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Transcript: Postgame QB Eli Manning

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Q: When you play a division foe twice a year, you usually get to know each other pretty well.  Did you see anything different in their defense this week?
A: No, I don't think they had a totally different approach.  They played a lot of things very similar.  It was a lot of the same blitzes we've seen before.  We just didn't make a whole lot of plays out there.  We had opportunities, we just didn't convert them.  To convert on third and fourth down, you have to do those things.  We didn't make the big plays when we needed them.  When there was a crucial play in the game, they stepped up and made all the plays and we didn't.

Q: Eli, the one early on, the pass to Hixon was right on the money, and he dropped it.  Was that a step back early in the game?
A: No, he just didn't make the play.  The first quarter, we were going against the wind the whole time, there was a play we were trying to run earlier, but we couldn't get it in since we were going into the wind.  The first play we tried it we had a shot and even when you're throwing with the wind the ball moves around a lot.  Hixon just didn't convert on the play, you know it happens.  We had too many.  Not just Hixon, I had plays where I had a chance to convert on things and I didn't, or misread things, or just a combination of us not making plays out there.

Q: In the locker room, was this a message to the team that you've been playing so well, but this game was kind of a reality check?
A: I think we knew that.  We didn't play our best.  We knew the team was going to come out and they're a good team.  Every time we play them it's a close game.  Last time we played them a few weeks ago it was a tight game and it went down to the wire.  They were fired up and came ready to play and we didn't play our best.  Offensively we could hardly do anything right and they came out and played better than us.  So we just have to learn from this, obviously.  We're in a position where we're still in good shape and have a good chance of winning our division.  What matters is the next game: going out there and getting a win.  It's not going to get any easier from here, and we know that.  We have Dallas next week at Dallas, that's always a tough game.  We have to get back to playing good football and execute.

Q: Was their game plan against you different without Plax?
A: No, I don't think the game was planned differently.  They might have done a few different things, but it didn't stop us from running our offense and doing what we can do.  Today wasn't a matter of game plan, it was a matter of us not executing when we had the chance to.

Q: Aside from Amani, there's a lot of young receivers on the team.  Do you have to do anything extra to get them acclimated?
A: No, I don't think there's anything extra.  Our receivers did a good job today fighting and making some big plays.  They did a good job, they know what they're doing.  Smith and Hixon, they made big plays for us in the past.  They've been through tough games so they know what's going on.  We just have to keep working.  I didn't throw the ball well today, I have to throw better than what I did today.

Q: There were a few plays where you and the receivers weren't quite on the same page.  Did that factor into the passing game?
A: I think for the most part we were on the same page.  They did a good job of just sitting on the routes and making things tough.  We just didn't convert anything.

Q: How did the past week's events affect the team?
A: I don't think it affected us.  I think this team has been through a lot together.  We practiced well and guys were on the same page, but we went out there and made mental mistakes and doing things wrong.  We just didn't play our best.  That's part of football.  I give a lot of credit to Philadelphia for what they did and making things tough on us.  We just needed to make a few plays or have something spark us.  We just didn't have a game changing play with passing.  We get a lot of big plays in games from the run and the pass.  Today we just didn't have it.

Q: Did you think the blocked field goal would be the game changer or momentum changer?
A: Yeah, blocked field goals are huge plays.  It gave us a shot and put us right back in the game and we were only down by three points going into halftime even though we really hadn't done anything.  And then in the third quarter, they had the ball the whole time.  We only had one possession.  When we had the wind in our backs, that's when we tried to get something going and get a drive and get some points.  We had a good opportunity to throw the ball. We couldn't get down there to score points and that's the only time we had the ball in the third quarter.

Q: You've been playing so consistently well. Does everything this week simply coincide with having an off-game?
A: Yeah, I think that's just football.  You have off games sometimes.  Obviously, the conditions don't help things, but for us, we're not going to make excuses.  We just didn't play our best football today.  Philadelphia played really well.  Our goal and objective for now is to grow and learn from this.  Let's see what we can do better, but we have to get back to playing Giants football.  That's being consistent in the run game and the pass game and converting on third down which we didn't do today.  We didn't have a lot of mistakes today, we didn't turn the ball over or anything, we just didn't make the plays.  We did pretty good in the clutch, we just didn't make the big play, and I think that was the difference.