You’re the talk of the league today. Day after – are your thoughts still the same?
“The play you’re talking about at the end of the game, that’s a play that we’ve done – we’ve caused a fumble four times in the last five years with that play and it’s something that we practice. To me it’s a clean, hard, tough, finish-the-game play. Some people disagree with that and that’s certainly what makes the world go ‘round; everyone has opinions. I don’t have any remorse or regret. It’s clean, hard football. We made - it was no sneak attack, we were down ready to go, and that’s how we do it all the time. If you study any tape of us, that’s how we do it.”
You’ve called the same play in similar scenarios?
You’ve called the same play in similar scenarios?
“The exact same situation. Victory formation vs. this. So, that’s that. Now, having said all that – that’s the second time I’ve talked about it and we’re going to move on to other stuff. That’s not going to be the topic of conversation, because we have a football game that we should have won and we didn’t. That’s what I’m most frustrated with now. That’s where my attention is. We’ve turned our attention towards the Cowboys after evaluating ourself, but we got a big, tall order in front of us now.”
You don’t want to talk about it, but if you had a nine point lead would you have done it?
“I’m not going to deal in – I’m the one that makes the decision to call that. We have that in our playbook and if I choose to call it, I call it. If I don’t, I don’t.“
But you didn’t see any need to call it at the end of the first half [when Manning kneeled down]?
“Think about the question: the end of the game, if they throw the ball down and score – we lose anyway. At halftime if they do it, they get seven points and the game goes on. I don’t mean to be – but, that’s it. We’re going to move on to the next subject, guys.”
What are you disappointed by?
You don’t want to talk about it, but if you had a nine point lead would you have done it?
“I’m not going to deal in – I’m the one that makes the decision to call that. We have that in our playbook and if I choose to call it, I call it. If I don’t, I don’t.“
But you didn’t see any need to call it at the end of the first half [when Manning kneeled down]?
“Think about the question: the end of the game, if they throw the ball down and score – we lose anyway. At halftime if they do it, they get seven points and the game goes on. I don’t mean to be – but, that’s it. We’re going to move on to the next subject, guys.”
What are you disappointed by?
“That’s the biggest thing that struck me is inconsistency. Some really good, and some not-so-good. We just as a team, we got to get better. As a coaching staff, we got to get better. Because again, we had an opportunity there and credit goes to the Giants. They found a way to win and we didn’t.”
Was it poor planned defense, did Eli (Manning) just have a big day? Hit the right passes? Catch you in the right defense? What was that?
“I think all of the above. Some technique errors. Probably a couple of calls we’d like to have back. Eli playing very very well. Identifying throwing the ball just as we were getting there. Perfect storm. If you look at it I think he had 227 yards in the last nine plays. I mean, fourth quarter, nine plays – that’s as good as you’re going to do.”
I think on defense you played over 80 plays?
Was it poor planned defense, did Eli (Manning) just have a big day? Hit the right passes? Catch you in the right defense? What was that?
“I think all of the above. Some technique errors. Probably a couple of calls we’d like to have back. Eli playing very very well. Identifying throwing the ball just as we were getting there. Perfect storm. If you look at it I think he had 227 yards in the last nine plays. I mean, fourth quarter, nine plays – that’s as good as you’re going to do.”
I think on defense you played over 80 plays?
“Yeah, well, we lined up I think to play 84. I think the official stat was 76. But we started with our hand on the ground to play 84 plays.”
You had three interceptions in the first half, so the blitzing was working, but when you ask the CBs to chase those receivers that long, do you have to consider that late in the game they get tired?
“They play 84 plays too. We roll guys in nickel, dime, and sub. More than the total number of plays is how they unfold. I always keep track of the time. Not only the time on the clock, but real time – how much rest they get. Like I said, there’s enough to go around on that one. You’d like to maybe have a call or two back, but some of those calls weren’t just in man coverage, they were in zone coverage – two safety high. At the end of the day, we didn’t get it done. Coaching, playing, all of us, we know what could have been and we know what wasn’t. And that’s the frustrating thing, but the beauty of this job is as soon as I’m done here I’ll have the radio show, then get locked in and put together a game plan for Dallas and go try and do it again.”
What happened on the blitzes?
You had three interceptions in the first half, so the blitzing was working, but when you ask the CBs to chase those receivers that long, do you have to consider that late in the game they get tired?
“They play 84 plays too. We roll guys in nickel, dime, and sub. More than the total number of plays is how they unfold. I always keep track of the time. Not only the time on the clock, but real time – how much rest they get. Like I said, there’s enough to go around on that one. You’d like to maybe have a call or two back, but some of those calls weren’t just in man coverage, they were in zone coverage – two safety high. At the end of the day, we didn’t get it done. Coaching, playing, all of us, we know what could have been and we know what wasn’t. And that’s the frustrating thing, but the beauty of this job is as soon as I’m done here I’ll have the radio show, then get locked in and put together a game plan for Dallas and go try and do it again.”
What happened on the blitzes?
“I thought Eli (Manning) did a great job of directing protection. You can see him, and there were a couple where he threw it before we got there. It’s not where they were blocked. They came free but he got rid of it and they made plays on the back end, they caught the ball on the back end. Sometimes you get there and it’s great and sometimes, you know, we really like three or more offensive plays. If we could have been somewhere around 57 or 58, probably a different result. It’s not that many more times that we have to possess the ball. But you look at that and that can be six or seven minutes but it didn’t. Ifs and Buts, right. That’s the sorry thing, you put all that into it and then you come away and it’s a zero sum game and you either win or lose and we lost.”
Are you saying you’re blitz package doesn’t need work?
“I think everything we do needs a lot of work. It’s early in the season. There are little things we need to tweak but we’re not going to have a wholesale change, because we had a not great defensive day. It’s the same defense that did have a great defensive day just a week ago, so. We are who we are. You can choose to up the percentages, however coach Sheridan decides to do it during the game. We do a lot of that during the week. And then we kind of adjust as the game goes on. But our identity of a defense is what we are. You don’t change that.”
So your identity is to come after people?
Are you saying you’re blitz package doesn’t need work?
“I think everything we do needs a lot of work. It’s early in the season. There are little things we need to tweak but we’re not going to have a wholesale change, because we had a not great defensive day. It’s the same defense that did have a great defensive day just a week ago, so. We are who we are. You can choose to up the percentages, however coach Sheridan decides to do it during the game. We do a lot of that during the week. And then we kind of adjust as the game goes on. But our identity of a defense is what we are. You don’t change that.”
So your identity is to come after people?
“We’re more non-blitz than blitz and we never do it without a deep middle safety so there is somebody over the top the whole time. There’s not two, there’s one, so the when the ball is outside the numbers it’s hard for that guy to get there. But like I said, we’re a mix, we’re not a blitz every team, we’re a mix. That’s who we are.”
Do you understand what happened on Mike Williams’ play at end of game that was called an incompletion after being ruled a reception?
Do you understand what happened on Mike Williams’ play at end of game that was called an incompletion after being ruled a reception?
“I understand the rule. I do. There is some ambiguity to the rule itself. That’s the essence of the rule. Whether that’s good or bad, I don’t think you can have a concrete rule in something like that. That’s why I think it has to be that way. Look, there’s no one play in that game that decided that game. When you have a game of that nature there are so many different points where this could have turned it or that could have turned it, both ways. To pin it al on one play, yeah, sure, at the end you wish it was on the 16-yard line and now we have 12 seconds and a timeout and two shots at the end zone. Sure, I’d love to see how that ended. But (it didn’t happen that way) not that day, not for us.”
Can you talk about the two non-calls – the facemask to Doug Martin and the hit on the defenseless receiver?
Can you talk about the two non-calls – the facemask to Doug Martin and the hit on the defenseless receiver?
“We certainly turn those into the league, that’s procedure. My whole thing with the officials is this. I believe playing and coaching in this league is incredibly hard. And there’s 11 on each side at a time and a bunch of coaches on the box. Officiating in this league, there’s seven guys that are seeing the fastest guys in the world moving and it’s split second decisions. So there’s not a coach that ever comes out of a game is happy with the officiating. That’s just the way it goes. But again, that’s part of playing and coaching. You have to play well enough and coach well enough to win games. We’re both playing with the same circumstances. It’s the same field, the same weather, the same officials, and it’s my job and our players job to find a way to win. The Giants, there’s no secret why they are the defending Super Bowl champs, In a tough game they found a way to win. We’re learning and I’m sure we’ll be better for it. It hurts a lot and as I told you last week, I like teaching out of the win column. So we’re going to teach this week, and I don’t like teaching out of the loss column, but we don’t have a choice. So we’ll teach.”
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