Exhibition a giant opportunity

FOXBOROUGH - Long shots, close calls, veterans clinging to jobs, tonight is your last chance to convince Bill Belichick that you belong on the Week 1 roster of the 2008 New England Patriots.

The fourth exhibition game isn't meaningless for everyone. For players on the bubble such as cornerback Mike Richardson and safety Antwain Spann, tonight's clash with the New York Giants could be the most meaningful football game of their lives, a final opportunity to make a favorable impression.

The Patriots must trim their roster from 75 to 53 players by 4 p.m. Saturday. Belichick said the decision-making process is a composite of the players' performances in practices and exhibition games. A great performance tonight isn't guaranteed to swing the pendulum in a player's favor, but it can't hurt.

"Again, it is another opportunity. I think every opportunity is important," said Belichick. "I don't know if I could sit here and say one game is more important than another or one game is more important than some good practices or some good practices are more important than a game.

"It is certainly part of the picture. I don't know if I could put a weight on it or say it is more or less than something else. If you are running a race with a guy and he is a lap ahead of you and you have a strong finish, you are still going to finish behind him. If you are neck and neck with the guy and you have a strong finish, then you beat him, it makes a lot of difference. So it would depend on what the relationship of the competition is at this point for how much the last game means."

Belichick said the young players should view it as another chance to audition for a job, keeping in mind that besides the 53-man roster, the team will carry up to eight players on its practice squad.

As a second-round pick, cornerback Terrence Wheatley is a pretty safe bet for the final roster, but he has the right attitude.

"It's up to you whether you get cut or not," said Wheatley. "It's up to you going out there and performing and earning the respect of your peers and coaches, so at that point, it kind of is what it is. It's kind of all up to you and how you perform."

Nothing to it
Tonight marks the first time the Patriots will face the Giants since New York ended New England's pursuit of perfection with a 17-14 upset win in Super Bowl XLII. One of the lasting memories of that game is Giants quarterback Eli Manning escaping the clutches of a few pass rushers, including Jarvis Green, to complete an improbable third-down pass to David Tyree.

However, if you think there is added emphasis for the Patriots because they're facing the Giants, Green doused that notion.

"No, no, no, because we've played them the last few years [in the preseason]," said Green. "But you know what, if the question is whether it will ever be the same, it won't because this is preseason. I think for it to be that way, it's got to be a regular-season game, but then you know what, it might have to be that big game again for it to have some significance to it."

Apparently, the Giants feel the same way.

"I couldn't care less," said linebacker Antonio Pierce. "I'm worried about the Redskins on Sept. 4. That's who we're worried about. Beating [the Patriots] does nothing for us, unless we see them in February."

It's up to him
Running back Sammy Morris has carried the ball just 10 times in the exhibition season, compared with 19 carries - all of which came in the opener against Baltimore - for LaMont Jordan and 18 for Laurence Maroney.

Morris, who said he feels recovered from the sternum-clavicle separation that prematurely ended his season last year, has picked up 3.4 yards per carry on those 10 attempts. That is slightly more than the Patriots' preseason rushing average of 3.3 yards (76 rushes for 254 yards).

Morris said limited carries in the exhibition season don't prevent a back from establishing a rhythm.

"Not necessarily. I think a lot of it is established in practice, and I guess most of the time, especially in preseason, we get more carries in practice than we do in the actual game," said Morris. "Again, I think it puts the onus a little more individually to go out and execute with a limited amount of game reps."