenty of other opportunities.”

Shepard brings the “juice”

Wide receiver Sterling Shepard led the Giants with 6 receptions for 59 yards on Thursday in his first action since a Week 2 turf toe injury. Wide receivers coach Tyke tolbert said Tuesday that Shepard “looked about how I thought he would look coming back.”

“Sterling’s a ballplayer,” Tolbert said. “He does bring that juice to the offense. He brought that juice to the whole offense and the whole team, not just the wide receiver group. We miss his leadership skills out there. We saw that his leadership skills helped us an offense during the game and his play-making skills helped us during the game. Very glad to have him back.”

More headlines

Giants legend Mark Bavaro on Evan Engram's pain: 'I've been there'

Bavaro’s nightmare in Philadelphia came on Oct. 10, 1988. That game, a 24-13 Eagles win, is remembered more for the acrobatic play Eagles quarterback Randall Cunningham made on Giants linebacker Carl Banks to avoid a sure sack and throw a touchdown pass.

The Giants trailed 17-13 in the fourth quarter and, on a fourth-and-10, Phil Simms had Bavaro wide open near the goal line. The pass bounced off Bavaro’s helmet because he looked toward the end zone before looking the pass intro his hands, perhaps something Engram did on that drop last Thursday night.

Three plays after that Bavaro drop, Cunningham connected with Cris Carter for an 80-yard TD strike that put the game away.

“I lost a lot of confidence in myself after that drop,’’ Bavaro recalled. “It was such an easy catch. It did take a while to overcome it.’’

Before his drop, Bavaro had caught nine passes for 148 yards in that game.

“I don’t even remember that,’’ he said. “You only remember the bad ones. And that was a bad one. It was a game-loser. I still remember that play to this day. It never really leaves you.’’

Giants rookie progress: Andrew Thomas, Matt Peart and more – The Athletic

In case you missed it

• Giants’ DB coach Jerome Henderson pulls no punches about late-game mistakes
• 5 Giants’ losses, 10 plays that could have changed the outcomes
• Marc Colombo: Giants’ offensive line took “big leap” vs. Eagles
• Progress? Joe Judge says he sees it, so let’s look for it

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