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Postgame Reactions: Giants discuss Thursday night loss

Head Coach Pat Shurmur

Opening Remarks: We all just watched it, we didn't do anything well enough to win tonight. Credit Philadelphia, good football team that took advantage of things that we didn't do well, got ahead on the points. We didn't score enough points, we didn't keep them off the board, we didn't do anything well enough to win, so go back to the drawing board. We go to work tomorrow, try to clean it up, then get ready for our next one. That's the reality of it, and we've got to own it and move on.

Q: What happened at the end of the first half with Odell (Beckham) walking out to go to the locker room?

A: He had an IV. Just dehydrated again.

Q: He couldn't stay on the field for the last play?

A: He went back in the locker room.  

Q: Is there something he can do to prevent that from happening?

A: Some guys' bodies dehydrate quicker than others, so we just have to keep looking for ways to make sure he stays hydrated.

Q: You said you talked to the guys about their emotional displays, (Odell) head-butted a cooling fan-

A: I didn't see that. He can't do that. He shouldn't do that.

Q: What did you think of your team's overall effort?

A: My guys fought. Absolutely, everybody fought. We got beat by a good team, we didn't score enough points, they scored way more than us. Nothing wrong with the effort, they fought hard all the way to the end.

Q: It looked like Eli (Manning) was under a lot of duress. Did the (offensive line) have a bad night tonight?

A: At times. They're a good front four, we knew going into it that that's where their defense is the strongest, and at times they did do a good job against us.

Q: That sequence where you were backed up first and 20, second and 20, it seemed like the cameras caught you upset. Did you want Eli to push the ball downfield more there?

A: I'm sure the cameras could have caught me upset a bunch of times tonight.

Q: In that particular moment?

A: I don't know what you're referring to, but yeah, there were many moments that I was upset.

Q: It looked like you yelled "throw the ball" at second and long.

A: Really? I don't remember that. I don't recall that, but I'm sure I'll have to see it and we'll figure it out from there.

Q: Is there a level of concern about Eli though? I know the blocking has not been good, but he's been off-target.

A: No, I'm not concerned about Eli. Like I said, none of us did anything good enough to win tonight.

Q: Why do you think the Eagles' offense was able to move the ball so easily against the defense tonight?

A: They did a good job of staying on the field, there weren't a whole lot of big plays aside from the one where – again, Carson Wentz does a good job off-schedule to hit a deep ball. They converted on third downs, they were 9 for 16 on third downs, so when you're that good on third downs and you can stay on the field, then you give yourself a chance.

Q: Why do you think it was so difficult to find Odell down the field?

A: They were clouding Odell, and that's why we did get a couple big plays away from him. He did get his touches, I realize some of it was at the end, but he got a couple touches. What we were able to do was get the ball to (Saquon) Barkley throughout the game, and he was productive.

Q: What did you say to the team after the game to try and clean some of this stuff up?

A: I just told the team what I told you guys – we didn't do anything well enough and we're going to come in tomorrow and work on fixing it.

Q: How unexpected was tonight's effort after Sunday's?

A: I just said I'm not worried about their effort. Didn't he ask me about effort? Then I said I wasn't concerned about their effort, here we go again. I wasn't concerned about their effort. I'm concerned about how we executed, how we didn't get in the end zone, and how we let them in the end zone.

Q: Last week it seemed like a lot of guys, despite the loss, were upbeat, everyone said you were getting closer.

A: Yeah, and I think we are. Again, tonight we didn't do well enough to win.

Q: So was this a step back, then?

A: We lost. We lost last week, too, right? We lost last week, and it doesn't really matter – when you lose, you lose.

Q: How do you make sure this doesn't spiral out of control like last year? You're 1-5, obviously not where you want to be.

A: Just keep working, and you trust the locker room to do the right thing.

Q: You expected the team to be galvanized after last week.

A: I think we are. We got beat by a good team and we didn't play well enough. I don't think we need to overthink that.

QB Eli Manning

Q:  What is your level of concern at 1-5?

A: Obviously not where we want to be. I'm not happy about it. I am frustrated like everyone. Obviously, all you can do is worry about the next game. That is the way football works. Watch this game, learn from it, see what we can do better, work on it and get ready to play next Monday night in Atlanta.

Q:  What did you see on that first drive when the pass was intercepted?

A: Yes, I thought I had a chance to put the pass right on him. He is my first read. I saw the linebacker getting some depth so I thought I could put it on him. Unfortunately, it gets tipped over the middle. If it gets knocked down, it gets knocked down. It got tipped to the side and intercepted. Unfortunate break. 

Q:  Was this another game where it looked like the defense was constantly trying to take Odell away deep?

A: Yes, they definitely had a plan to slow down Odell. A lot of teams do. We could still run our offense. We have guys that get open and make plays. We have to do a better job of executing our offense. That is what it is about. Trying to move the ball. We moved the ball decent at times and had some big plays in the run game, a screen to Saquon, who got the ball in the red zone, but we have to get the ball in the end zone. It was not great, but you can't get field goals right there. We have to find ways to get touchdowns.

Q: Where is your confidence level at right now?

A: My confidence in myself is good. I know I can play. I just have to figure out how to be more consistent and be better on offense. 

Q: You were under a lot of duress from their pass rush, how big of an issue was that?

A: We knew they were a good front four, that is what they are known for. They have good players on their front four. You have to move around some, buy some time and I was able to get out of the pocket a few times but I have to do a better job of making some plays in those situations. There was definitely some opportunities to make some plays in those situations and we just did not make them.

Q: How much does the record change the goals for the rest of the season?

A: Goals are still to win every game that we play. That is all that you can worry about. In the NFL, you take it one game at a time. There is no advantage in doing anything differently. That is all we can do. Just keep firing away and trying to give ourselves a chance to win the division. No one is running away with this thing. That is all we can worry about right now.

Q:  How do you prevent things from spiraling out of control like they did last year?

A: We have high character guys on this team and we have good players. We can make plays and we are going to compete and work hard. We have to make our own breaks. That is what it is all about. We are not getting the bounces right now but we have to find ways to play better football.

Q: Do you find yourself checking down more than you would like or is that by design?

A: I think we try and have some shots down the field and just taking what they were playing. Protecting and having some tight ends protecting and throwing it down the field. They played a lot of two zone. The route combination that we had going, try and get completions and get good down and distance. I think we took a couple of shots and didn't hit them. I had a go route to Odell down the left sideline that we missed. I took one to Cody that we converted on in the two-minute. Just took a couple of shots down field and had opportunities. 

Q: What were you thinking when you saw that Odell was not in the huddle in the last play of the first half?

A: Was not thinking much about it. Sometimes guys have to get things done before halftime to get prepared for the second half. 

Q: Despite the record, what has Saquon brought to this team?

A: He has made some great plays. He is one of our playmakers. If teams are going to play a lot of zone and two-high and taking away certain guys, it should leave opportunities to run the ball, get the ball in screens and different things. We just have to utilize all of our weapons. We have to get the ball to Shep and Odell and Saquon. Cody Latimer and whoever. We have weapons and we need to utilize them all.

Q: Are you shocked at all that it is 1-5 for the second-straight year?

A: Yes. I felt good about everything and still feel good about our squad and what we have. You lose a heartbreaker last week and tonight, we just did not play well enough. Every game has been tight with opportunities to win except this one. Every game we have had our opportunities; we just have to put it all together.

Q: You have heard a lot of cheers in this building and in the old one. Tonight you heard some boos. Is that justified or were you taken back by that reaction?

A: That is not something I get caught up in. We have to play better football, I understand that. We have to find ways to get in better situations and move the ball to be a more explosive offense and better team.

WR Odell Beckham Jr.

Q: Is this the most frustrated you have been here?

A: No, I hate losing, that's the bottom line.

Q: How do you turn it around?

A: You just keep going. Come in day by day, keep digging, keep digging. Come in with your hard hat on every day and keep digging, that's all you can do. There is no way to pull yourself out but to work and keep working harder.

Q: What happened at end of the first half when you went in early?

A: I was cramping, so I was trying to get an IV. The halftime break is really only 5 or 10 minutes. If I can use a couple of extra seconds to go and get an IV and come out, that's really all it was.

Q: What were they doing to you tonight?

A: Same thing that every other team is doing. It's that two-man with the safety over the top. When I was inside, they had the safety over there. When I ran across the field, he was cutting me off, a lot of double covers. They had a very good game plan, they executed it very well.

Q: Question about showing emotion on the sideline?

A: I was trying to get myself going. I feel like some of those plays right after I was getting myself going was some of my best stuff. I was trying to get myself fired up, I did that, and it helped me. There was a lot of things that had me fired up. Like I said, it helped me bring out the energy, I don't know a way around it but to get myself going.

Q: The thought was that Saquon would open things up for you, how is it he has a game like this and you are still not able to get free?

A: I don't know, Eventually they are going to have to game plan for him or he is going to do the same thing, he is going to torch them. Their game plan was to not allow me to have any big plays, keep everything in front, safety over the top doubling.

Q: After last week's close loss there seemed to be a feeling that you guys were close, why was this not close?

A: We are not going to back track from last week. This is a very good team despite their record, they can play. They came out and beat us on every play and we beat ourselves. I don't even know how many penalties there was, but I can only imagine. It felt like every time I looked up there was another yellow flag somewhere. We can't have that, there is no way we are going to beat good teams with doing that.

Q: What's your concern level with the team at 1-5?

A: Kind of like what I said, just keep digging. Put your head down and keep digging. That's a really all you can do, keep digging and working harder or give up. I don't think anyone here is giving up.

Q: How do you keep it from spiraling out of control?

A: Just keep working harder, keep digging. That's really all you can do at this point, your record is what it is. How you overcome that, how you handle adversity, that's going to be our MO.

Q: Given what was at stake tonight, are you surprised at the result?

A: I don't really know how to answer that. I just know they came out and played better than we did. We had penalties, we had all kinds of things that just didn't go our way and it made it very difficult for us to get going. When you kill yourself with penalties, it's very hard to win.

Q: Was this the worst it has felt?

A: Like I said, they beat us. They executed better than us, they had less penalties and mistakes. They were the better team tonight.

Q: After a tough loss like this. is there any positives you can take from this?

A: We have more games to better ourselves, come in there, see what happened on the film and go from there.

Q: On passes not to Saquon, Eli is averaging 5 yards per attempt, are you getting enough opportunities?

A: Like I said, they had a better game plan, that's really all I can tell you. I will know better when I watch film tomorrow.

RB Saquon Barkley

Q: You're coming up with a lot of great stats every game. How are you going to be able to translate that into W's? How does your team do that?

A: We got to find a way to finish games. Offensive wise, put more points on the board. Stop shooting ourselves in the foot, making mistakes, and that's really it. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how you get it done, you just got to find a way to get it done.

Q: How did you feel about your performance tonight?

A: How did I feel about my performance tonight… Doesn't matter to me. We didn't get the win. To be completely honest, don't care. As long as we get the win, I don't care if I went for however many yards or even if I went for 30 yards, if we won, if we got the win, I would be satisfied, but at the end of the day we didn't so none of that matters.

Q: Why do you keep struggling on offense? Aside from last week, it just seems like every week.

A: That's a great question and that's something that we have to figure out as a team, as an offensive unit. We have the talent. We have a great coaching staff. We just got to come together, continue to play our butts off and good things will come. We just got to continue to believe in each other, keep a positive mindset. Obviously we can't be happy with where we're at. At 1-5, that's not acceptable at all, but we got to stick together as a team and we can't fall apart.

Q: Does it reach a point where the offense maybe starts to press a little bit when things get like this?

A: By press, do you mean try to do too much?

Q: Yeah.

A: No, I wouldn't say that. We just, to be completely honest, a lot of it is we're beating ourselves. We're missing a lot of opportunities. We're playing behind the sticks, getting a lot of penalties, holding calls, this call, that call. It's not pointing fingers at anyone or playing the blame game, but it's the offense as a whole. We got to find a way to stop competing with ourselves to be completely honest. I think continue to believe in each other and the rest will take care of itself.

Q: What kind of feeling is it to be dominating so much individually, but looking at the score it's not reflected? How strange is it?

A: You really don't even know that you're dominating in a game when you're down two touchdowns, three touchdowns. Only thing in your mind is no matter what, if you're down by 40, if you're down by 50, 60 or whatever, you just continue to play your heart out for this team and for your brothers on the sideline, so you're not even focusing on that. I guess that's why you don't even notice it because that's just the mindset that I have.

Q: Were you trying to carry the team today? Were you thinking that way?

A: I wouldn't say that I was trying to carry the team. That's not my mindset really ever. My mindset is to go out there and play my butt off, lead on the sideline, push myself, push my teammates and do whatever it takes to help the team win or help put us in a better position to win. It's never really the mindset of carrying the team on my back. If that's how people take it or see it. then I guess you could say that, but my mindset is just go out there fighting, fighting my butt off and try to break tackles and make plays for my teammates.

LB Olivier Vernon

Q: How did it feel being back?

A: It felt great to be back. Just got to get my legs back. Was expecting a win. It didn't really go our way, but we just got to recover.

Q: What's the frustration level when you see what happened tonight, especially with the offense?

A: It's a team game. We didn't do what we had to do on defense when it came to getting them off the field. We gave up a lot of big plays and letting them drive. They got in the red zone, and we gave up some touchdowns. That's on us.

Q: Did you think the effort was there defensively?

A: I think we were all playing our hearts out, out there. They made great plays. They made some good plays and they executed well. There's some things that we just got to fix. We just got to look at the film, and keep it moving forward.

Q: Given what was at stake out there, are you surprised at the product the team put out there?

A: Division game, rival game, Eagles are a great team. We sure didn't expect it to go this way. We just got to bounce back. We got to look at the film, and see what we can adjust, and get back to it.

Q: Is this starting to feel like last year?

A: Not at all. Last year was totally different. This is a whole new year. It's totally different.

Q: Elaborate on how it's different.

A: I don't really think about what happened last year. This year is just coming together. We got a lot guys, a lot of different faces. We got to come together, and we just got to execute when we can.

Q: Do your goals change based on your record.

A: No, not at all. I know going out there, we're going to play hard, play Giants football, and try to get a win. That's week-in and week-out.

Q: How do you feel about your play individually your first game back?

A: It wasn't good enough.

Q: Coach Shurmur says you guys are close. Do you feel as if you guys are close despite the results showing it?

A: Yeah, I think so, but we're getting tired of being close enough. We just got to finish, but that's on us. We got to finish. We got to go out there, execute, and do what we got to do. Coaches are going to have the game plan for us, and we just got to finish them. That's on us.

Q: What do you think has kept you from getting over that hump?

A: Just execution, when it counts, execution. Eagles, got to give credit to them. They made good plays on critical downs. We let them off the hook a lot of times, but they're a great football team. So, that's on us.

Q: Does this open your eyes of how far you guys have to go?

A: The margin of error is so small. That's the only difference when it comes down to it. That's every football game. It's just a margin of error. Who's going to have more errors than the other. We just gave up some big plays that we shouldn't have, and that's on us.

Safety Landon Collins

Q: You were so much closer last week. This must not have been what you expected.

A: No, I wasn't expecting this at all.

Q: How do you explain it?

A: Just not good ball. Not good ball at all. We didn't play our good ball in three phases of the game.

Q: How'd you feel about the effort tonight?

A: I think the effort was good out there. I can only speak defensively, I feel the effort was good. We were flying around to the ball, just we got beat with our eyes. Whatever we see, we gotta just key in on and make plays on what we see.

Q: Landon, Coach has said several times that you guys are close, but the results are not necessarily showing that. What would you say to people to convince them that you are indeed close?

A: Just gotta figure it out, honestly. We're close. I mean we're making the plays out here. We're finding what we need to do. It's just, we gotta continue doing it on a consistent level.

Q: What did Philadelphia do on offense that they were able to put points on the board and how come you guys were unable to get consistent stops today?

A: They didn't do nothing that we wasn't ready for. It was our eyes. Our eyes beat us. When Carson scrambled back there, it gave them more opportunity for their guys to push down field and they got behind us and he threw it up for them. It's our eyes.

Q: Is any of this starting to feel at all like last year?

A: Nah, nah. Honestly, we still have everybody healthy honestly. Last year we were getting beat. This year we were mostly in each and every game besides this one. You just gotta figure it out.

Q: Are you surprised that you are standing here talking about a fifth loss?

A: Surprised? I would say yeah. I would say so. We are looking at the fact that we have all the keys, so nah we just gotta put it all together and we know we can put it all together and put it in perspective, we just gotta do it.

Q: I know you guys don't want to compare it to last year, but your record is the same at this point as it was last year at 1-5. That can't sit well with you guys.

A: It doesn't sit well with us.

Q: What do you say to your teammates as a leader? What is your message to them?

A: Keep fighting. Honestly, our message is keep fighting. Keep playing, keep playing hard ball. Stick to the books and stay together. That's our message to our guys and that is what we've done. We all came in here, gave each other a hug, gave each other a little talking and we gonna get this grind going some kind of way.

Q: They are the Super Bowl Champions. You are familiar with them. Did they show you how far away from them you are? You know this game was not close.

A: No.

Q: You don't think so?

A: No.

LB Alec Ogletree

Q: What do you think went wrong on some of those red zone opportunities?

A: We just didn't stay in the coverage and we didn't do what we needed to do to make the play. When you don't do that, and you're playing against a good team like that, they're going to find ways to make those plays.

Q: Is it difficult to plaster a quarterback like (Eagles QB) Carson Wentz when he scrambles out the pocket and tries to extend the play?

A: Yeah, it is. He's a guy that you definitely have to plaster your coverage, because when he scrambles, he's not really looking to run, he's looking to throw the ball. We had a few plays tonight where he did that. He scrambled out and made some throws.

Q: What does the defense have to do to figure things out during this long week since you guys don't play again until next Monday night?

A: We just got to reflect on what happened these first five weeks, and come back ready to go the following week for Monday night. The season is not going to get any easier. We still got a chance, believe it or not. It comes down to every man in here looking at themselves, and just saying we got to do what we say we wanted to do, and we can't have any excuses about it.

Q: Is it hard for you guys to process the point where you're at right now?

A: It's not hard to process. It's a part of football. Of course, everybody wants it to be we're winning every single game, but that's not the case for us right now. We got some things we need to fix. We got a little break here. I hope everybody goes and reflects on what we want to come back and be. We got an opportunity to do that. If we do that, we'll be fine.

Q: Do you think effort was a problem tonight?

A: I think our defensive effort was good. Granted, we didn't make the plays that we needed to make to stop them enough, but I don't question any man's effort out here. I'm proud of the guys that stayed and fought the whole way through, through the end.

Q: What will it take to salvage the rest of the season?

A: Every man just looking in the mirror, and doing the things they say they wanted to do. We've got to come together as a team, and play as one. We can't make mistakes all over the field, because it hurts us. We got a little break here. Hopefully, everybody goes and kind of takes their mind off a little bit, but also think about the things that we need to do to turn our season around.

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