New York Giants Official Website

DECEMBER 11, 2009

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

Q: Last week you played with a lot more emotion, spirit and enthusiasm. Did you think that would be true going into the game and did you work hard on that before the game?

Coughlin: "The idea was the fact that you learn and you move on. The response following the Thursday game (the Thanksgiving night loss in Denver) was that's not good enough. You play this game with your heart, your passion, with your energy, with your enthusiasm. Nothing good is ever accomplished without enthusiasm. I thought the players responded to that the other night. They were focused, they believed. What I really liked was the resiliency was back. If something bad happened, they still responded. They came right back and played harder. When you stop and think about the drive, the touchdown, the turnover, the touchdown. All of that happened at the very end of the first half and that was indicative of the spirit. To me it's all about spirit and enthusiasm. I think in games of this magnitude when you have so many good football players, it's so hard to always be perfect, it's very difficult. It's not always pretty, but the team that believes the most finds a way somehow to win - especially this time of year."

Q: You always lay out what is at stake prior to each game. You tell the players what a victory will accomplish. Do you ever use the negative and point out what the consequences of a defeat would be?

Coughlin: "No, never will. Putting it in a negative perspective is not the kind of reinforcement that you are looking for. It is not the type of foundation that you want to set for the emotional mentality that you want the players in. You want them in a positive frame of mind. I said to them right off the bat on Saturday night, 'I want you to understand something, the glass is half-full, here's the opportunity, here's what we have at stake,' boom."

Q: You made three lineup changes last week on defense and none of the three players who lost starting jobs - Chase Blackburn, Osi Umenyiora and Fred Robbins - complained publicly. You always talk about the importance of the team - is that an example?

Coughlin: "Absolutely, and you know they are disappointed and it's not easy as an individual to make the kind of necessary adjustment that is needed to give the right example to your teammates. In the case of all three of those men, they did set an exemplary example. Fred...I thought Osi's response, after he really concentrated and listened and focused throughout the week on what was being said and the team concept, I thought he was outstanding. Chase was the same."

Q: You did a terrific job stopping the run, holding the Cowboys to 45 yards. No one has asked you about their 379 passing yards. You didn't allow a pass of more than 32 yards, but does it bother you?

Coughlin: "Sure it bothers me - you have to get them off the field. Again, our players kept fighting, no matter what. They kept on fighting, they never stopped fighting. The fourth-and- two-was a great example, the tackle that Aaron Ross made against Marion Barber. I keep talking about the mastery of your assignments and the perfection of your execution, even though we know we are human and we are not going to be able to be perfect. But we can strive for it, we can get better, we can cover better. Sometimes our eyes are in the backfield and we are in man coverage. You can't have that."

Q: The turnover differential is minus-one, which is uncharacteristic of one of your teams. Do you feel like you are getting away...?

Coughlin: "We are not getting away with anything, look at our record. No, that is not the way we want to play. We are going to play the Philadelphia Eagles, who are plus-12. They took a page out of our book. They have 20 interceptions. I just think you are not giving yourself those extra opportunities that are needed when you are not having the disparity in terms of your takeaways versus giveaways. You are trying always to create the win in that column, because the statistics never change. They are always in the high 70s, most of the time they are in the low 80s - teams that win the turnover battle win the game. That is not a statistic that is irrelevant; it is a very relevant statistic to winning."

Q: Jonathan Goff took over at middle linebacker, but Michael Boley got the helmet with the speaker to receive the defensive signals. Why?

Coughlin: "Boley is on the field all the time. You don't have to trade the helmet off. There is only one out there at a time."

Q: You had said several times that Goff had played well on special teams. Do you often find that if a guy is good on special teams, it's a good indicator he'll do well once you place him in the lineup?

Coughlin: "No, you don't, but it's a good indicator of the kind of attitude and aggressiveness a guy has. If a young player is a strong contributor on special teams, then you feel the advancement is there. There are some positions that it's not the case, but at linebacker it is."

Q: Prior to the season no one was certain what you would get from the young wide receivers. Steve Smith is on the verge of the franchise's single-season record for receptions. Could you have predicted this kind of production?

Coughlin: "Well, we knew that Steve was making lots of progress on a yearly basis. He is a disciplined route runner, he is very crafty at what he does. He has gained valuable experience and coaching as a younger player in only his third year. He has had a lot of outstanding play time and has learned as he's gone. He is very competitive and has great desire. You watch him, he is catching balls all the time. The other guys are young guys. They are just advancing, sometimes it's two steps forward and one back, other times it's not. Hopefully the improvement continues, it's constant - it has to be. They have to understand their game and then they have to understand what the opponent is doing. Then they have to apply their game and the specifics of what we are asking them to do to how they are going to approach the next opponent. We have played an awful lot of very, very good corners this year, and they have had their share of wins and setbacks. They get graded on a per-play basis just like everybody else."

Q: You put so much preparation into every address you make to the team. After the game you don't have that time to prepare. When you are walking off the field are you thinking about what you are going to say to the team? How do you arrive at your post-game talk?

Coughlin: "The week has prepared all of us for what we feel are the critical points in the game, the deciding factors in the game. Those critical factors become the reasons for winning and losing and then it's a matter of reinforcement. You walk through that door and the game is the game. I go over the areas that I basically have hammered all week long as being the key factors."

Q: In the first game against Philadelphia, they ran for 180 yards, but also converted several big plays. What concerns you more?

Coughlin: "Big play operation, but the running of the football sets the tone for the game. Remember, the game was 16-7 with very little time left in the first half. Less than three minutes and they scored twice and they were big play scores. But the running of the ball and the continued running of the ball in the second half; the second half was LeSean McCoy's long run. So you have to start out with stopping the run. They have outstanding individual personnel, but it's stopping the run and trying to prevent the big play."

Q: Defensively, they moved Will Witherspoon to the weakside and Jeremiah Trotter is playing more in the middle...

Coughlin: "They have gone through some changes, just like all teams in the National Football League. They have had to take their personnel and utilize them in different spots. (Chris) Gocong has been the 'Mike.' He has traditionally been the 'Sam.' Will Witherspoon has been the 'Mike,' he has been the 'Will.' Akeem Jordan was out and hurt for four weeks; now if he comes back, what will they do? Will they play him at the 'Will' and Witherspoon at the 'Mike' like they did the first time? I don't know. They are listing (Jeremiah) Trotter, we know the kind of player he is, he is in for a physical presence - that's what he is."

Q: We all know this is an important time of year. For a coach, is it a fun time of year?

Coughlin: "It's an exciting time. In our situation, at this current time, we had a divisional game last week, a divisional game this week and another divisional game next week (in Washington) and it's very, very exciting because of the circumstance of what's at stake and the idea that you have to be playing your best if you want to go forward down the stretch. Here we are."

If you'd like to submit a question or comment to Michael, click here.