New York Giants Official Website

 Coughlin's Corner
  With Michael Eisen, Giants.com

NOVEMBER 20, 2009

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - The Coughlin Corner, Giants.com's exclusive weekly interview with head coach Tom Coughlin:

Q: The players said they returned from the bye refreshed and with their batteries recharged. What about you, how do you feel?

Coughlin: "You never feel good after you lose a game. It doesn't make any difference, it's not the way you want to go into a bye. However, it's about the next seven games. It's about our team, what we do with the opportunity that we have presented to us. I am excited, I have been excited all week. The players came back on Wednesday. We pretty much addressed exactly what we felt about this seven-game schedule and what taking it one game at a time is all about. What the situation is in the National Football League with late November, December coming up and how exciting a time this is. Its still boils exactly down to how we respond."

Q: Along those lines, how do you think they have responded so far?

Coughlin: "They have responded, but that line right there I am not going to speculate. We have to raise the whole level, we have to do the things that are necessary to win. Are we doing our best? Yes, but we also have to do what's necessary, and I think our team is well aware of that."

Q: You had spoken to them prior to the bye week about last year's Cardinals and Eagles, who had mediocre records at this time and later faced each other in the NFC Championship Game. The Cowboys and the Eagles lost on Sunday to bring them back a little bit. Does that bolster what you have been saying about the opportunity being there?

Coughlin: "Yes, no question. It's one game at a time, it's us, it's our season and it's how we are going to respond to this right now. We have all the evidence. You can remember last year's Thanksgiving night, Arizona was demolished in Philadelphia, and they went on to go to the Super Bowl. You have to give great credit to their coaching and the quality of character of their team to be able to rise up from that debacle. We have had a couple of those situations, we have had a couple of real close games at home that we all feel we should have won, but we didn't. The difference being, the margin between winning and losing in this league is oh so small. Some of the mistakes and the errors that we made, which put us into that predicament, have to be eliminated. You work and create opportunities for yourself and when you do, you have to capitalize on them."

Q: This is ancient history, but the only other team to start 5-0 and then go 5-4 made it to the NFC championship game.

Coughlin: "Again, just another example. There are a lot of them. Heck, Philadelphia was 5-5-1 last year and played in the NFC Championship game, Arizona was 8-7."

Q: You had said immediately after the San Diego game it would probably be better if you played the next week. Because you lost before the bye does it make the bye week seem that much longer for you?

Coughlin: "It's not about being long, it's not about any of that. It's just about the idea of being able to make the corrections and go play again and get it out of your systems. Look forward to try and win a football game and to get back to the mindset of winning. That's what's necessary right now, the idea of doing everything right, playing well together as a team, complimenting one another and not providing issues for each other. Allowing all three phases to be in tune with each other, support one another, create opportunities for each other and then take advantage of them."

Q: You had talked prior to the bye about self-scouting and some of the things you wanted to work on. Were you satisfied with the things you learned and the potential to change things? Can you change a lot in one week after you self-scout?

Coughlin: "You can do things a lot better, and it doesn't necessarily mean change. It just means you can them a lot better. I have always taken the areas where we do the worst and work to the best. You take those areas, and that's how we practice. We show them, we meet, we discuss. We show them the tape, address each issue and try to make the necessary corrections. We go on the field and rep it again, whether it be red zone or green zone, seven-on-seven followed by red and green, and try and correct areas that have been a problem. Try to indicate the significance if we just, for example, turn the other guy away. Instead of us being two for four, let's be three for three and the other guys go two for four. That's sometimes what it comes down to."

Q: Eli Manning has been asked whether he feels more pressure to lead the Giants out of this slump. Internally, do you feel pressure at a time like this?

Coughlin: "I will steal a quote from John Wooden, 'The only pressure that means anything is the pressure that you exert on yourself.' The demands that you make on yourself to be as good as you can possibly be. None of the other pressures, in his, words are a hill of beans. You always feel pressure. If it's competitive, you want to win, so you want to be at your best."

Q: With Aaron Ross coming back, is the benefit simply having another good player on the field or do you have a chance to expand packages and do different things?

Coughlin: "Well, the benefit is getting another good player available for our team. How we use him is how we use him. First of all, let's be able to say that he is back, confident and feels good about contributing. If that is the case, then we will have the opportunity to go ahead and decide how we want to use him."

Q: In a case like this where everyone on the roster is practicing, do you have to decide early in the week who the inactive players will be?

Coughlin: "You have to have an idea because of special teams. You have to have an idea of what you are going to do there. I always start the week out like that. You always have to get your coaches together and tell them what the decision-making process is going to be. You also have to make sure the right people are practicing on the special teams."

Q: Michael Boley is going up against his old team this week in the Falcons. As a coach, would you talk to him about not getting too hyped up and say, "It's a big game for us, watch your emotions, watch what you say?"

Coughlin: "I think based on the number of years in the league, certainly his emotions will run high, but we talked briefly about it. Everybody wants to do well when you play against your old team, and Michael is no different than anybody else and we hope that he has a big game."

Q: You were asked about Clint Sintim this week and the possibility of him playing more. You brought up Ramses Barden last week. After watching them in practice since the start of camp and in nine games, are the players is this rookie class progressing as you would hope?

Coughlin: "Yes, they are. You see the obvious individuals who are contributing on a week-in and week-out basis. I watch the guys practice every week and you count on the reinforcement from the special teams coaches that they make sure that there is constant progress and their focus is where it should be, that they can concentrate over this long period of time. This week away from it is going to help those guys out a lot, and I expect there will be a benefit because of that."

Q: Gerris Wilkinson was your leading special team's tackler before he was placed on injured reserve. Can you talk about what his loss means?

Coughlin: "It's obviously a big loss. He has made a lot of plays. He and Jon Goff, without question, made the most improvement in contributing to special teams this year, so it is a loss, no doubt."

Q: Atlanta is a team that uses a lot of misdirection and deception and sometimes a no-huddle attack to try to create mismatches. Does it make it tough to prepare for them because they do a lot of different things?

Coughlin: "They do a real good job of not indicating the personnel - who is coming on the field - and that is always an issue. You do have to be able to play certain defensive personnel sets against everything. You may be in a situation where you don't have a chance to substitute every chance they do, so you have to be able to play certain personnel and combination sets on defense against different personnel combinations on offense. So it does cause some issues. They do use the up-tempo, they do use the no-huddle, they do use a lot of personnel combinations. You have to be real sharp with that. We are practicing that, doing the best we can with that in terms of trying to prepare people for that. If you get stuck in a defensive combination, then you have to play it."

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