Bradshaw's return got Giants on right track

SAN FRANCISCO â€" Ahmad Bradshaw was supposed to be blocking, but he had his own ideas.
So on this critical first-and-10 from the Giants’ 49 two weeks ago in a wild-card playoff game vs. the Falcons, Bradshaw did what he does best. As two pass-rushers flew toward him, taking aim at Eli Manning, Bradshaw threw a quick, almost half-hearted block, then turned around, clapping for the ball.

Just before the Falcons drove Manning to the ground, the quarterback released an underhanded pass. Bradshaw caught it and tried to juke a pair of defenders. Eventually, he settled for a one-yard loss, but it was better than the seven-yard sack Manning was destined to take, and it kept the drive alive.

Five plays later, the Giants scored the only touchdown they would need to beat Atlanta. And two weeks later, backup QB David Carr still marvels at Bradshaw’s headiness on a play that hardly jumped out on the stat sheet.

“Ahmad was supposed to be blocking the whole time, but he sees it’s not there,” recalls Carr. “Eli can underhand toss it. So you get two or three yards (farther) instead of losing eight. That’s a plus-six-yard play.”
And those are the kinds of plays that Ahmad Bradshaw has routinely made this season, a key reason that the Giants can feel confident in today’s NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers.

The last time they faced the 49ers, they fell, 27-20, and Bradshaw, who was nursing a broken foot, did not even make the trip West, and a punchless Giants rushing attack scratched and clawed its way to just 3.2 yards per carry against the league’s finest rushing defense.

On Sunday, however, Big Blue will have its most versatile tailback in uniform, completing its dangerous offense.

“I’m ready to make plays,” says Bradshaw, who practiced just once last week. “I’m feeling healthy, and I’m feeling good.”

Bradshaw spent the entire season making heady plays and functioning as Eli Manning’s safety valve in the passing game, while simultaneously cutting down on his own errors. A season ago, he nearly lost his grip on the starting job, literally. Bradshaw put the ball on the ground seven times in 276 carries last year, with the Giants losing all but one of them But this year he’s seen a marked improvement fumbling only once in 171 carries and none so far in the playoffs. Offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride no longer fears putting the ball in Bradshaw’s hands, and that has allowed the fifth-year tailback to quietly replace departed wideout Steve Smith and tight end Kevin Boss in the passing game.

“Ahmad’s done a great job catching little passes and getting yardage, getting big plays,” says Manning. “He’s just one of those players where you want to try to create touches for him, whether it’s the run game or screens, little check-downs where good things seem to happen. He makes guys miss. If you can get the ball in his hands, good things usually happen.”

And when you get Bradshaw on the field, the Giants win. Want to know how a 7-6 team just praying to make the postseason has climbed to the brink of the Super Bowl? Look no further than Bradshaw’s return from a broken foot against the Green Bay Packers at the start of December.

Including the postseason, the Giants have gone 5-2 since he re-entered the lineup, continuing a run of solid play with Bradshaw on the field. They are 10-4 with Bradshaw in action this season, just 1-3 without him, and their explosive offense cranks out 26.9 points per game when Bradshaw suits up, 7.4 points per game better than their average without him.

Even in an injury-plagued campaign that saw him post a career-low 3.9 yards per carry, Bradshaw has remained one of the most indispensable pieces of the Giants offense.

“Whenever you can add somebody with Ahmad’s skills to an offense, we’re gonna progress, period,” says offensive lineman Kevin Boothe. “We were just fortunate enough to get him back. In whatever capacity we could have him, we need him.”

The Giants cannot replace Bradshaw as a runner or receiver. As a runner, he is the team’s most effective short-yardage runner, a tailback so slight that Boothe says “you lose him in the pile.” He stretches defenses sideline-to-sideline in a way that neither Brandon Jacobs nor D.J. Ware can, and, even on a broken foot, he remains the team’s most reliable blocking back.

“The way he chips (on blocks) is amazing,” says Carr. “One of the best blocking backs I’ve been around.”
His return has also bolstered the shaky rushing attack. The Giants struggled to run the ball all season, but when Bradshaw returned, Boothe says, blocking became a little bit easier. Even if the results did not consistently show on the stat sheet, linebackers were a half-step slower to attack the offensive line, and the versatility of the Giants’ playbook practically doubled.

“Him and Brandon, they’re so different,” says Boothe. “You can run plays over and over again, and it’s a different look, you’re getting a different running back. You’re getting a compact guy one play, then you’re getting a big bull the other. They balance each other out.”

But that all pales in comparison to how important he has become to Manning. For years, the quarterback routinely dumped the ball off to Smith and Boss when he was in trouble, subliminally trusting both veterans to get open.

When GM Jerry Reese let that pair go in the offseason, Manning was forced to learn to work with receiver Victor Cruz and tight end Jake Ballard. Eventually, the quarterback learned to do that, and both second-year players outperformed the veterans they replaced.

But neither Ballard nor the salsa-dancing Cruz has proven to be an underneath target. Both players - and explosive receiver Hakeem Nicks - excel at making things happen down the field in the Giants’ pass-happy offense. Thus Bradshaw has become Manning’s trusted bailout target.

“He’s that guy now, the underneath,” Nicks says of Bradshaw. “You put the ball in his hands on a short pass and he can get you a few yards or he can bust a big play.”

Often, Bradshaw makes his plays in the passing game by carefully reading the defense, then deviating from the scripted play. Carr says he often sees Bradshaw break off a route as soon as he sees an opening - much like a traditional slot receiver might do - and he often watches the tailback do as he did against Atlanta, throwing a quick block then sliding to an unguarded section of grass.

“I just try to give Eli a target,” Bradshaw says. “That’s all I’m trying to do. I’ve been doing this stuff my whole career; it’s nothing special.”

Carr disagrees.

“He’s probably one of the best around when it comes to finding the soft spot in the defense,” says Carr. “Even if he’s not supposed to be around the ball or be a receiver, he finds a soft spot and gets it done.”

For better or worse, that has allowed Manning to play at his best with Bradshaw on the field, sitting in the pocket longer to search for big plays downfield, all the while knowing that he has a reliable checkdown option likely clapping for the ball if nothing is available. It’s no wonder Manning has a solid 2.3:1 TD-to-INT ratio with Bradshaw in the lineup. In the four games Bradshaw missed, however, Manning threw seven TDs and five picks.

And it’s little surprise that the Giants suddenly feel confident in their rushing attack. The fearsome San Francisco defense can throw everything it can at these Giants.

Bradshaw is hardly worried.

“It’s just about making plays man,” he says. “That’s it.”