Safety Xavier McKinney
Q: [inaudible]
A: It's good we got the win, man, that was a good one. We went out there, we executed, we got the job done, played really good defense, we played well as a team and we won the game.
Q: Obviously you guys were shorthanded in the secondary today—(Giants FS) Logan (Ryan) and (Giants RCB) Darnay (Holmes) went out and (Giants RCB) Adoree' (Jackson) goes out, so what do you think you guys learned about yourselves as a group in the secondary?
A: Just next man up mentality, making sure that everybody is prepared and ready. You know that is something that we emphasize in practice, making sure that everybody is getting reps, everybody knows what they're doing, and you know there was times like when it didn't happen when the switches were made, we just had to communicate with each other off the field just to make sure everybody knew exactly what they were doing on what call, so I feel like we did that. We played well. We didn't miss a beat, which was a really good thing for our unit.
Q: You've had interceptions in two of your last three games and three interceptions over that span. What's changed for you or started to click for you over the last month or so?
A: Just being aggressive on the ball. Trying to make plays for my team. I'm trying to be a game changer for my team so we're able to win games. So that's been my biggest thing, just trusting what I see and going and getting it so that's what I've been doing and obviously I've still got a lot of things I've got to practice and work on, which I do every day, so I keep doing that and improving and helping us win.
Q: You know this quarterback (Eagles QB Jalen Hurts) obviously better than anybody as you've been a teammate of his. Was the goal to try to make him use his arm instead of his legs?
A: Well, I mean he's a great quarterback. Obviously, like you said, I played him many times before, at least practiced against him, so I was familiar with how he plays. But he's a—even if you have him in the pocket, he's still a great quarterback. He can throw with his arm, he can go with his legs, so we knew that, so like I said before during the week, it was going to be a challenge today like it was, but we made those turnovers and got those turnovers that we needed and they helped us out a lot at the end.
Q: Can you take us to the last play—what you saw when the ball was going toward the goal line?
A: Oh man. Yeah, I saw him, I figured we pretty much had everybody capped. Everybody was pretty much covered, and then once I saw him scramble I tried to get back as far as I could and when he was throwing it, I was just hoping that it was going to be overthrown or tipped, but A-Rob (Giants LCB Aaron Robinson)—was it A-Rob on that play, I think? Yeah, A-Rob made the play and you know it was great. We played great defense, so I was happy that they dropped it, but that's what I saw.
Q: The Giants retired the number of one of their greatest defensive players (Michael Strahan). Did it mean anything to you guys to come up big on defense?
A: Of course. Yeah, of course, anytime something like this happens on a day like this, obviously we want to make the players that played before us and built the foundation before us, we want to make them proud, which is how we play, how we go out there and fight every down throughout the entire game, so that definitely, there was something that we saw and we wanted to go out there and dominate.
Q: Did you ever have an opportunity to meet him, Michael (Strahan)?
A: No, actually, I haven't. Yeah, I haven't.
Q: [Inaudible in reference to Auburn-Alabama college football game yesterday] Do you have bragging rights over (Darius) Slayton?
A: It was a close one. I was glad that we pulled it out. A lot of big plays that we made but we definitely got some bragging rights. I tried to bet him, but he was scared (laughs). But I was glad that we won though.
Q: There was a lot of talk about the two-minute defense. You guys had three stops inside two minutes. What's changed there? What's allowed you guys to settle in?
A: We know what the situation is. I think that's the biggest thing. Obviously, like today, we knew that they couldn't score. It didn't matter what we called. None of that matters. What matters is that we have to go out there and execute. As long as we know what we have to defend, then we can get any call. It doesn't really matter. We went out there and we did that. We stopped them and that's what we wanted to do.
Can't wait for Logan Ryan gets back.