Herzlich has a chance to get back in the starting lineup Sunday with Chase Blackburn nursing a hamstring injury.||||||| Blackburn, who was hurt in the Giants' 29-24 win over Dallas, did not practice Wednesday. He spent the warm-up riding a stationary bike. Herzlich had a tackle and two special-teams tackles against Dallas on Sunday, and he knows how important his job will be against the Steelers. Coach Tom Coughlin believes Herzlich will be ready to go. There was a point in training camp when the second-year player from Boston College was going to push Blackburn for the starting job.

Herzlich sustained a hip pointer on the Jets' opening series of the half Saturday, leaving the game.||||||| Herzlich said he was hit on a screen play and the athletic trainers wanted him to ice it right away. He thought he may have been hit by one of his teammates.

Herzlich is turning out to be more than a feel-good story from the New York Giants' run to the Super Bowl last season. The cancer survivor who beat the odds to make it to NFL is turning out to be a pretty good middle linebacker who has a shot at landing a starting job in his second season with the Giants.||||||| Instead of fighting to make the roster, Herzlich is backing up Chase Blackburn at middle linebacker, working at the other linebacker spots and handling roles on special teams. He's an established NFL player and is answering more questions about football than his battle with a rare bone cancer that caused him to miss the 2009 season while a budding star at Boston College. At the time, he was a projected first-round draft pick.