Opening Remarks
In studying the tape, reviewing it and talking it over with the players, there is nothing new that I could add. We don't feel like we played as well as we obviously feel like we are capable of playing. The first half wasn't very representative although the two-minute drive was an exceptional drive with no timeouts left and scoring the touchdown from Manningham from Eli. That was an exceptional play because had that not occurred, was there time for another play or whether we would have gone right to the field goal, nobody will ever know. That was the way that the half ended and the thing that I think was very disappointing was the first drive of the ballgame when Miami took the ball and drove the length of the field and scored. We came out in the second half and we were kicking off. We were all excited about shutting them down and getting the ball back and they drove down and kicked the field goal. The positives were that there was no third down conversions by Miami in the second half. We did a much better job once we got going of getting three and outs. We finished for the second game in a row with our defense in a difficult position and the ball in the hands of the other team with plenty of time although they didn't have any timeouts. Our defense rose up and made the plays necessary for us to win the game and again, that was a very good thing. Offensively, we converted a number of third downs in some very difficult situations. The last touchdown was in one of those situations and Eli and Cruz got together on a third and 12 and scored a touchdown which ended up becoming the winner. One thing that I would like to mention is Justin Tyron. He literally played 2 ½ quarters with a broken arm. On the final punt, when Steve Weatherford kicked a booming 55 yard punt that quite frankly I was nervous about because of the guy back there catching the punt. They pressured so that the ball couldn't be punted out of bounds. It was kicked very well and very deep and when he caught the ball it was 55 yards down the field, Justin arrived on the spot and wrapped him up holding on for dear life until he got some help. It ended up being a minus-4 return so instead of being decent field position with an exceptional athlete returning, it ended up being a net of 59 yards. A guy with a broken arm made the play that sometimes goes unnoticed but the gunners in that situation have not always come through for us but this kid did. The thing that I appreciated and I was standing close by, as the doctors were showing him and talking to him about his injury, he didn't want to hear about it and all he wanted to know was when he could play again. He said, just put a cast on it and I will play and that was something to hear a kid talk about how badly he wanted to play. It was quite an inspiration for me to listen to that and I wanted you to know about what he did. Another thing that was big was no giveaways for two weeks in a row. We are at plus-5 and we would like to get to that plus-10 mark. We were up there at one point and took a little backwards detour and now we are headed on course with that again. Our run defense and our run offense continue to be an issue. We did an outstanding job obviously with our passing game with a team that I thought would blitz us 40% of the time and they did close to that. We knew they were going to run and keep the pass rush minimized. It took us a long time for us to feel like we were rushing the passer the way we could. Eventually we had the five sacks to finish up as well. We did a lot of good things and we did a lot of things that need to be improved upon going forward.
Q: Will Justin Tyon need surgery and how long will he be out for?
A: Yes. It is serious because he has to have surgery. He is currently having the surgery.
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Q: Nobody knew that it was broke?
A: Nobody noticed it and he wasn't about to let anybody know.
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Q: How did it take place?
A: It was probably fractured and the rest of it was taken care of on that last play.
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Q: How disappointed are you with another injury?
A: Here we go again. We had a guy who had some experience playing on the defensive side of the ball for X amount of snaps. He has been counted upon on special teams so here we go.
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Q: Any update on Nicks?
A: I haven't heard but I am sure it is going to be day-to-day. We will have to see.
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Q: Is it the same leg he had problems with when he was coming out in the draft?
A: I am not sure.
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Q: Will you talk to your team about the Patriots game in 2007?
A: That was a long time ago. There have been many changes on both sides so we will focus on 'the now.'
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Q: How is Ahmad Bradshaw?
A: He is sore.
Q: Is this the same issues from before?
A: He has had this before and he has it again.
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Q: How is David Baas's knee?
A: He took a really significant hit there. It is structurally sound but he is very sore.
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Q: How would you describe Eli Manning's play?
A: I would say he is controlled. He is obviously very aware of situations and circumstances. He has been very accurate with the exception of one ball by our sideline in the first quarter. The poise and confidence, the accuracy and the knowledge with all the studying that he does, the way that he performs is by knowing the opponent. He does a real good job with that and he has a lot of responsibility and he does a very good job with that.
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Q: Is this the best you have seen him play since that playoff run in 2007?
A: He has put together a very, very nice string. I looked at some of that stuff today and I think from the second week on, his rating has been from the mid-high 90's and beyond. He is playing very well and we expect that to remain that way.
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Q: How do you feel about your running game?
A: Three weeks ago, I was pleased where we were headed but not so yesterday. We didn't block anybody yesterday. Sometimes, we were in very good position and for whatever reason, we didn't maintain that position. We didn't keep the leverage. We had some opportunities that have to be shared by the runner who didn't get exactly where we wanted to but by in large, we didn't move them the way we planned on doing that. We have to get back to the drawing board and expect that the pride of that group is going to do something about it. They will get us on some kind of track so that we can have the balance I talk about and that we had a couple weeks ago but didn't have yesterday.
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Q: Why are you having such a hard time stopping the run?
A: We had problems with their other groups. We loaded up against their loaded up and they did hit one weak side run. That was just a personnel matchup. Instead of going up and physically taking the runner on, we seem to get caught east or west and just not get there. It is frustrating.
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Q: Is it tempting to be a passing offense?
A: I don't think it comes down to that. You go in with every possible weapon in your arsenal. You start the week that way and you may do a little trimming but not a lot. In this game, the level of communication as far as the alerts, were very, very high because of the package that they game with. We hadn't seen the cowboy or the double cowboy in a while. This coordinator did it in other years and that's what we prepared for. We had a lot of alerts available and we had a lot of things we thought we could get to. We wanted to continue to mix but we were having such little success that it didn't end up quite that way. One was in the two-minute drill and whenever you have the two-minute drill, you will have very little runs. We did start out on the other end of the field with a couple but by the time we got really going, the clock and we only had two time outs because we already used one. It doesn't start out that way and sometimes it ends up that way. We hit a nice draw and we will continue to pick and probe and see if we can come up with some things to do. There are a couple basic runs, maybe three, that there is no excuse why you can't run the ball. Even with eight men or nine men down, you still have an exceptional chance to run the football based on one, two or three runs that you have. For us not to have success on a base football play that goes in the first day, there is no excuse for that.
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Q: How is Prince?
A: He is going to work this week and hopefully get better. It will be a day-by-day thing and if he gets to a point where we feel like he can play on Sunday but that remains to be seen.
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Q: How would you describe Brandon Jacobs play?
A: Someone mentioned rust yesterday and I would say that. He needs to play and he needs to get back to work.
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Q: It sounds like you are challenging your offensive line to get the run game straightened out?
A: It is a combination; it is not just the offensive line. The tight ends didn't do much yesterday and the fullback gets a holding penalty right away. We have shot ourselves in the foot and we have overcome some but the untimeliness of 1st and 20 or 1st and 15 when we have to make a touchdown and we can't do it and we give them back the ball. That is not what you are trying to do. We came in knowing that they were the least penalized team and we thought we had to have less, they had four and we had seven.
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