Monday Media Transcript: Head Coach Tom Coughlin

Head Coach Tom Coughlin

December 7, 2015

Good afternoon. We’ve had a chance to look at the tape and talk to the players and meet with the players today. Obviously everybody is disappointed. We’re all disappointed, you’re disappointed. But the conclusion that I come to—we’ll win when we deserve to win. We haven’t done enough things in order to put ourselves over the top. Obviously the end of the game situations have been discussed many, many times over. I’ve tried, openly, honestly, to remove that situation from happening, from our defense from having to deal with that at the end of the game. It didn’t work out the way I wanted it to, but that’s been something that I’ve tried to aggressively take care of over the course of the season. But I think when you look at the opportunities that we’ve had, and I use the one, again, I spoke to you last night—we had the ball on the 31-yard line, we had the ball on the four-yard line—we kept going backwards and by the time we had the penalty situations over with we were punting the football rather than kicking a field goal. Any one of the circumstances along the line which would have been more than a field goal would have given us the momentum that we needed to win the game. Whether it be fourth and two—field goal, whether it be a field goal after the turnover, whatever the situation might be, had we been able to convert that, and we didn’t -- we were 0 for 3 in the green zone -- into a touchdown, then the game would have been ours. That wasn’t to be. I credited the players the way they practiced last week and worked, they did a good job on Wednesday, a good job on Thursday. The penalties continue to be a problem, the offensive penalties are too many and too foolish, and really ill timed, not anything that goes without stopping a drive or something of that nature. So we have got to get back to work. We have four games to go, we’re going to work extra hard as a coaching staff and the players will work hard. We’ve got to try and find a way to win a game and to change this negativity and so on and so forth—get our momentum going in the right direction.

Q: You said after the game it’s hard to bring a team up after a loss like that. Did that carry over to today?

A: Well, what I said and what I meant perhaps—when you bring a team together after a loss like that and try to address that, it’s difficult, it’s very difficult. They’re very disappointed, they’re down, they’re frustrated, there are all kinds of feelings and emotions, which you would expect. They’re competitors. That’s just the nature of the business. Today after having an opportunity to gather and talk about it with their teammates so on and so forth, they’re quiet, they’re disappointed, there’s remorse for opportunity lost. And they can see it again when they look at the tape, they’ll see it for themselves. Those things are not easy. We’re all sick of losing, let’s face it. We’re all sick of that, going through that. We’ve had too many very, very close games that went the other way at the end of the game for whatever reason. It’s not any one individual, it’s not any one group, everyone contributes. As I said last night, had we taken the ball with a four-minute offense and kept the ball, which you’re supposed to do, they would have never got the ball back. So we didn’t do that. Everyone wants to refer to the different phases, whatever. I’ll answer whatever questions you have.

Q: What did you see as being the difference? You played good defense for 51 minutes.

A: Well, it’s a four quarter game, first of all, I’ll tell you, and that’s exactly what I told our team. And it goes for our offense, too. Twenty points in the first half, none in the second half. What games are you going to win like that? What games are you going to win scoring 13 or 10 points, whatever that might be? It’s a four quarter game, you’ve got to play that way the entire ball game. You can’t get to a situation where all of a sudden you stop making plays or don’t make plays that are there. Let’s face it, we should have had two interceptions. We should have had at least two interceptions, maybe another. The (Landon) Collins’ situation, he was prone and extended, maybe that wouldn’t have been an easy catch. But there were a couple of catches that were easy catches and we didn’t make them. One opportunity, the ball was tipped and right at the goal there, maybe because it was moving, it was not an easy ball to catch, but it could have been caught. So there’s all kinds of those things in a game, you know that. So for 60 minutes you have to play. You’ve got to have poise. Sometimes I didn’t think we were as poised as we should have been. But the bottom line is when the game is on the line people have to step up and make plays. We didn’t do that. We didn’t do that to the extent that would have allowed us to win. We talked about special teams play all week and how we really needed our special teams to step up. When we looked at the special teams categories, we thought we could. And we got the big punt return. And we actually had a kickoff return in the overtime, that ball was at the 43-yard line. That’s pretty good field position. It was nothing much to see the ball over in plus territory creating, again, another opportunity. And we got the foolish penalty that made it a 48-yarder instead of a 43-yarder. And I didn’t like the third down play, which wasn’t as competitive as it should have been, nor did it keep the drive alive. You know, you’re playing for a touchdown, you’re playing to win, you’re not playing to tie the game. You’re not playing that way, that’s not how I play, anyway. I would tend to be that way from an aggressive standpoint anyway. But you’ve got to make the plays when the plays are there—that’s either defense or offense or whatever. I was serious with JPP, there was one of those screen balls that was not very far from his ability to reach out and catch it. I just visualize a guy with that kind of ability making that play and going the other way with one of those screens that were right on the line of scrimmage as far as that goes. So all kinds of things, all kinds of opportunities as it is, again, when you evaluate a game. Just one or two plays. It’s interesting when you look back and the point is made with our players which I did today again, is every play is so critical in the game—every play. It could be one or two plays in a ballgame, I used to say five, but really this year it could be one. One play makes the difference in a ballgame, and it’s got to be the one that you make. You’ve got to make it not the other guy.

Q: You mentioned the four-minute offense. The goal is obviously to put a drive together and hold the ball, but you ran the ball on first, two yards, second down, two yards. It looked like you were trying to take time off the clock, then you’re in a predictable down and distance to throw it. Should that drive been constructed differently?

A: Not necessarily. Had you sent your big people in the game, it might have been maybe three runs or (two) runs and a play action pass or something of that nature. But you have to understand, and I think you do, if you’ve looked at the Jet tape, they do a really good job when they load up in the box when you’re tight. So that was a consideration. We had practiced and talked about a few plays from that look. But to be able to stay open and to get it third and five or six, third and six as it was, that is actually the situation that we normally practice, which means you know you have to make a play in the passing game to keep the ball. And I think that’s generally the way the league is constructed today with what we call four-minute. I don’t see anybody just, maybe occasionally, but you don’t get many teams that allow you to just put it down there and run it. You do have to end up throwing it, and that’s the situation we normally practice. Do we make a play there? No, we did not. They did a good job with Beckham on that play, too, riding him outside and not letting him get inside. But that’s something that we do specifically prepare for.

Q: Are teams respecting the play action in those situations in your estimation?

A: This wasn’t play action.

Q: In general in those situations?

A: Well, we did do a few things with play action last night. One, which I thought we did, hold the linebackers on the line of scrimmage perhaps. It would be better if we ran the ball better obviously.

Q: Do you have a theory on Rueben Randle. He caught more than 70 balls a year ago and was a real viable threat opposite Odell. What’s happened with him in terms of not only catching the ball, but it seems like continuing routes and being precise on some routes?

A: That’s a very good question. Like, for example, last Wednesday Rueben practiced very well. Thursday was okay, not great. He made a heck of a catch to set up the fourth down call just to catch the ball, which was one of those things with people flying around. The ball was thrown in his direction and he made a nice adjustment and catch. That’s a question which, quite frankly, if I were to answer, I would be speaking to Rueben.

Q: To go back to one thing you said earlier, can you realistically expect Jason Pierre-Paul to catch an interception? I’m not trying to be anything other than just curious about specifics. Have you seen him catch a ball with the club on his hand?

A: I’ve seen him catch it—it was this hand and I’ve seen him do that a couple times. I think he could.

Q: Defensively, the wide open spaces in the middle of the field which have been pretty consistent, is that scheme? Is it talent, which is what you hear outside of this building, you hear an awful lot that the Giants defense just isn’t talented enough to defend? What do you attribute that to?

A: There have been holes in our underneath coverage, no doubt. But the couple of passes that ended up 16 and 15 yards right there in that final drive—to be honest, they had a really nice under/over idea against a specific coverage and they caught the coverage twice. And there really is, the linebacker gets caught there because if he comes up, it’s behind; if he stays deep, it’s in front. So the safety is coming in from depth and the safety ends up making the tackle but he can’t disrupt the throw when the linebacker commits to the underneath route. The linebacker did commit to that. In some ways, it’s scheme and in other ways we haven’t covered anybody real tight in those underneath things, even when we’re playing in zone coverage. That’s something that’s a constant with trying to improve that aspect of it. And I think we do have some people that can cover, I really do.

Q: Do you have confidence in your defense to make stops late for you guys?

A: Do I have confidence that they can?

Q: Just based on what you’ve seen so far?

A: We haven’t been able to do it. I’m not going to speak about my—I believe we can and I hope the heck we will, and it better happen fast. That’s the situation that I’ve been telling you that I’ve tried to avoid putting our defense in that situation.

Q: What gives you confidence, though, that they can get it done in that spot?

A: Just my belief in the guys that are teaching it and the guys that are playing.

Q: Do you have update on Ereck Flowers?

A: Ankle, to the point where he was still on crutches today. I don’t think, and I don’t have anything right in front of me…another sprain, perhaps like the one he had previously.

Q: On the fourth and two play, are you limited in terms of play calling by the fact that running the ball down there, you just have not been able to do that?

A: No. If you remember now, we’ve had, a year ago, some decent success running the ball down there. It’s always with a pass and if they take the run away, then it becomes the pass. Last night there were different options—one, it was a certain pass if they were in one look and there was another pass if there were in another one.

Q: Your own status moving forward seems to be at issue here going into the final month of the season. Do you feel that way? Do you sense that?

A: No, no, I don’t. I don’t pay any attention to it. I’m trying to stay focused for the benefit of my team, my coaches, and everybody else. Quite frankly, you can all disagree, but we’re trying to win games the best way we can. To be honest with you, nobody knows my team better than I know my team. So when you sit in judgement of what goes on, it’s all been thought out, whether you like it or not, whether it’s right or wrong. Had some of these things been things that we would have accomplished, it’d be a little bit different story. The majority of what we’ve done, and you well know it, is to try to put ourselves in a position where that last drive is not going to put us in the situation we’ve been in four or five times, and obviously it hasn’t happened. We’ve tried for touchdowns instead of field goals and it hasn’t happened.

Q: How frustrating is that, that you keep making these decisions and it seems like whatever button you press, the execution isn’t there?

A: It’s pretty frustrating, to be honest with you. But you know what, I’ve always done it this way, I blame myself.

Q: How do you go about fixing the late game problems? What do you do at this point 12 games into the season to try and fix that?

A: Like I said, somebody’s got to make a play. In order to get out of that jam, and it doesn’t take a lot—it could be a fourth and six stop, which we thought we had the right call on when the quarterback ran the ball. And we did and we actually checked out of a line stunt that would have put someone right in front of where he came, it’s craziness.

Q: What can you as a coach do?

A: Keep coaching. Keep working, keep grinding, keep planning, keep deciding, keep making decisions based on what we have. Be aggressive. Don’t sit back because the world thinks it’s not getting done. We know better.

Q: You’ve been in these kinds of situations where things have gone against you and it doesn’t look very hopeful at the end of seasons and sometimes you’ve fought out of them and sometimes not. Is there something that you kind of search for internally or with your team that you almost enjoy that kind of situation of backs against the wall type thing?

A: Well, it is what it is. I don’t know that I search for something. It’s part of my makeup anyway, the competitive nature. Nothing that I would just, other than what you just said, the fact that when you’re in this situation, you’ve got to work harder than ever to make sure that everyone believes and stays on the same page. Again, it’s team first, not any individuals, which we’ve had to talk about that a lot, too. You’ve got to come out swinging and you’ve got to be together to do it. It is about team and it’s all those intangibles and all those values that you’ve preached from day one. You’ve got to keep bringing them up and sharing them with your players and your coaches.

Q: Do you ever think of these five games and how they’ve been lost in the final moments and just shake your head? It is almost an incredible string of events that you’ve lost these five. Do you ever think of it?

A: I do and think of the exact circumstance and exactly what happened and why or how it could have been changed, but then I move on. You have to.

Q: You do have, based on the division, on paper, a legitimate shot here.

A: Yes, we do, and that’s something that we continue to drive home, as well.

Q: How hard do you root for the Cowboys tonight?

A: (No answer, smiles)

Q: Jasper Brinkley has had a couple games at linebacker. Can you just comment about the job he’s done there?

A: He’s a physical force inside, he’s done a good job of that. I think he’s learning and playing a little bit better each time out there. It’s timing.

Q: Eli said he had an X-ray, he didn’t say on what.

A: Ankle.

Q: Is there anything you’re worried about going forward?

A: No.

Q: On the challenge, was that for the two yards? You thought it was two yards?

A: Well first, upstairs, it was the 27-yard line that he stepped out at. So I was upset when I found out it was the 22. But you know what? It still should have been given to us. Because what did they do? They took a timeout away. It’s ridiculous.

Q: You’re not saying the 27?

A: No, I’m challenging that he stepped out of bounds.

Q: What was their explanation?

A: None.