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COACH TOM COUGHLIN
POST PRACTICE
December 4, 2008
Q: What did Plaxico say to you personally? Did he apologize to your personally?
A: That is between he and I.
Q: When did you find out about the whole incident?
A: Saturday morning about 6:15- 6:20.
Q: Who told you?
A: I had some voice messages that I really hadn’t listened to. But I got a call from Charles Way.
Q: What about Mr. Barnes, are you comfortable with how he handled the situation?
A: Listen, the state of the union was stated yesterday. I don’t have anything new to tell you about that stuff.
Q: Derrick Ward?
A: I think so. He had it retaped. I think he was fine. He ran around fine.
Q: Burress’ attorney has basically said….
A: I said that I am done talking about that.
Q: Any indication from practice that this team has lost any focus or are they still right where you want them to be?
A: Our energy level is high. Work was good today. It was fast. Guys are certainly not always perfect, but it was fast and the guys were into it.
Q: RE: Corey Webster
A: He didn’t practice again today but I think he is coming along. I think he is coming along. We will see about tomorrow.
Q: Come game day when the whistle blows, kickoff, these guys are professional athletes and have been playing this game for a long time since they were kids. Is their focus just on football at this point and nothing else?
A: I think that is pretty much the case. That is certainly what happened the other day.
Q: Fred Robbins?
A: Fred practiced. We probably listed him as limited again but he is practicing, doing whatever he needs to do.
Q: The challenge of Philadelphia, obviously, you have said it before. It always comes down it seems like to the last couple of minutes. I’m sure you don’t expect anything different this week.
A: I don’t. They are a very good football team; they are very well coached. Our games are classic games; back and forth games. We just played a few short weeks ago. We have another one of those games. So I really don’t see it being any different.
Q: You kind of kept Westbrook in check the last time.
A: Certainly he and Donovan and DeSean and all of their weapons certainly looked very good the other night against Arizona.
Q: Is there a tangible advantage to clinching the division this week?
A: To win a game. It is the next game; that is the game that we want to win. The division comes with the game; certainly that is one of our goals. We have many mountains to climb.
Q: Was Ward limited after he had his ankle retaped?
A: Not really. I can’t tell you what he is going to be like in the morning if that is what you are asking me.
Q: Because Antonio Pierce is the quarterback of the defense, do you find that you have to talk to him just to settle him down and see how mind and how is focus is?
A: Not really. We have had little conversations pretty much every day; but not today.
Q: How is he doing?
A: I think he is doing well.
Q: Is there a little extra incentive to get that first round bye to get the extra rest for the guys?
A: You know what, those type of things we are not going to discuss. We are talking about winning the division. That is right where it stays right now. There is a lot of football to play. Most years December is the start of the National Football League season. I see it no different. I see it no different. We have lots of big games coming up.
Q: Do you personally have any reason to believe that Pierce or Bradshaw will not be on the field on Sunday?
A: I don’t believe so.
Antonio Pierce
Thursday, December 04, 2008
I would like to open this conference up obviously by stating that I am not speaking about any events that happened Friday or Saturday morning. If there are any questions about the New York Giants as a team and going forward and about the Philadelphia Eagles I will answer, but again I will repeat myself, I am not answering any questions or tell you anything that happened on Saturday.
How do you personally stay focused on the practice field with everything else that is going on?
I go about my business as normal. When I am at work from 7:30 to 4:00 when I am here I go about my business of getting the strategies that Coach Spags gives to me, going out on the practice field and executing the defense, and the challenges that we have ahead. We are facing a very tough Philadelphia Eagles team that played very well last week.
Do you have anything to say about the events at the hospital that night?
I spoke earlier in my opening statement.
I don’t cover you all the time, I noticed your jersey was rolled up underneath your pads; do you do that all the time?
Yeah. I think anybody here would tell you that is how I practice every week.
Are you concerned at all about your future with the team?
I am a New York Giant and I don’t think that.
Do you think you will be on the roster on Sunday?
The Philadelphia Eagles are a good team and come Sunday Antonio, number 58, should be on the field and will be on the field.
Is it good to be on the football field and away from everything else that is going on?
It is good. It is good when you are in the locker room with the boys and enjoying football and just focusing on football. That is who I am, a professional football player, father, husband, that is what I am. When I am at work I work and you guys can find me anytime during the week at my workplace, the New York Giants.
Have you had any feedback from your colleagues as to whether you are going to be focused on the game? Are they worried about that?
My colleagues never worry about me being focused on the game.
Do you have any regrets at all about the whole Plaxico Burress situation?
I am just going to refer back to my opening statement.
What are your thoughts on Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo?
He came in last year and a lot of coaches demand respect and he earned our respect and we earned his respect and I think we work very well together. He is a great personality for our team. The defense that he runs fits our personnel very well. We have great defensive linemen that get after the quarterback, we have aggressive linebackers, and we have a young secondary that is very hungry. Coach Spags does a good job of putting a defense that fits us, and obviously by last year you can tell he was one of the hottest coaches in the league. I would be very excited for him if he does get a head coaching job one day, hopefully when I am done playing about six years from now.
What about the outside thoughts that the team could lose focus this weekend?
The 53 guys in this locker room and the 12 or so coaches all know what we need to do this weekend. This is a big weekend for us. This a weekend that we can obviously clinch the NFC East, becoming champions of something, one of our main and most focused goals is to win our division and we have that opportunity this week. The Eagles are coming in here probably prepared to keep their playoff hopes alive, but to us it is about the New York Giants and we are not worried about if somebody else thinks we are focused. We are focused and we are ready and come Sunday we will prove that at 1:00.
Any kind of letdown when you can clinch the division early?
It happened last year. Dallas clinched it very early last year, but for us the sooner the better doesn’t matter as long as you get the job done. The job for us again is to clinch the NFC East and go forth with the rest of the goals that we have that Coach Coughlin put up.
You did a good job stopping the run last week, is that something you will have to be cognizant of again this week?
Yeah he is back to Clinton Portis. You know how I said last week Portis was one, two, three and all the way down to 22. Westbrook last week four touchdowns, he is looking healthy again, obviously when we played him he might have been a little nicked-up, but Westbrook makes that team go. When he doesn’t play well or is not having a productive game they don’t play very well so for us we have to make sure we key and stop him and limit the big plays.
No Giants team has ever been to the playoffs in the year after they won the Super Bowl, are you guys concerned at all about that?
No, you know what? Honestly I never knew that. I don’t think it has ever been brought up in our meeting rooms. Everything we are focused about is what this 2008 team is capable of doing this year. We are off to a great start obviously by being 11-1, but we are not where we want to be. The playoffs are one of our goals, but we have other goals as well so if we can accomplish those goals one at a time we will be okay.
Have there been any statements made by the leadership council to the rest of the team lately?
The head coach, he speaks. Even though we have our leadership council and we have our captains the head coach Tom Coughlin, he speaks, and when he speaks we listen. He addressed the team Saturday morning, he addressed the team Sunday, and he addressed the team Wednesday so there is nothing that needs to be said from the 53 guys in this locker room. We talk on Sundays and we talk in our meeting rooms and the locker room about football and that is the only thing we will ever talk about.
How do you feel right now?
I am good. I am ready to go play football. I wish it was Sunday, but obviously I can’t speed up the days and I need a couple more days to get ready for the Philadelphia Eagles, but I am fine. I am about as focused as I could be. When distractions come up you turn a negative into a positive and that is my option.
Is there much talk about the media coverage of the Burress situation in the locker room?
All we talk about is football in this locker room and that is why we are 11-1. Whatever the outside world or whatever these people that sit here in front of my face today talk about or write about it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t concern us because when things are good things are good and when things are bad they are bad and we understand that. We focus on football.
How do you do that?
You have to. It is life, it is life. Life ain’t a straight line. It doesn’t go straight up and it doesn’t go straight down, there are bumps. It is a bump and you move on with it. For our team we have been strong enough the last year and a half or so now to get over that. Two years ago I couldn’t answer that question this way.
Do you think you could have handled this two years ago?
Me? I’m the same person I have been since I came out of my momma’s womb and came out crying. This is who I am. I am Antonio Pierce the person first and that is who I am and that is who I am going to stay.
Do you think the whole Burress situation will carry over at all the rest of the season?
This Sunday is no different from last Sunday, it is no different from Week One, it is no different from the Super Bowl game, and it is no different from the first game I ever played of football. I get on the football field and my focus is winning the game first and foremost, doing my job, and helping my team win and that is what I plan on doing on Sunday at 1:00.
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OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR KEVIN GILBRIDE
December 4, 2008
Do you have to change your schemes with Burress not being out there?
If you don’t mind, I had rather not reveal it to the Eagles right now. But we are going to do stuff that we always do. We will accentuate the things that we think our guys can do. We try not to ask them to do stuff that they would not be successful at. So we just make whatever adjustments we have to make to give them the best possible chance to have some success and therefore for us to have some success.
Is it true that the change won’t be as jarring as it might have been given that Plax has been out some and you have had to use the other guys a lot?
Yeah, but we have already used them and done it. So that is a good thing. I think it has been mentioned on a number of occasions is that because we went through the entire training camp without Plax it gave us a chance to get comfortable with, and more importantly, to allow Domenik to experience some growth and development. Because he was out the whole time. He played all of the time. So not only did he get better, which he improved substantially, I think he earned not only the quarterback, but the coaches confidence as well. So, again, Plaxico is a great player. We hate to lose him. We are not as good a team without him. But we feel good about the guys we have in there, too.
The past couple of weeks you have had to change your style of play because of how teams are defending the run. Do you say, “Okay, we will find a different way to get the ball downfield?”
Yeah, that has always been our approach in that we will see what you are doing. We are going to come after you with a preset plan. This is where we think we can have our greatest success. And then we will see what you are doing and then we will adjust if we have to. And in the last couple of weeks they have been more of a commitment to a blitz and trying to be disruptive of the running lanes. And it has really challenged the quarterback and receivers. Can you beat our man coverage? And really they have done a terrific job …….. So every time near the end of the game they start backing off and that is when we start running the ball a little bit better. So being balanced to me may not mean the same as it does to everybody else. To me it doesn’t mean this game as it did last time – 35 runs, 34 passes. It means when you have to run you can and then maybe the next game, or two games later, when you have to throw you can and you have that ability to do that. So far, knock on wood, we have been pretty good with it.
When Burress wasn’t out there the past two weeks people have been putting extra guys in the box to defend the run, do you see that continuing?
Well, again, he is a great player. And because he is a great player people do things to make sure that he doesn’t single-handled beat you. So that creates some opportunities. But to be honest with you, I thought the same thing was going to happen the week before. And it just happened the last two weeks. I thought it was going to happen against Baltimore. But our guys did a great job. We were able to do some things schematically which gave us a chance against what they were doing. And so they were able to run the ball. But I had really anticipated that game it was going to start. So you never know from week to week. Everybody provides different challenges and it is up to us to be able to respond to them. And so far our guys have done a terrific job. And our coaches – I don’t know if those guys get enough credit, but our guys do a great job of preparing our players, but also in designing plays that give us a chance so that if they are doing certain things we know right now what we want to do and try to take advantage of some opportunities that have been created by defenses overloading --- whatever it is, it is ….. not only the run, but a certain type of run; an inside run, an outside run, is it mis-directional? Our guys do a great job – the coaches. Our line coach, Pat Flaherty, and Jerald Ingram do a terrific job with the running game. And in the passing game Mike Sullivan does an unbelievable job with Chris Palmer. So those guys have all done a terrific job of getting the guys ready and also helping me in terms of scheme-wise what we want to do.
A bad situation that you a trying to make the best of, but the last two weeks there was a possibility knowing you could have Plax on the field, knowing that the receivers, they have to not get all of their reps during the week, or may have to know other positions. Now everybody knows what the deal is now.
Yeah, from an intellectual standpoint, I guess, from that point of view it is simpler that you removed any question or doubt from the standpoint that you lost a terrific player it is more of a challenge. And it is certainly going to be up to coaches and players to set up and try to fill his void. And again, our guys have always reacted very positively to the challenge. It doesn’t mean that they are happy that Plax isn’t here, that is not the case by any stretch, we wish he was here. But he is not. So we have to make the best of it.
Is Mario Manningham ready if called upon?
A: Again, as I have said before, the problem with Mario is that he missed the whole training camp. So any foundation that he normally would have had, which would have given him a chance and us a chance to utilize him more fully, is gone. But what we are trying to do is accelerate, little by little, by focusing on certain things. And hopefully we will be able to take advantage of those things.
Could he have an impact like Steve Smith did late last season?
But as you know everybody is different. And for you to place one guy in the other guy’s shoes is not fair to anybody.
He’s not where Steve was?
Steve just was there for camp and had done some things and so he was a little bit further ahead. But I think he is going to be a terrific player. It is just the matter of getting enough knowledge of what we are doing that we can utilize him and take advantage of his assets and attributes which are many. Trust me; he is going to be a good player. He can run. He looks very confident athletically. He looks like he catches the ball well. It is just a matter of growing with them what we do enough that we can say, “Hey, he is not going to make any mistakes, he is not going to …..”
Tom said that you had a couple of things in the last game plan for Mario Manningham?
I wish he hadn’t said that to be honest with you. I had rather not have our opponents know what we have in or whether we plan on using him or not.
So did you have anything in the game plan?
I wish he hadn’t said anything.
Some of the receivers have said that they have to step up now without Burress here. When you hear guys said that – ‘step up’ – what exactly does that mean to you?
Well, it was before on many occasions say, “Okay, we can count on 17 to do this. He can beat the man coverage when we get down in the green zone. He is a big, strong part. He is going to be able to defeat whoever it is they put against him.” You feel confident that it doesn’t have to be me because we are probably going to go to him and I feel real good that …….when he is not there. Now somebody else has to do it. So that is what they mean; that is what they are implying. We know he is there. He is no longer there so the opportunities are going to become available to somebody else. It is going to be us now. And the thing that I like to hear about is that, to me, I infer from that comment they hope it is them. And that is what I want guys to say, “Hey, I can do it. I feel good about if I am given the chance you can count on me to make the play, I am not shying away from that opportunity.” Some people shy away, I get the sense that some of our guys are looking forward to a chance to show that they are deserving of that kind of opportunity.
Are there any plays that you have to take out of the playbook?
Not really, no. You definitely emphasize different things. ‘Hey this is something he does real well,’ so I may call that three, four, five times in a game and then build a game plan off of that. Maybe I can’t do that play except as a complimentary play or as a supplemental play, but there is maybe something that he does a little bit better, either Domenik or Sinorice or whoever is in that maybe Plax didn’t do as well. You kind of feature those things a little bit more.
Now you have a lot of the young, fast guys. Is that what your receiving corps is shaping up to be?
Yeah, they are smaller guys that is for sure. I think Plax would take offense if you said they were faster, but they are quick and they run good routes. They are difficult in their maneuverability in small spaces so those are the things that I think we are looking to see if we can utilize effectively. We will see what happens.
Are you more involved in a guessing game now when you don’t have Plaxico out there drawing the double coverage from the defense?
Yeah, but that has always been the case. No one ever, despite what the receivers tell you, just like Shaun O’Hara said there were 13 guys in the box and that is why you couldn’t run, there are never 13 guys in the box, trust me, and receivers aren’t doubled on every play. Trust me on that one. They will tell you they are doubled, but they are not doubled on every play. They double, then they don’t double, then they blitz, then they come back and play single so that gamesmanship or chess match goes on all the time and you just play the percentages and the hunches and you get a sense or a feel of the rhythm and flow of the game and then you try to build your calls in accordingly. I don’t think anything has changed. Now is there a little different emphasis? Yes, probably. We probably got more rolled coverage to Plax in certain situations, but again, they didn’t roll Plax, in a 75 play game, 75 times. Just like there aren’t 12 guys in the box every run. Sometimes players explaining why certain things… no that is not the way. People, if they are good, and these guys are good coaches, they always are going to keep you off-balance. They want you to think, ‘okay here comes the blitz,’ and then they drop eight guys and now you are sitting there with everybody hunkered-down trying to protect against the blitz and you look foolish. That is always taking place.
How important is it to have Amani now in the room with those young guys?
Yeah I think he sets a good example. Again I think his professionalism, his work habits, those have always been exemplary and I have always been proud to watch the way he goes about his business on the practice field and in the meetings he is always sitting down there always very attentive and always taking notes. People see him doing that and that is a good example. They see that is the way you are supposed to do it so I think it is certainly an asset.
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