LB Connor Barwin -- October 29, 2018
Q: On team leadership:
A: I think the coaches are doing a good job leading. I think the players are doing a good job leading. I think guys are staying and fighting the entire game and I think guys are playing for each other. We’re not getting the results, but people are playing hard and playing for each other and that’s important. That’s why guys are sticking together because when you see your brothers out there giving everything they got, then you’re going to do the same thing.
Q: Is it a little different dynamic because in Philly it was the end of something with the coaching regime. Here it’s the beginning of something, so is it a sense of more stability maybe?
A: I think – I don’t know if there’s a sense of more stability, but whenever you have a coach in his first year, you hear people say everybody’s got a clean slate, everyone wants to put their best foot forward and that’s the benefit of having a coach in his first year. I think it’s more so, I think Shurmur is doing a great job leading, sticking to the message that is just keep fighting, just keep playing for each other, keep playing hard and we’re going to get this fixed and we’re going to find a way to kind of get over the top and start getting wins. There’s an opportunity in everything and this is really bad, but adversity can bring teams together and you could see people’s true colors. You can see who’s tough and who wants to be here and all that stuff is what can be happening now over the next two months.
Q: With the offense struggling, it seems like everybody’s saying it’s time to dump Eli (Manning) and give Kyle (Lauletta) a chance or something like that. You’ve been in the league long enough. Is it one guy or is it –
A: No, it’s every guy doing what they can to get better. For me, that’s doing everything I can in my snaps to be the best player I can for this team and that’s what I need to focus on. I need to focus on doing everything I can to get Lorenzo (Carter) to be as good as he can be and if everybody keeps doing that and takes that approach, the wins will start piling up.
Q: When you signed here, you obviously assessed the situation and did you look at – not that you were the missing piece, but you were going to be an added piece to a team that was going to be really good. Is that what your sense was?
A: Yeah.
Q: So how stunning is this to you that without a major, major rash of injuries –
A: Football is – it’s hard to win games in the NFL and we haven’t been able to finish and make just a few plays in a lot of games to get the wins, but I don’t think we’re far and that’s why I decided to join this team or sign with this team when I did.
