Jacksonville Head Coach Jack Del Rio
A little disappointed with the way that game finished. I thought we played a pretty solid first half, we did some good things, being able to run the ball against that front – that's a good defensive front. There were some good moments in that ball game. I thought David Garrard gave us a real chance, especially early – he was outstanding early in that ball game and we were able to get them slowed down in the red zone really all day and then we just had some mistakes that just really can eat at you. Zones were voided and missed tackles got a little ugly. In my opinion, we've got to be a whole lot better as a football team to take advantage of an opportunity where the offense played so well today. When you control the ball and run for over 200 yards you should win that ball game. I'm disappointed that we didn't. It's been a few weeks in a row now, the last month or so, we've been winning and we got a little taste of defeat today so we'll take our lumps and give credit to the Giants for getting it done today and then get back to Jacksonville as quick as we can and turn our preparation over to next week with the Titans.
Q: How much did you feel like the interception that opened the second half kind of threw things out of rhythm for Dave and the offense?
A: You defer again – two weeks in a row offensively we've not come out to start the second and done anything productive with the ball. When you defer you're hoping it goes exactly how it did and we scored to end the half with the ball the last five minutes of the half, score, know we're going to get it to start the second half, want to go out and assume control of the football game, and then you start with a turnover in your own territory. Once again, the defense held up there, forced a field goal, which was big at that moment to keep it from totally turning in their favor, but that was clearly a momentum swing there and not the way you want to start the second half.
Q: Did Garrard suffer any injury there in the last series, or was he okay?
A: Not that I know of. He took a couple shots there at the end trying to make the play, but none that I'm aware of.
Q: What was your view of the near touchdown catch by Sims-Walker?
A: I did not have a good view then. It looked like a ball he should catch. He had two opportunities, if we're talking about the same one in the first half. He should've caught it in the corner, although the second one was a tougher attempt than the one in the corner.
Q: Could you talk about the job that you guys were able to do most of the day in terms of limiting their pass rush, of course before the damn broke at the end of the day?
A: Well, you know you play against a front like this which is very talented and you want to stay out of the obvious must-pass situations. We got into those at the end of the ball game and you saw what can happen, that's when they're at their best. When we played in control and we played in the first three quarters – I don't know if they had a sack in the first three quarters – we're able to maintain control and stay ahead of the downs and not put ourselves in third and forever, then we're able to do that. And I've got to get clarification, I sure thought that that big wide receiver screen at the end of the game that they called an illegal block on – my interpretation was that the guy was pressed at the line and that should've not been a call. I need clarification because either I misunderstand the rule or the official did, but one of us is wrong, maybe it's me. I'm going to go back and check the rulebook but the guy was pressed, we were engaged at the line, he maintained his block. In our opinion, that should not have been a call. That put us in first and twenty there at the end and that just shouldn't have been. I'm talking about us trying to control the ball before they get the ball back and all that. We'll have to look at that. His interpretation of that rule was that it was a foul, but our interpretation is that it shouldn't be. We both agree with what happened, so there's a starting point. We'll just have to go back and find out and if it's something that we're mistaken on we're going to have to adjust what we're doing because he did it exactly as he's been coached.
Q: Three times in your career as coach you've had a .500 or better record on the road. How frustrating or how important is each road game, especially with the way that this happened today?
A: I think what that means is that you're winning – the only way to get into the postseason is to win. There's no frustration, there's just clear understanding of what you need to do. You need to put wins together and this was an opportunity today where many things transpired and we had a great opportunity to do just that and didn't get it done.
Q: The Kevin Boss touchdown at the end – were you in a big rush, man-to-man, could you describe it?
A: Yea, it was a blitz and just got a tackle in and forced the field goal opportunity.
Q: How tough is it to win three in a row and then come out today and have this?
A: What, when you don't win? It's tough not to win, you like to win. We haven't experienced a loss in the last month and I don't like losing. I don't think anyone in that locker room likes losing. We'll bounce back and get back to working on things that we need to do better and get ready for our next opportunity.
Q: Did you feel that the first play in the second half was a game changer?
A: I don't think you can put too much into one play. I wouldn't put too much into the play you guys were just asking about. It's not ever about one play. It's a series of plays; you have a series of opportunities to impact the game. We had countless other opportunities to have the outcome be different. It's what we earned today. It wasn't quite good enough. We give the Giants credit and get ready for the next opportunity.
Q: Your two backup tackles really seemed to hang in there.
A: I thought they hung in there all day. I thought they did a pretty good job all day, so that was a good thing. We didn't come in here full of alibis, we came in here to compete against this team. They didn't talk about a lot of alibis. We both have them, I think most people in the league have them this time of year. Those that don't are feeling pretty good about it, those that do, well you just do what you can to put together a team that's going to compete and look to win, and that's what we did today.
Q: You're sending Monroe back next week?
A: I don't know. When the doctor tells me we can have him, we'll have him. Until then, it's out of my hands.
