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Transcript: Coach Tom Coughlin

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SEPTEMBER 5, 2008

Mathias Kiwanuka is alright?

I think he will be.  The X-rays were okay and he is sore and has a little swelling, but we will see.  Hopefully he will be okay.

What did you think of the play where he got hurt?

He obviously beat the tackle and the tackle turned around to save a hit on his quarterback and ended up on the back of the legs of the rusher.

Kiwanuka said he thought it was a dirty play?

(Chris) Samuels, I spoke to him right after and he said it wasn't intentional and I will just leave that at that.

After evaluating the tape was there anything that stood out or bothered you about the game?

Well there are a lot of things.  You are talking about the first game of the year.  There are a lot of things that have to be improved upon and I told the team that going in.  I said it is not going to be perfect, the next play is the most important play, especially to the young guys that they remember that it is not about them, it is about our team and about not letting the other guys down.  Now kickoff coverage obviously has to improve.  I am sure there are many teams in the league with the same kind of issues that we have, particularly when you start the season out against a very good return team and a very good returner.  You make a couple of errors, you get a couple of people blocked, and the ball comes out to midfield.  I told you last night and I told the team at the half, I said, 'you can't trade three for seven now, that is not going to work.'  So I was disappointed in that.  We did have seven penalties, I wasn't pleased with that.  We have done a good job of minimizing our penalties.  We did have two that were coachable, let's put it that way, in terms of roughing the punter and the personal foul for the late hit.  We just have to do a better job of understanding.  I think if we had more time to work with Jerome (McDougle) on how to position himself properly when he does come free like that, we may have had a great chance to block a punt.  We have to improve along those lines and we have to be smarter and we have to understand some of the professional rules and keep them in mind at all times.  I was a little bit mildly upset with that as well.  Of course we had 354 yards to their 209, we rushed for 154 to their yardage, but we didn't finish the drives off.  The green zone wasn't good, we understand that, and we are working hard, we will work hard, to try to be better in that particular area.  The defense gave up seven points and that is a huge plus.  We didn't get any turnovers.  We are constantly striving for turnovers.  We didn't get any turnovers and we had one turnover which I am sure Eli would be the first one to say he would rather have the ball back and just throw the ball away.  You expect it, but the great thing is we won at home, we won in the division, and  we can teach from the errors that were made here.  Sometimes you get frustrated on some things, the communication isn't as good as it should be, it will definitely improve, and so I am very, very excited, positive, and optimistic about it because it was a very physical game and we did very well in that regard.  We have a lot of things to build on.  We got a lot of young guys in the game, (Kenny) Phillips was in the game and played well, he is improving.  He did a nice job on special teams on a couple of occasions so we did have a lot of contributions.

How did you like how the defense performed with them not giving up any big plays following the stalled offensive drives?

Well no, but we had I think on paper 69 snaps to 52 with 35 minutes and 43 seconds to their whatever else is left.  The offense did hold the ball for quite a while and the defensive guys responded no matter what the circumstance was with the exception of the one kickoff brought back to midfield.  I was very pleased with that, pleased with how hard we played, pleased with our knowledge of what it was going to take to achieve a first down.  There were many times when we played right to the sticks and they came up a yard or two short.  They made decent plays, but they were just short of making the first down, so I was pleased with that, too.

You alternated Wilkinson and Kehl at weakside linebacker a lot?

We did.

What was the thinking behind that?

Well we wanted obviously to bring the young player along and we were very much aware that we needed to get Danny Clark a lot of reps, but he hadn't been on the field for a whole lot of time.  We had an opportunity there to work Wilkinson, we had an opportunity to work Kehl, we had an opportunity to work Clark, and it worked out pretty well in terms of the number of snaps.

How did Kehl do in his first regular season game?

He did okay.  He made some plays and he is going to improve once he sees a couple of plays as well.

You rotated a lot of guys in many positions like tight end, wide receiver, and defensive line. Was there a point in that?

We know it is a marathon, not a sprint, and you are going to need everybody.  You need everybody involved right from the get-go and we have had this rotation going in a few spots a year ago, we like what we saw from it, and we probably can develop this a little bit more, to be honest with you, where we can get some other people involved.  We had a lot of guys go last night.  R.W. (McQuarters) was back there in the secondary, we got a lot of work out of a lot of people.

Did the heat play into that at all?

In that one it did because Corey (Webster) cramped and then came out for a little bit, but then went right back in again.

The other stuff, you had planned those rotations?

Yes.

How about Ahmad Bradshaw not getting any carries?

That was my fault.  I didn't get that rotation worked out the way I really would want to. One of the things was I thought that the runs that we were making... let's face it, you are talking about a really very, very physical defense now, a defense that was eighth in the league last year.  You are lining up against a very physical, stout defense, an outstanding front, (Jason) Taylor played pretty much the whole game so they were intact with the exception of Springs, who I know they missed having on the field.  When we were making yards they were tough yards and I was pleased with some of the things that were happening with Jacobs and then with Derrick Ward.  Not that I am not pleased with Bradshaw. No, that is not the case, but I just didn't get the right rotation.

Is that a tough thing for you?  Dividing up 30 or so carries between three running backs?

It is not easy, but the roles will develop.  The roles will get better.  Fortunately for us, what we have are guys that can do all three, to be honest with you.  They can pass protect, they know the pass protection rules, they have done a good job with that in the past, and so we don't particularly spot them in and out on any one down.  It normally plays itself out because all those guys you know you have to be involved in special teams as well.  Bradshaw has his multiple special teams assignments, Derrick Ward has special teams assignments.

Eli seemed to have some trouble with the play clock?

That is unfortunate in that I think one time it was his fault.  The reason for that is the cat and mouse games that go on.  You check, they check, you check, it is kind of like wow, where does it all come together?  Sometimes you just feel on the sidelines that you just have to go out and snap it no matter whether it is an optimum situation for you or not.  There were eight people in the box a lot, that is how they play, they do it very well.  The blitz recognition, you have a new coordinator, there were times when the blitz was involved to a certain extent and then other times when they didn't rely on it as much.  You still have all of those things going on and we are better off when we can go up there and be decisive and snap it, but that is a good defensive team and they don't let you do that.

When you are in a national spotlight game is it important to go out and make a statement?

I think the statement that you want to make is about the number one thing about our game is the physical aspect of the game and I think that is where it starts.  Being a smart team, as I mentioned I have already talked about penalties, wanting to eliminate them, to play good, smart football, to not turn it over, but the effort is the key.  The effort and the physical play and I always tell our team that if they make a great effort we will support them, we can live with whatever, and we definitely can coach off of that kind of effort.  That is the number one thing for me, the kind of purpose that you play with, demonstrated purpose for all to see. 

Does the talent level of the defense look like it could be a dominating defense?

I don't know anything about that.  We have played one game and the number one stat is the opponent got seven and that is very good and we go from there.  We have a lot of things to improve upon and a lot of things that we are working with and trying to evolve to so all these packages have to be continued to be developed and worked out.  Each team that you play has different strengths and you have to matchup to those strengths and how you matchup is going to take a little while to see how all of these things come together, but we certainly did get off to a real good start.

Was it more something you weren't doing in the green zone or something they did or a combination of the two?

We didn't execute the way we need to execute going forward.  The defense was in the right place a couple of times, but we need to execute better.

Is it strange having a weekend off now?

You have to remember your preparation and your communication and allowing that they would know exactly what the schedule is going to be, that is what we have tried to accomplish here.  All it is is one week removed from going through the same thing that every team in the league does if they play on Thursday night and then open the following Sunday.  They allow their people to rest and to be fresh coming out of camp and off the preseason games for the regular season so all we did was we tried to sell our team on how important it was for us to come right back in after the Thursday night game against New England with Sunday being a Wednesday and apply ourselves knowing full well that the big thing was to open at home, to win at home, to win in front of our fans, to win in the division, and then we would give them a couple of days to rest and recover and recuperate.  That is not a real concern to me, just that they use the time properly.

Have you ever seen safeties play as deep as the LaRon Landry was last night?

We noticed that on film. Their safeties are very deep by design.  They keep everything in front, they come downhill on everything.  They want to come downhill on everything, seam balls, everything.