Sep 5th 2008 3:34PM by Tom Mantzouranis (author feed)
Filed under: Giants, Redskins, NFC East
You might not have seen it if last night’s sloppy play in the second half lulled you to sleep or if you were running to the fridge to grab snacks for the McCain speech, but as the clock dwindled down on last night’s game, Redskins left tackle Chris Samuels fell on DE>LB>DE Mathias Kiwanuka, being called for holding and leaving Kiwanuka on the ground clutching his ankle. Kiwanuka’s fine in the medical sense. But he’s not pleased with Samuels.
“Honestly, I thought it was a dirty play,” Kiwanuka said. “There’s no question about it, he was definitely beat. Instead of recovering or giving up or whatever options you have … I don’t think there’s any place for that in the NFL.”
Justin Tuck alluded to the fact that Samuels was aiming to injure Kiwanuka on the play, and Antonio Pierce defended Samuels intention — protecting Jason Campbell — while hinting at, and admonishing, Samuels’ attempt to hurt Kiwanuka. Tom Coughlin said Samuels told him it wasn’t intentional.
Losing Kiwanuka would have been a major blow and some ridiculously bad luck for the Giants, but he’s feeling fine and is expected to play next week against St. Louis.
As Pierce noted, Kiwanuka’s health is all that really matters in the issue, but you can bet the competition between he and Samuels will be a lot more intense when the teams meet again later this season.
