Head Coach Tom Coughlin
Postgame vs. Philadelphia, December 28, 2014
…To be inside the green zone three times and kick field goals, that hurt. Obviously, you’re thinking that that’s going to come back and haunt you, the block I mean. [Right away in the third quarter], a blocked punt, not only a blocked punt, but it ends up being in the endzone for a touchdown; that hurt. The penalties, the untimeliness, we had a ball in the endzone, we obviously got called for holding. I thought our defense battled. Their first score was right down the field and score, but once we settled down, we did a decent job of holding them. I’m not sure what the number of punts were or anything like that. We did have some three and outs, which was very good and put ourselves in position. Hey, at the half, we had probably twice as much time of possession as Philadelphia did and that was part of the plan. That’s the way you have to go about trying to defend them is keeping them on the sideline. Again, we had some chances, we did not rush the ball the way we intended to rush the ball. That’s a long-playing album. One week we run the ball pretty well, the next week we don’t run it very well. Never. We had two runs, at one point, inside the five-yard line and didn’t gain much of anything in terms of yardage. That continues to be an issue. We had a lot of yards and did a lot of things very well offensively. [However], not enough. Defensively, again, I say we had a good plan, the plan was well taught. I thought we did a pretty good job, although you always say you’re going to try to stop the run. They had a lot of run yardage as it turns out. I think we put ourselves in position to win the game there. Special teams was kind of a back and forth, fair catch for most of the day. Kickoffs were boomed out of the endzone. Some cases returnable, but to the 20-yard line. So, the difference being the block. Josh Brown hits that 53-yard field goal, that’s big now. Momentarily, you’re not worried about the two-point conversion anymore. They get it back, we had plenty of time. We had three minutes and some seconds. We had one timeout. We needed a touchdown and a two-point play and we get an interception at the end of the game, which was very untimely. We had taken good care of the ball. For the most part, pass protection was good. We blocked the pressures pretty well, got the ball thrown where we wanted to, but in the long run, it wasn’t enough.
Q: What was your assessment of the interception Eli [Manning] threw at the end? Was it him underthrowing or getting enough air up underneath it?
A: It was an interception.
Q: What happens to you now in terms of evaluation of the team, your own status? What are the next few days like?
A: We are going to evaluate our team, just like we always do. We’re going to present, along with pro personnel, to the owners an evaluation of our players and take it from there. If there’s anything else, it will be initiated by ownership.
Q: In terms of your own status?
A: I just said, I’m going to go about my business, just as I always do, until I’m told otherwise.
Q: Has there ever been a thought by you at all whether you wanted to continue or is it a no-brainer that you would like to continue coaching?
A: I’m not going to share any of those kinds of thoughts.
Q: On the second possession where they overruled the interception and called pass interference, you got vocal and entered onto the field. Any sense of what was going on and what got you so irate?
A: I saw what everybody else in the stands saw. I don’t know. I think he said he grabbed the jersey. Now if he grabbed the jersey, that’s the call, no matter what the play is. That’s the way the rule’s been interpreted this year. I didn’t see the jersey get grabbed. When Beckham went to the post and got hit on both sides by defenders, I wondered what happened to the five-yard rule. I saw more contact there than I did some other spots. But if you grab the jersey, I have no problem with that. That’s what the rule is. You grab the jersey, you’re going to get called.
Q: Do you want to see your coaching staff return in tact?
A: Yes, but I’m not going to say anything more about that or anything else today.
Q: When you have Eli throw the ball that many times, does that put too much pressure on him?
A: It puts too much pressure on any quarterback. You’ve got to have something to balance off. We had some five-yard runs, but we didn’t have enough of them.
Q: Do you have any idea what happened on the far sideline with Odell when he got hit late and there was no call, then he took off his helmet. Did you see that and were you shocked by that sequence?
A: My thought, without sitting there and having a great view, was that he was helmet to helmet with him. I think that’s what caused him to take the helmet off. He must’ve got around and talked to him about it. But that’s what it looked like to me. Again, I wasn’t over there. I’m not standing on that sideline.
Q: Overall, how would you assess the season?
A: Disappointing. How else do you want me to say it? Not enough wins, too many losses. Just close enough.
Q: After Odell scored the touchdown, when you guys got the ball back, he wasn’t in for the first two plays.
A: He was sick on he sideline. He was ill and was vomiting and so on and so forth. They held him. He didn’t come back with a lot of strength right there.
Q: Do you think this is heading in the right direction? Do you want to see it through?
A: I’ve said three times I’m not going to say anything about it. I think it’s headed in the right direction, yeah.
Q: How would you assess the season Eli had?
A: I think he got much better. I think he really got to perform in this scheme well. I think he understands it. He has the ability to adjust pretty much everything, including the protections and placing personnel and snapping the ball, and having all these things going. I think it suits him to a tee. That’s how he plays his best and that’s what he wants to do. I do believe that he’s worked his way through the system, he’s playing well within the system right now, and let’s face it, we didn’t win the game, but I think that’s two 500-yard games in a row. Something was being done. Now was the percentage the way you’d like it? Probably not. But there were some deep shots that we wanted to take. We wanted the one-on-ones and we wanted to take some shots and we did. Unfortunately, most of them were not completions and they go in the book as incomplete. But it was part of what we wanted to do.
Q: What do you say when you think about Beckham’s final numbers with 91 catches, over 1,300 yards and 12 touchdowns in 12 games.
A: I think he’s an outstanding young player with a bright career and future. There’s a lot that goes into it. His first year and first time out on the field, as he’s learning, you can only anticipate bigger and better things.
