Head Coach Tom Coughlin
Postgame vs. New England, Nov. 15, 2015
Extremely disappointing loss. Not much for me to say about it other than the frustration was—I mean, finish the game. Just get the game over with. We had the ball in the end zone that’s knocked out of the hands. We have to kick a field goal, which makes you right away worried because they have an outstanding kicker who might kick it from 58 to 60 yards, he’s done that before. You have a chance to intercept the ball in the middle of the field and it’s just thrown up and we don’t catch the ball. I thought there were times in the second half we weren’t able, obviously, to sustain any kind of drives, and that was frustrating in itself. They did put a lot of pressure on the quarterback. We’re up 10 and then we give up a punt return, which you know, jeez, here we go.
I’m very disappointed, upset, whatever the words might be. Guys practiced hard, they worked hard, they wanted it badly, they prepared well, they battled out on the field. We knew it would have to be physical. Was it as physical as I would’ve liked? I don’t know, I would have to look at the numbers, but very frustrating loss.
Q: On the Odell Beckham non-touchdown, did your coaches upstairs think that was a catch? How did they interpret it?
A: Initially they did, but it could’ve gone (the other way). They were open about that part, too. It could be ruled against us. We had two other plays. We weren’t able to score. We already had the two-point play on the field ready to go for two. There you go.
Q: On the first down play there, did you consider trying to run it to try and force them to use a timeout or take the two-minute warning?
A: The first down play?
Q: The one that went to Beckham. So instead of throwing it…
A: I’ll take the touchdown. I’ll take the touchdown.
Q: On the Danny Amendola punt return, did it appear as though he signaled for a fair catch? It looked like he was waving his hands.
A: He did something, which is normally the way it is. He did something, which slowed—which whatever he did, (Dwayne) Harris didn’t finish the play.
Q: Was there anything that Odell Beckham should have or could have done?
A: On that play?
Q: On the touchdown play. Like bring it in somehow?
A: Hang onto the ball. Get the ball and put it away. The one thing I noticed with (Malcolm) Butler all night long, are very quick hands, and his hands were in there on the ball a lot. He’ll learn.
Q: What do you say to Landon Collins about the missed interception?
A: Play’s there, you’ve got to make the play. I mean, he’s throwing it up down the middle of the field with no one, there’s no one even there. Catch the ball and the game’s over. I’m sending the victory team out. I mean, it’s just a shame. I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain it. I mean, it looked like he had it at first and the ball was out when he hit the ground.
Q: I don’t know if there are degrees of disappointment with losses, but you’ve obviously had some very tough ones late in games this season. Does this feel worse?
A: They’re all (bad). If you don’t win, they’re all miserable. I don’t look at it in degrees, I just look at it in terms of the frustration that goes along with it because of what could’ve been. It’s not that far away from being a win. Just finish the thing off. There were no timeouts. They were operating with no timeouts and only went to the sideline maybe once.
Q: Coach, you had a chance earlier after a turnover to…
A: That was an unfortunate series. There is no other way around it. We didn’t do anything to threaten and the ball was turned over right there and it would have been outstanding, but we went backwards. We had the penalties right off the bat, then we took the sack and were out of field goal range.
Q: When you lose a number of these games like this --- you are playing well against good teams but don’t finish. Are you concerned at all with any carryover?
A: They are going to come back and battle back and compete. These games against that present a great challenge for you, it is inspirational to the great competitors, they line up and battle against a very good football team, an undefeated football team and many of the writers are talking about them going undefeated and that was a highly motivating factor. You love to play these games, you really do and the frustration --- they will hurt all day tonight and all day tomorrow and we all will, we all will and probably well into the bye week, but maybe that is a good thing.
Q: You’ve learned a lot about your team in difficult spots this year. Did you learn anything differently with the way you played today?
A: I learn something every time out. When I look at the tape I’m sure I’ll make some observations that will allow me to have a better perspective about certain things.
Q: On the play where Eli rolled out, that was very similar to the play in Dallas. Was there something to be made there?
A: No, they covered. They were obviously in a zone and the corner stayed right out there and took the underneath route away and it would have been a dangerous thing for [Eli] to try to come back and he had been caught from behind earlier so it just --- there was no pressure, so it ended up being a zone type of thing and he was trying to do that and used up their last time out.
Q: Why might it be a good thing for your team to be hurting well into the bye week?
A: It might not be a good thing, but it is what it is. It hurts to lose, it hurts when you put as much into it as these young men did, coaching staff did, to put what they put into it and not come away with a win --- when it seems the frustration of there is the game, just win the game.
Q: What did you think of your defense overall?
A: Yeah, we are getting better, we are getting better. We gave up some runs early on and then we settled down and did a good job with the run, I thought. We gave up a big play --- we gave up the play to Gronkowski in the middle of the field and that hurt obviously. We knew basically how far they needed to get to a field goal and that hurt, too.
Q: You have made a pretty good living here on the mantra “finish.” Why is this group having so much trouble finishing?
A: The other guy finished the game. We didn’t get it done. We could have had the game over with and been kneeling down, there was that circumstance --- we could have scored a touchdown and went for two, they couldn’t kick a field goal, they had no timeouts. There was all kinds of things that could’ve happened. That is why you play the game.
Q: Any sense on the severity of Weston Richburg?
A: Not that I know of. [It was] an ankle and he was out.
Q: What do you say to Landon Collins about the missed interception?
A: Play’s there, you’ve got to make the play. I mean, he’s throwing it up down the middle of the field with no one, there’s no one even there. Catch the ball and the game’s over. I’m sending the victory team out. I mean, it’s just a shame. I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain it. I mean, it looked like he had it at first and the ball was out when he hit the ground.
Period.
Dude make the play. What else there to say
If the players are good enough to go toe-to-toe with the World Champs for 59 minutes but come up short in the last minute, who's to blame?
For this game, for this team, it really doesn't matter. We are in first place because Romo has been hurt, we are going to get shellacked even if we make the playoffs.
The question is, how do we fix the disastrous state of this team? It's been more than four years since we've played inspired football. We have to identify the problem so that we can go fix it.
Doesn't need to lie, just be a bit more diplomatic about it.
Quote:
Q: What do you say to Landon Collins about the missed interception?
A: Play’s there, you’ve got to make the play. I mean, he’s throwing it up down the middle of the field with no one, there’s no one even there. Catch the ball and the game’s over. I’m sending the victory team out. I mean, it’s just a shame. I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain it. I mean, it looked like he had it at first and the ball was out when he hit the ground.
Period.
Ok Tom, lets throw your ass upside down, let you land on your forearm with the ball, and see if you can keep it secured the way that play played out for Collins.
9 times out of 10, people would lose the ball. 5 times out of 10, people would probably break their forearm.
The 2nd and 5 pass to Harris was hurtful. Stopped the clock and took too much yardage.
Really?
This loss was a kick to the fucking balls.
This loss was a kick to the fucking balls.
I thought the exact same thing. Also thought Collins didn't even have to leap, just wait for it and it's an easy catch,
The Coughlin haters have to give it a rest.
That's not how this works.