Antrel Rolle forgets about missed tackle and keeps playing

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Giants safety Antrel Rolle repeats an acronym to emphasize the need to shrug off mistakes. FIDO. Forget it and drive on.

Rolle gave a nod to FIDO late in the third quarter against the Falcons on Sunday at MetLife Stadium. He came up to stop running back Antone Smith on a seemingly innocent reception in the flat. But Rolle took a bad angle and missed the tackle, and Smith went untouched from there, 74 yards down the Giants' sideline and into the end zone.

It gave the Falcons a 20-10 lead but ultimately signaled another benchmark. The Giants dominated the Falcons from that point on in winning their third straight game, 30-20.

"I knew the play because I studied that play several times,'' Rolle said, noting he was in coverage thanks to an all-out blitz. "I just came up short. I didn't make the for-sure tackle.''

By "for-sure,'' Rolle meant making a safe tackle by taking a more conservative route to getting in front of Smith. "It's something I can learn from,'' Rolle said, "but you've got to forgive and drive on.''

And forget it and drive on. FIDO.

"That's my mentality,'' Rolle said. "You must have amnesia, especially playing in the defensive backfield. You can't dwell on the last play.''

Running back Rashad Jennings hopes his injured left knee will allow him to use FIDO. Jennings got hurt when he was "kind of ruffled up under the pile a little bit'' in the third quarter. He said afterward that he felt "all right'' but will have to await results of a magnetic resonance imaging test.

Jennings was having another fine day with 55 yards on 10 carries when he got hurt. He didn't go down without getting a good view of rookie backup Andre Williams, however.

Jennings was watching on TV inside the stadium when Williams completed a 65-yard day, including a 3-yard TD run late in the third quarter in which he trucked Falcons linebacker Paul Worrilow. Williams called the run an "explosion of emotion.''

"Yeah, I was yelling, coaching him up from the TV,'' Jennings said. "I know what he was seeing, I know what he was thinking. So I'm proud of him. He's going to be a dominant player in this league.''

Jennings is hardly shy with the superlatives, once again calling the Giants a "great team.''

They had moments of greatness from another rookie, receiver Odell Beckham Jr., whose NFL debut included four catches for 44 yards and a touchdown. Beckham missed most of training camp and the first four games with a hamstring injury. But he quickly adjusted to the speed of the NFL game.

"It was definitely a lot faster" than college, he said. "But as the game went on, it kind of started to slow down. You have to tell yourself, 'This is the NFL; this is the best of the best. But at the end of the day, you're here for a reason.''


(recordonline.com)