Q: What sticks out to you about the Giants?
A: They are a physical team, which they have always been. I have been in that division and I know how physical that division is and they are a physical football team. They will light you up on defense and they can run the ball, although they haven't run the ball as well as they can but I know that they can. You can see glimpses of that and how they can run the football and they are making some plays. That is the one thing I see, you have to stop big plays against this crew.
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Q: Are they playing a lot more nickel than they have in past years?
A: Yes, but the game dictates that now and we are, too. I think most people are because the way the game has gone with the personnel that people are playing. It dictates that you match up. If you try to stay in a base defense versus these spread sets and receivers that people have now, you get mismatched, so you have to.
Q: When you look at Victor Cruz, what pops out at you?
A: He's got an amazing knack for catching the ball. A lot of times we get too caught up in numbers – how big a guy is, how fast he is, how many catches he had or didn't have in college. We get caught up in all of that that – size of college – you get caught up in all of that. All I do is turn on the tape and watch the guy make plays. That's all he's doing is making catches. When the ball goes in the air, it's his. That's what we hope our defenders are thinking, too, but he's making it happen.
Q: Has your team surprised you?
A: No. I think if you're a coach and you're a leader of any sort you're not surprised by success, you're surprised by failure. I expect us to win every time we walk out there, I don't care who we're playing or when we we're playing. You expect to win. Everything you do, every practice rep that you take, every meeting minute that you spend is done with the idea that you're going to win. You're surprised when you lose, not when you win.
Q: But most teams don't make such a dramatic change in a year.
A: It's not like it hasn't happened before. I remember a few years ago when Miami was like 1-15 and the next year they won the division. It's not like it hasn't happened. You get the right chemistry, you get the right group of guys, you get a little bit of confidence going. Everybody has good players.
Q: Scott Chandler was with the Giants, what is it about him that you like?
A: There's a lot to like, in my opinion, about Scott. Everybody has a different idea about what's good for their team. We found that Scott is a good receiver, he understands the game, he can win when he gets the right matchup and he'll go catch the ball. He's particularly effective in the red zone for us.
Q: On the interceptions that you guys have returned for scores, how much of returning an interception is design and how much of it is good fortune in terms of not having offensive players in front of you?
A: You have to work on everybody understanding that when somebody catches the ball for us that you go get a block. You find the nearest guy and get to the nearest sideline and somebody go get a block. Everybody's got to understand that. You talk about that and you practice it. You communicate it on the field, but there's a certain amount of luck involved too. Sometimes those offensive linemen get all wadded up in there and nobody can get out. That's the way it happens sometimes.
Q: With having such a high average of points per game, is it just finding the right balance offensively or the defense helping out?
A: It's a little bit of all of that. We think we're better at the passing game than we have been because we've got another year in the system. We think we're a little bit better in the running game because we've been in the system for a year. Plus, I think our offensive line is playing very solid right now. [Fitzgerald] is standing in the pocket with a lot of confidence and we're able to run the football and keep people off balance. The combination of those two things helps us keep defenses off balance. When you can be a balanced team offensively it keeps them off balance because they don't know what you're going to do.
Q: Is it an advantage that the Giants' defensive coordinator is Perry Fewell?
