Head Coach Tom Coughlin

Q:  Was Kareem McKenzie back out there today?
A:  Yes, no problems.  He was sick, just like Dave Tollefson is sick today.  Here we go.

Q:  Is it going around?
A:  It is flu-like, so no telling.  Hopefully it is not.

Q:  Shaun O'Hara is still a gym rat?A:  Yeah.

Q:  How has Lawrence Tynes been this year in terms of his distance?A:  ……Outstanding……..really good.  He has been solid; really solid.

Q:  Your thoughts on Osi Umenyiora being named Defensive Player of the Month?A:  It is well earned.  He has played very well.  He has played well against the pass, against the run.  He has been great from an attitude standpoint; outstanding with his teammates.  He has enjoyed playing.  He is having a lot of fun doing that.  And I think that has been a real encouragement to his fellow teammates.  He enjoys the success of others.  He has played very well and he is very deserving of this honor.

Q:  Has he kind of grown up this season?
A:  He has been really good; he has been very good.  He's the man. 

Q:  Have you ever believed in going out west a day early?
A:  I tried it once.  I didn't like it at all.  I shouldn't say that.  The west to east trip is different from east to west.  So we stay with what we believe in.

Q:  When did you do it?A:  I did it once when we played Oakland a long time ago.

Q:  When you were with Jacksonville?  You left on a Friday?
A:  Yes, yes.

Q:  What, did it just seem like you were there forever?A:  Yeah.  We were there forever.

Q:  How did you do in that game?
A:  We won.

Q: And after you won, you still switched back?
A:  I guess, philosophical, yeah.

Q:  The Jets played in pretty windy conditions the other day.  I don't know if you guys have had much experience with the wind yet, there.  But what is your sense that it might be different than in the old stadium?
A:  My only understanding is the same thing that you are mentioning – a lot of wind, different than we have had up until the last game we played in there.  There has been wind, but not to the extent that was going on there.  So we track it, we track the sun, we track the wind.  But we have not experienced that kind of – I don't know how strong it was, or how much different it forced people to make adjustments with the kicking game and the quarterback and so on.

Q:  When you track it, do you get a sense that it is stronger or not as strong, or if it is different?
A:  I know it does swirl.  I know it is the cross wind.  I can't comment on the stronger part because I haven't experienced that.

Q:  Did you consider going out in the rain today?
A:  No.  Not when it started – what, last night and it was pouring when I left this morning at about 4:45 – it was pouring.

Q:  Did Madison Hedgecock suffer a setback?
A:  Yeah, he did.

Q:  How bad?A:  He said it is not as bad as the first time.  But he did have a problem.  He caught a ball in the flat – went to turn and felt it and that was it.

Q:  That was yesterday?
A:  That was yesterday.

Q:  Aggravation?
A:  Yes.

Offensive Coordinator Kevin Gilbride

Q: What did you tell your offensive line and your team today about playing in the noise in Seattle?
A: Nothing different than we tell them every time we play away, it's just that this one might be a more heightened concern just because the volume seems to be so overwhelming at times, but in terms of listening and the clues to when you can't hear the quarterback's signals, nothing changes, it's the exact same – you've got to go off of the movement of your interior linemen to the inside.

Q: Even if Adam has to play instead of Shaun?
A: No. No relevance, it's all the same.

Q: Have you guys put Kevin Boss in a little bit of a different role this season – having him be more of a blocker than a receiver?
A: I don't think so. That's always been part of what we ask of him and it's an integral part of our success, so it could be more, it hasn't been intentionally more. It's something that's always a vital area of ours and he does it very well, so percentage wise I don't know. I don't think so, but he definitely is asked to do that – to either stay in for protection purposes or chip on his way out, which impacts what routes you can ask him to do and those types of things, but usually what happens during the course of the whole season is that by the end of the season he gets the same amount of throws as he usually gets and I would imagine that it will turn out the same way.

Q: The forecast for Sunday out there is pretty much like this [rainy].
A: Oh is it? Oh, geez.

Q: How does that affect turnovers and controlling the ball, etc?
A: It makes it more difficult. It's all the more challenging, so it's all the more important that you be attentive to all of the little things that you always talk about – location of the throws, following the ball all the way in, tucking it away after the catch – all of those things that you're emphasizing anyway, especially in the context of the fact that it's been an area that we've not been good at, but it certainly heightens your concern.

Q: Can you change anything in practice? Wet footballs or anything?
A: Well, we've done that for the center-quarterback exchange, but we haven't done it in terms of throwing and catching. With the gloves now the way they are, it's really not as big of a deal as it used to be with your bare hands, but there's no question that it's easier to knock it out and it's more difficult to catch and what have you, but I think that as long as you're paying attention to all of the little things that we sound like a broken record emphasizing, but we always talk about it, I think we'll be fine.

Q: Tom called tipped passes a plague after seeing some of the games this weekend. Did you get a glimpse of any of that at all?
A: I didn't see it per se. I saw a little bit of the Jets game, I saw a couple of drops or guys got hit. You've got some great defensive players coming in, reacting quickly, knocking the ball out and doing some things, but usually it evens out over the course of a year, but we seem like we've certainly gotten our fair share during the early first half, so hopefully it'll diminish the number we get in the second half.

Q: Is the key to handling the noise getting good production on first downs?
A: Yes. Obviously, yes, but the reality of getting that done and trying to get it done or setting it as an objective are two different things. It's just like if you can get an early lead, that takes the crowd out of the game too. That's our plan – well, that would be our plan every game.

Q: It is an area that you've been successful in this year.
A: Yeah. It's certainly something you'd like to do, but to be quite honest, it's no different than what we're trying to do every game – get off to an early start and of course we tried to do it last week and failed miserably at it, but fortunately rebounded and played very well after that, but that's certainly an advantage if you can make the distance that you have to go on third down more manageable or you jump up on them and take the crowd out of it.

Q: Anything in particular that you look at after self-scouting this past week that shows why you have been so successful on first down or is it just execution?
A: Yeah. I think we've done a good job in our preparation, having a sense of what we're anticipating them giving us and calling plays that give our guys a chance to be successful and then the implementation of the calling or the actual execution, the guys have done a good job with it, so it's a combination of all of those things. Hopefully that will show up on Sunday.

Q: Looking at their defense, does their rookie safety Thomas jump out at you?
A: He looks like a good player. They mostly keep him back and in a cover position, so he looks athletic and like a guy that can react to where the quarterback is looking and get a good jump on the ball and covers a lot of ground.

Q: Those meetings that Eli runs – what do the players get out of those and how rare is that?
A: I don't know. We've been doing that for years. It's fairly common in the league, where you take the extra time, you put together a film of things that….he hears me say it and now it's a chance to say it and reinforce and kind of strengthen and say, Hey, here is what they're talking about here, here's what I'm expecting to have happen, Coach said this, we're going to call that and this is what I'm going to do. So all of the things that we've educated him on, he's turning around and reinforcing it with the other guys.

Q: When you self scout do you look at the Giants defense too?
A: No. Not at all. We've got enough just looking at ourselves.

Defensive Coordinator Perry Fewell

Q: Osi was named NFC defensive player of the month. What are your thoughts on what he's done this year?
A: It's remarkable. I think that the guy has put his hard hat on and just came to practice mentally fit, he's been physically fit and he's just showing the talent that he has as a football player and I'm loving it.

Q: Has he surprised you given all of his problems last year?
A: I remember seeing him in the Super Bowl year and saying, Wow, what a football player, so no, his physical play does not surprise me at all. I know he was hurt the next year and then he didn't get on track last year, but it doesn't surprise me that he has returned to form.

Q: What can you tell your guys defensively about Marshawn Lynch and how good he can be?
A: Oh, he's a hard runner. I'll tell you, you better go and smack him in the mouth because he's tough, he knows how to break tackles, he's a bounce runner, he's a slasher, he'll cut the ball back on you, he has good vision – you better respect him or he'll make you gain respect, so we better bring our best game to play against him.

Q: What have you seen from Jason Pierre-Paul since Kiwanuka's injury?
A: We're just bringing him along. He's a physical guy. I thought he had some really good rushes in the Dallas game last week. We have a technique called the long arm and he long armed the right tackle from Dallas really well on the sack – he was just an arm's length away from making that sack. Jason is growing each week. What you have to understand about Jason is that he hasn't played a lot of football and so he's really playing good football for us, he just doesn't have the stats to prove it right now, but when you look at the coach's tape, he's doing good things every week and if we can just keep him moving in the right direction, he's going to be a hell of a football player.

Q: Your defense has a tendency to knock quarterbacks out of games. Hasselbeck is a little bit dinged up, they've had to re-shuffle their offensive line. Do you think he might be a little skittish back there?
A: We hope so. We want to command respect from the opponents that we play and we're going to put our best game forward and if he's back there, then we want to make him nervous. If that next guy is back there, we want to make that next guy nervous.

Q: He gets rid of the ball quickly, right?
A: That is true. It's a west coast system and we just hope that we'll make him release it a little quicker.

Q: Is it more difficult to prepare when you don't know if he's going to be there and the line is shuffled or do you just go in there and play?
A: Yeah, you know, it is a little more difficult because you're preparing against a guy, looking at his mechanics, what his reads are, we know his snap count and you're trying to get the feel and the flow of the game, so that is a little bit different whether he will or won't play, but you have to do your homework and look at the next guy also and look at some preseason games and find out what he's like.

Q: With your defensive front, when your guys know the QB is banged up and the O-line is struggling, is it a blood in the water kind of thing?
A: If we stop the run, I want our guys to have that mentality that there's blood in the water and we're going to be sharks. No doubt. That's my mentality, I know, going in.

Q: So it's as much them trying to match up with you as you trying to match up with them?
A: I would say that that's a correct statement, yes.

Q: Is it hard to prepare for a team that is so uneven between how they play at home and on the road?
A: We prepare for their best game. Even though they've been skittish on the road and they're really playing well at home, you prepare for their best game because we know that we're going to get their best game, so you just have to put that out of your mind and just say this is what they do well.

DE Osi Umenyiora

Q: Congratulations on your award, do you have any thoughts on it?
A: Appreciate that. No, it's a team thing. It's a defensive team award and I don't think I did anything special. I think the DBs did a very good job of covering, and everyone else did a really good job of playing the run. I was just in the position to make those plays. The coaches and the other players put me there, so thanks to them.

Q: Are you now Mr. October instead of Reggie Jackson?
A: No man, I don't even know what that is.

Q: Are you surprised that no Giant has won the defensive award since Strahan did in 2001?
A: Yeah, but I'm not even thinking about that anymore. That's in the past. We have a game this week that we have to concentrate on right now.

Q: How'd you find out about it?
A: Somebody told me this morning, I don't even remember.

Q: After what happened last year, what do you think about how things have changed and is this proof of that?
A: I'm just focused on what we have to do this week in Seattle. I can't rehash what happened last year. I'm not even thinking about that right now.

Q: Did it play into you coming back as a starter?
A: I don't know, you're going to have to ask Barry that. I don't know anything about that.

Q: You've been to the Pro Bowl and you won a championship, how do you rate this past month's performance compared to the rest?
A: I think that defensively, this was one of our best months. I think that's what's enabled me to do some of the things that I've done. I think we played better than we played in a long time.

Q: What about you personally?
A: Personally, things just happen sometimes. Sometimes they happen and sometimes they don't. Fortunately, things were able to happen. I give all the credit to the defensive players and the coaches. Personally, I don't think I did anything special.

Q: Really? Why?
A: That's just what I do. I think if I'm positioned to make those plays, that's what I'm going to do. I think everybody has to do their part to enable everybody else to perform at an optimum level, and I think that's what everyone has done.

Q: Michael says when the double-teams stopped, that's a sign of disrespect. Do you see them coming back now with your recent success?
A: Well, they were doing that last year. When I "wasn't doing anything," there were double-teams and doing all that stuff. It's a part of the game, that's what happens, and I don't expect it to change for the next couple of years.

Q: If you get up on Sunday and the weather in Seattle is like this, does that help the defense?
A: I don't know. I don't know if helps us, but I don't think it's going to hurt us. I think we're built for any situation. If it gets cold and rainy and they want to run the ball, we can handle that. If it's a good day and they want to air it out, we can handle that also. Whichever way they want to play it, I think we'll be alright.

Q: You guys have taken out a lot of quarterbacks, and Hasselbeck is injured and was sacked eight times last week. Do you guys have a mental edge already going into the game?
A: He's a veteran. He's been in the league for a long time, so I'm quite sure he's been through situations like this before with his team. He's been sacked like that before. I don't think he's thinking about that. We aren't going in there trying to hurt anybody, it just happens like that sometimes. We're not going in there trying purposely to knock him out, so he shouldn't think about us harassing him. We are going to try and harass him, but we're not going to try and hurt him.

Q: You don't mind having the quarterback thinking that you're coming after him, though:
A: He's going to know that it's what our plan is. So he has to keep on trying to maintain poise and pocket awareness. We're going to come after whoever we play.

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