QB Eli Manning
Postgame vs. Washington, September 24, 2015
Q: Overall assessment of the team and for you?
A: Yeah, I thought we had a good day. I thought we moved the ball real well all day, converted on third downs. Still need to get a little bit better in the red zone, too many field goals. We’re getting there a lot, which is good, we’re just all of a sudden down there and we have a missed play, we have a drop, we have a missed throw, something that gets us off and we get into third-and-longs and it’s tough. It’s tough to convert third-and-8s and 9s down there in the 15-, 10-yard line. There’s just not a whole lot of room. But I thought we hung in there and Coach challenged us to win the fourth quarter, to elevate our play in the fourth quarter and I thought we did that tonight. Basic plays there in that last quarter to win the game.
Q: What did you think about Rueben Randle’s performance tonight?
A: Rueben played well, played outstanding from the get-go. Had some nice catches, hit him down the right sideline on a little double move. Honestly, the touchdown at the end of the fourth quarter, the one-on-one, and he concentrated on that and making that play, big play for us. We need him to play well and I felt bad the first games hadn’t gotten him as involved as we should’ve and he’s a big part of the offense. It’s good to get him back going and getting him catches and making sure people know you have a lot more than just one receiver
Q: Tom was saying you don’t show it but what’s happened the last two weeks bothers you a lot inside. What was your level of frustration coming into this game?
A: I felt bad. I felt bad for the first two games, we were right there. Games we could’ve easily won. Had leads in the fourth quarter and did not hold on to those and were not at our best in the final minutes of the game. It’s frustrating. We had opportunities and we didn’t take advantage of it. So you never know. So I think just keep working and I think I want our teammates to know we can win this game. We can win this fourth quarter, be excited about these opportunities, we can’t dredge on it. We have some downs, we have some bad plays, we have some bad games, we don’t have success in those situations. If you start dredging them, it’s going to get worst. You’ve just got to get back in that moment, get back in that situation, have some success and feel good about yourself.
Q: Was anything said on the field or in the huddle as the fourth quarter started, knowing you’re in your third straight game with a significant lead?
A: Just to keep going. Coach kind of said, ‘hey, we’re going to elevate our play.’ Everybody kind of put a finger up and said let’s talk about elevating our play, raising the intensity and to go in the fourth quarter. That was the mental approach and we challenged that and I thought the guys accepted the challenge.
Q: Eli, talk about the tight end Larry Donnell, who dropped a pass in the red zone but you came back to him. How important is he to your offense?
A: Larry in the first quarter had a third down conversion and ran a great route, got open, got the drop and had to settle for a field goal right there. In the fourth quarter we had a pretty good drive going, we had second-and-17 and actually hit him down the seam for a great catch and the first down. Come up for the next play there for a touchdown. So huge play by Larry, great call by Coach McAdoo setting that up and got the perfect coverage and it worked out just how we hoped it would. I thought the tight ends, I thought Fells, Daniel Fells made some nice plays for us, Larry played tough, I thought all the guys did a good job.
Q: About Coach, how important is it to you, to the team, that he doesn’t go up and down, he’s always pretty steady?
A: Sometimes he can be a little animated, he can get fired up. It’s good. He challenges the team and I think that’s what great coaches do. They’ve got to push your buttons to get the best out of you and there’s always times when things don’t go as well as you want it and you’ve got to find a way to push the guys without bringing them down. I thought he did a good job on a short week getting us ready to play this game, making sure the spirits are up and the guys are ready. I thought we came out fired from the get-go and had a great game offense, defense, special teams and obviously Rashad getting it started with the block punt to start it.
Q: The touchdown to Odell, was that pre-planned coming out of the huddle or was it something you saw based on coverage?
A: That was the call, the play that was called by Coach McAdoo. We’ve been running a lot out of that personnel and safeties got a little low, I don’t know if they were in corners or they were in single-high and the safeties got antsy and got low. When you’ve got Odell at post and there’s a safety not real deep, that’s a big alert and he did a really good job making the catch.
Q: Eli, given that you won a championship starting a season 0-2 and you won your second when you were 7-7, do you feel like you can get confidence in that context with this this 0-2 start?
A: Yeah. I think it gives us confidence. Hey, it’s a long season, there’s a lot of football to play. Our division, it’s too early to know and we can’t run away with right now. But hey, you’ve got to get one win and just keep going. Let’s try to get another, put some things together because I feel like we’ve been playing pretty good football. It’s not like we’re just getting blown out. It’s not like last year the first two games we didn’t play real well and we got pretty beat. I thought we’re not turning the ball over, we’re converting on third downs, we’re moving the ball, we’ve got to score a little better in the red zone, made some mistakes and hadn’t been our best in the last few minutes of the game but those are things you can correct and fix. For the most part, the running game’s in the fourth quarter and doing a lot of good things. We’ve got to keep doing that.
