On Saturday, August 16th, the New York Giants return to a field of their former glory. The Giants will face the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday, which will mark their first return to Indianapolis, since their victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.
A lot less will be on the line during’s Saturday’s NFL Preseason match-up, but there will still be a big game feeling in the air.
Saturday’s contest marks the first home game for the Colts, and their second preseason game overall. Although this is the first return to Lucas Oil Stadium since the Super Bowl for QB – Eli Manning and the Giants, this also marks their third game of the preseason. There is a good possibility that we can expect to see many different things from both teams.
Lots of teams in the league begin making major cuts after their third game of the preseason. On top of that, most teams use the third game of the preseason to let their starting offense and defense play for a large part of the competition.
There’s a distinct possibility that we could see the younger Manning brother and his fellow starters playing into the second half of Saturday’s game, possibly against the third-string offense and defense of the Colts. Depending on what happens against Indianapolis, several players could get cut from the New York roster soon after.
Expectations for Indianapolis may have to be tempered a bit. The team will be fired up to play in front of their home crowd for the first time since the Wildcard round of the NFL Playoffs on January 4th, but they most likely won’t show much of their starters.
The first-string players are expected to possibly play the opening quarter, but not much more. The bigger concern is what we will see from returning players like CB – Vontae Davis, S – LaRon Landry, and WR – Reggie Wayne.
Either way, Sunday’s game will have high energy. Most of the energy from the Colts may come from some younger players, who are striving to make the team. We may see more of Manning than we have in a while, but he won’t be walking away from Lucas Oil Stadium with a trophy, this time.