EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The Giants' decision to hold training camp at home, as opposed to Albany, paid off Thursday.
The team worked outdoors for the first 90 minutes of practice. But then the rain came, and with lightning reportedly in the vicinity, everyone quickly shifted inside the Quest Diagnostics Training Center for the final half-hour.
Part of the appeal of staying home for camp was the ability to use an indoor facility in inclement weather -- something not available in Albany.
"To be able to come inside and finish practice on a day when we would have lost some very good opportunities, that means a lot to us," coach Tom Coughlin said.
Now, on to some of the highlights and lowlights of the Giants' final practice before their first preseason game, Saturday night in Pittsburgh:
• The Giants were not in full pads for the second straight day. With DE Justin Tuck sitting out again, Cullen Jenkins once again shifted over from tackle to end with the first unit. Shaun Rogers moved up to first-string DT to replace Jenkins. On offense, OG Chris Snee took a few live 11-on-11 reps for the first time in camp.
• TE Larry Donnell has created some buzz early in camp, but he had a drop early Thursday in 11-on-11s. It was a short pass from QB David Carr and hit Donnell in the numbers, but he couldn't pull it in.
• QB Eli Manning looked on his game in 11-on-11s early, hooking up with WRs Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz on deep passes down the left and right sidelines, respectively. Manning also connected with WR Jerrel Jernigan in the same sequence -- the pass looked a tad high, but Jernigan did a nice job going up to get it.
• Right after the players moved inside, Manning connected on another deep ball, this time to WR Louis Murphy down the right sideline. Murphy hauled it in over his shoulder, a nice play.
• Soon after came the first interception of the day -- Carr threw left, hoping to connect with Jernigan, but the ball was wrestled away by CB Jayron Hosley.
• Rookie QB Ryan Nassib had another roller-coaster day. He completed a long bomb to WR Julian Talley near the end of practice. He probably should have had another fairly long completion earlier during 7-on-7s, but TE Bear Pascoe dropped the ball. Nassib also threw behind a wide-open Kevin Hardy in the first 11-on-11 sequence of the day, and did the same to RB David Wilson during 7-on-7s.
And, on the final play of practice, during an 11-on-11 two-minute drill, Nassib was picked off by CB Laron Scott. Sound familiar? The same exact thing happened on the final play of Tuesday's practice.