**
Q: Is there any panic around here? **
A: No, I don't think so. We're still in a good position. If you said after 10 games, we'd be winning our division, you take that every time. So that's where we stand and we've been through stretches before where we haven't been playing our best, but we've been able to bounce out of them and we've got time to rest up this week, get back healthy, get refreshed and come back. We got a six-game season. It's all going to come down to what happens in those six games. We're in control of our own destiny. We have a tough schedule. We have good teams to play, but it should be exciting and we're looking forward to that opportunity.
Q: How do you react when you hear the words "dead arm?"
A: I don't react. No one is watching me practice. I thought I had a good velocity. I threw the ball well yesterday.
Q: Is there a concern with the way the offense is running right now?
A: We can fix it. I thought there were some good things that we did the other day, some things that can be cleaned up, but I thought we made some improvements. Obviously, we just had too many mistakes. We haven't been making many, many mistakes in games and this game, four turnovers in the second half, that's the game right there.
Q: Do you think it would be best for the guys to go away and forget about football for a week or do you think people should just think about how you've played the last two weeks?
A: No, I don't think that will help. I think most of the guys will try to get away, get their minds off football. 10 games… It's a grind. It's a long time and we've got guys banged up and guys who need to get back healthy and a lot going on these last two weeks. So I think it will be good to get everybody away from football for a little bit, rest up and then come back energized and ready to go.
Q: Are you going to be able to put it away for the next week?
A: Yeah. We're not here. Coach Coughlin is giving us this time off, so we'll take advantage of that.
Q: Do you think the rest will help you?
A: Yeah, definitely. I think just getting a little rest, getting away from things for a little bit… 10 games in, everybody is going to be tired. That's a part of football. We're going to have a week off now. We've got a six-game season and we'll be refreshed and ready to go play our best football.
Q: You're still in first place. Do you guys take that as a positive here going into the break?
A: Yeah, no doubt. If they could have given us this opportunity at the beginning of the year, we would have taken it. We would have taken the same spot. It's all going to come down to how we play these next six games. That's all that matters. What's happened these past weeks, it's over.
Q: Are you getting hit more in the last couple of games?
A: Yeah, I probably took a few more hits this past game and the previous than earlier in the year, but that's just a part of football. Some days that happens. We threw it a little bit more or we got behind, so sitting in shotgun… You know you're going to throw it almost every down is what usually brings that on.
Q: How do you approach the daunting schedule ahead of you versus Dallas, which on paper looks like they have a much easier schedule?
A: You can't worry about other people's schedules. All you can do is worry about attacking each game and that's all you worry about and we get excited to play big games and now all of them are big. We've got six huge games and all of them against good teams and those are the ones you get excited about because you know if you get a win, you've earned it and you're going to be excited about getting that opportunity.
Q: Does it help that you've been in this situation before and you've gotten through it?
A: Yeah, I think it definitely helps. I think it reminds guys that we can't get down on ourselves and we've lost two in a row and there's a lot of teams in the NFL this year that have lost two games in a row. That's nothing we have to worry about. We're not going down. We're not sliding. That's just football and just as easily we can bounce out of that and we know we have talented players, we've got good schemes, we've got good coaches; it's just a matter of everybody putting it all together and start playing the way we know we can.
Q: How much better can things get by having this week off?
A: Hopefully they can get better. I think it will be good just to get the guys, after 10 weeks, a little rest. We've had a hectic schedule these last few weeks with a lot going on in this area, so I think it will be good just to get the guys to be able to relax a little bit, be around their families and get their minds off of football and then come back next week refreshed, ready to go, ready to finish this season strong.
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