Giants first year head coach Pat Shurmur talks about trip to Detroit.

The Giants head to Detroit for a few days of practice with and against the Detroit Lions before the two teams face off Friday night (7:00 PM).

There are pros ad cons with these practices. Some will say it’s great to run drills against another team to break the monotony of hitting the same guys day-in and day-out. Younger players may also pick up moves and techniques from the other team’s veterans. Road trips are always good for team bonding.

The push back is there tends to be unnecessary fighting and that always opens the door for injuries.
But the Giants head to Michigan for three days of fun and football.

The Lions’ facility in Allen Park is about 10 miles outside of downtown Detroit where Ford Field is located. Shurmur has a past relationship with Lions’ first-year head coach Matt Patricia, who was formerly the defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots.

“When Matt was the defensive coordinator at New England, I did it twice when I was with Philadelphia,” said Shurmur. “I’ve worked with Matt before. We’ve got a good feel of the tempo and how we want to do it. We kind of set the ground rules ahead of time, and try to get good work.”

Shurmur talked about the trip before Sunday’s practice.

“It’s Sunday, right?” Shurmur said with a smile. “The beginning of our Detroit week. Keep in mind we’re still in training camp, so we’re working on things that we need to get better at as we approach our preparation. As you know, we’re going to practice three days against Detroit before we play them, so we’ll practice again here tomorrow then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday we’ll practice with the Lions, then play them on Friday. Looking forward to that, looking forward to a little change of scenery. It’ll be a good team event for us to be all together away from town so we can bond a little bit, too.”

Shurmur was asked if the injured players were also making the trip.

“Yes, I think it’s important,” the first-year had coach said. “We’re there an extended period of time and so we’ll try to bring them. We’ll take them this trip. Typically we won’t when we take one-day trips or two-day trips, but because this is extended, they’ll be with us. They’ll get their treatments on the road.”

Shurmur was asked how he balances making corrections while continuing to install and work on things to get himself ready for the season in these practices.

“It’s continuous,” Shurmur said. “And so there were lots of new plays that we ran today. Different concepts, getting different guys involved that are just kind of, as you go through the playbook, there’s a list of things that we want to get in before the season starts. So you work on them in practice and some of them you’ll use in games. Some of them, you don’t, and it’s just to kind of build the depth of your offense and defense and special teams. It’s a continuous process.” *

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