Jacobs Says He'll be a Go

Perhaps the most valuable offensive Giant vows to be ready for Sunday's showdown in the desert.

Brandon Jacobs says his current knee injury is not nearly as severe as the one he suffered last year, when a sprain forced him to miss three-plus games. But whether it is minor enough to allow him to face the Arizona Cardinals might not be known until Sunday.

Jacobs hurt his knee in the second quarter of last week’s 30-10 victory over the Baltimore Ravens. He didn’t practice today, but both he and Tom Coughlin were hopeful he will be able to work tomorrow and stay on track to play in Sunday’s game in University of Phoenix Stadium.

“We expect that he will be able to go tomorrow,” Coughlin said. “As you know, these things are day-to-day. He feels good and I hope in another day he’s made the progress necessary to allow (him) to practice tomorrow.” In response to another question a few moments later, Coughlin said, “He has p layed through a lot of nicks before and come right out and played the following weekend.”

“Coach wanted to hold me out today,” Jacobs said. “I’ll get some snaps tomorrow and see how I feel. Today I took off to rest it some more, but I feel good, to be honest with you.”

Jacobs, who leads the Giants and is fourth in the NFL with 879 rushing yards, missed five games in 2007 (two with a hamstring problem) and has made playing the entire 16-game schedule one of his goals this season.

“It’s tough, but I know the reason they are doing it,” he said of the decision to keep him out of practice. “I’m not necessarily hurt or anything about the fact that I couldn’t get out there and practice, which I could have if I needed to. But it’s precautionary and I’ll get out there tomorrow and=2 0we’ll go from there. I don’t know much about further than tomorrow, but I know what I’m going to do tomorrow. I’ll know after tomorrow about everything else.

“I feel good. The last time I had this injury I couldn’t walk the next day and I was out for three weeks. This year it’s just a nagging thing that’s been there, but I don’t think it will hold me out.”