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Transcript: Postgame Coach Tom Coughlin

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At one point they had converted 12 out of 14 third downs, what did you see that made it so tough for you guys?

They were running the ball and making yardage and squeezing out first downs whether they were into the wind or not.  We had a lot of difficulty stopping them, that goes without saying, but what did we see them do?  They seemed to block us.  They moved the ball and until I look at the tape I am not going to be able to tell you exactly what they did, but that is what I thought I saw from the sideline.  I am sure you did, too.

They looked more physical than you guys and more mentally into the game...

I don't necessarily agree with that.  We didn't play well.  We didn't play the way we have been playing.  We are a better football team than that, but as far as all those other things go, that is all speculation.

Is there any kind of indication of how serious the injuries to Brandon Jacobs and Aaron Ross are?

I am not sure.  I think it is an ankle with Aaron and Brandon, hopefully it is not going to be anything big.  I am not sure.  I don't have any information for you just yet.  I haven't visited with the doctors yet.

Do you feel like the wind affected your receivers any?

Well, you knew that you had to stay with the ball, there was no question about it.  We talked about that pregame.  We talked about it in here before we went out.  Again, both teams played on the same field, you have to make the plays when they are there. When you do you win and when you don't you lose.

Do you think the events of the last week had anything to do with today's results or had an impact on Antonio Pierce?

No, I don't.  I said that there is no excuse.  I don't think that had anything to do with it.

You have been playing so well. Does something like this have to do with scheme?

I don't know that it was a scheme.  We knew it was going to be a tough ball game.  It always is.  Every game we play with Philadelphia is a tough game and this was not going to be any different.  Obviously we didn't stop them and we didn't do anything with the ball when we had it.

The passing game seemed out of sync. What do you think contributed to that?

I don't know that we executed very well.  You have to give them some credit.  They had pretty good pressure on the quarterback.  We missed a couple of fourth down situations that would have given us opportunities and we didn't convert two of them, one before the half and obviously one here right here at the end of the game.  Those I think would have been plays that we could have capitalized on, but the execution wasn't as good.

Never mind the distraction, do you feel like you missed having Plaxico Burress out there from a football standpoint?

You are going to miss a player of that magnitude any time, but that is not even the discussion.

Do you feel like Eli Manning struggled today?

I think we all struggled.  Eli is not alone, we all struggled.  We weren't able to defend them, we weren't able to stop them, we weren't able to get them out, and when we did have the ball we weren't able to keep the ball.

Are you surprised that they stopped your running game?

That is a little bit frustrating, but again, we will take a look at that.

On the long pass to Domenik Hixon early on did he just drop the ball?

It appeared.

Are you surprised that the touchdown off the blocked field goal didn't inspire the team coming out of the half?

That is what I was looking for and I think at halftime we talked about that as being a little shot in the arm.  Obviously in the fourth quarter they had the ball almost the entire fourth quarter.  Now we had a chance, we didn't do anything when we had it, but when they got it back they... I was looking for an opportunity right there to maybe take a timeout, force them to punt the ball into the wind, and we would get the ball back, but we never stopped them at the end of that quarter.

Do you think the Eagles played you completely different on defense without Burress on the field?

Not completely differently.  Not at all.

Significantly different?

No, not at all.  No, not at all.  The way that they played us with the two tight end package was not that different from the way they played us before.

They didn't blitz on run downs on November 9th once and today they blitzed on run downs at least seven times?

They blitz a lot, believe me.  If anybody was listening last week when I talked, I expected that to happen.  They weren't going to sit there and do the same thing they did three weeks ago.  They were going to play it differently.  Three weeks ago there was 219 yards, do you expect them to just stand there?

They didn't double-team one of your wide receivers today?  They doubled number 17 all the time?

Well, what is the point?

Did they play you differently because Burress was not out there?

I suppose they probably did, but they didn't play in all situations differently.  They blitz, they blitz, that is what they do very well.

Did they use Brian Westbrook differently?

Well they utilized him a lot more.  He is the number one guy you have to stop and we didn't do a good job of that.

What was the thinking on the second fourth down?  The fourth and one?  Spreading the field?

Well, we had a short pass called and we had pressure and the quarterback started to run and got hit from behind.