Giants Daily Blitz Blog

LB Williams’ breakout game vs. Eagles

Jacquian Williams’ cover was blown.

He had just chased down Michael Vick in the open field and tackled him from behind. Not many players, let alone rookies drafted in the sixth round, are supposed to be able to do that.

It even left Vick surprised. So much so that the quarterback acknowledged it as he picked himself up off the turf during the opening drive of last year’s Week 3 meeting between the Giants and Eagles.

“That first play when I chased him out, I didn’t realize he was going to get upfield that fast but I got him,” Williams recalled after the Giants’ 29-16 victory in Philadelphia. “He shook my hand and told me ‘good job.’ So I’m pretty sure he knows I’m kind of fast, too.”

It was the first of Williams’ 10 solo tackles in the game and helped frustrate the quarterback as the Giants’ snapped a six-game skid to their NFC East rivals.

At the time, Williams was playing in his third professional game and flashing the speed that the scouting department saw in him coming out of college. He also showed his competitiveness, which is another reason why the Giants took a chance on the raw linebacker out of South Florida. Or as Marc Ross, Director of College Scouting, refers to players like him – “undercover.”

This week, the second-year linebacker with 11 tackles thus far this season is no longer unknown. He could have a similar role this Sunday night as the Giants defense takes on Vick for the first time since last September (Vick was sidelined for their second meeting of 2011 in Week 11).

But there’s no one thing – or person – that defensive coordinator Perry Fewell has up his sleeve.

Meanwhile, Vick has been sacked nine times this season, and Fewell was asked whether it was due to his protection or if he was holding onto the ball too long.

“I don’t know their progressions as far as their reads,” Fewell said on Thursday. “I know sometimes, Michael, when he has the ball, it seems like he gets rid of it pretty quick to me.  Sometimes when the read isn’t there, he pulls it down and runs, and he’ll take a hit.  I don’t think there’s one cause of it, people have just been able to get to him and hit him this year.”