Opening statement: "Too little, too late, you know? We didn't play well in the first half at all. We come in here plus-13, they're minus-five, so what do we do? We give them two quick turnovers and field position. Our defense did a nice job of keeping the ball out of the end zone right away in the game, but that was the story of the game. We didn't run the ball well. They ran the ball early on and late. I don't know what their yardage was – that of course set up their play-action, they did a nice job with that. When they did decide to go quickly, they caught us the one time I thought on the deep ball over the middle to [WR] DeSean Jackson. But, you know… I just didn't think we played well, or we 'slept-walked,' whatever the word is… We just didn't function very well early on. And then finally we did. I commend our guys for battling and hanging in there and staying with it. You stop and think about getting a touchdown when we threw the interception in the end zone there it might have been a difference maker in the game. But, the outstanding fourth down play, the play by [WR] Odell Beckham Jr., those were certainly outstanding, outstanding plays. I give credit to our offensive linemen, who were in a difficult position today obviously with some guys missing, but they battled. Whereas we got beat sometimes, other times we rose up and gave the quarterback time, even to throw the ball down the field, which was what happened with the fourth down play. So, our record is 5-6, Washington's record is 5-6. We came in here knowing full well what the circumstances were. We didn't have a lot going on early in the game, but had we had a little more time in this one, it might have been a different story. "
On if he expected the team to 'sleep walk' today:
"No… That's always your first question – 'What did I see?' I didn't, no. I thought we would play well. I knew we had some issues, there's no doubt, but we'd overcome some things before, next guy up, blah blah blah… But we just started in such a poor fashion that we didn't give anybody any reason to think that we were going to be able to turn the thing around. So it took a while, but as I said, I gave the players credit for the way they came back in the fourth quarter. You know, you're in it to win, obviously, and we didn't, but we certainly did make a run at the end. "
On the third quarter interception intended for WR Rueben Randle:
"Just from where I saw, I didn't even look up, it just looked like Reuben was open coming in across from right to left, the ball was a little bit behind him and the defensive back made a nice play."
On how he would assess QB Eli Manning's overall play today:
"Well, we've got to look at the film. I'm sure he will come in and say he wishes he'd played better, I certainly do. I think, you know, it's a team game – and the first two interceptions, who are you going to give them to? Tipped ball in both cases, [WR] Dwayne Harris really got drilled, but it was a ball that we should've caught, and the first interception… Then there was a ball at midfield – who knows then what's going to happen? I thought he really hung in there when people were in his face a lot today, but he kept battling, that was important."
On the third down conversion by Redskins TE Jordan Reed late in the game:
"Well, that was the play. Third down and what was it, five or six? And it's a play where they're going to have to punt the ball back to us. We will have some time on the clock and they make a first down. We didn't make that play when we needed to make that play and sometimes it comes down to that."
On what happened on Redskins WR DeSean Jackson's touchdown:
"What happened? They threw it up in the air a mile and he ran, got behind the safety and they made a nice play."
On if CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie being out with an injury contributed to Jackson's touchdown:
"Yeah, but it was a post ball so he would've got safety help anyway and the safety didn't help."
On if he hoped for a big second-half boost from the run game:
"No, but we did know that we needed to do something. Obviously we tried the screen and we got the holding penalty but still it ended up being offset but… you need something. You need some way to keep from simply just picking it up and throwing it. At least I do. I think that, and we had a number of three steps that we would count as being run-type plays in terms of how much you can gain, but you need to be able to run the ball."
On rotating safeties:
"It's the way it's been going. [S] Craig Dahl has been playing a lot."
On fighting to stay relevant:
"We've got five games to go and if we can get winning… Again, it is up to us. We can be but we certainly have to put ourselves in that position. Obviously this is one you can look at and say 'shoulda, coulda, woulda' all day long."
On G Geoff Schwartz's injury:
"Yeah, it was a shame – poor kid. He moved over. We thought we were better with him at left and [G] John Jerry at right. They made a move on a running play; you can see the guy falling into his leg."
On if that was same leg Schwartz had surgery on last year:
"Yes"
On throwing three interceptions:
"That happens sometimes. I thought our defense did a good job getting us stops and they really didn't hurt us from a point standpoint. I think they got a field goal off of one of them and didn't get any other points. I don't think it made a huge impact in the game and we just didn't get enough going."
On the points being 'too little, too late':
"We need to start making plays. In the first half we just didn't win the one-on-one matchups and we weren't completing the ball. They were playing a good bit of man coverage and we took a number of shots down field thinking that would hit some of those, but we didn't hit any. They kept us in some third-and-longs because of it and when we got into a rhythm by getting some passes we just couldn't complete on third down."
On how the offensive line played with three new offensive linemen:
"I thought the offensive line played tough. It's a good defensive front with Washington; that is one of their strengths. We had some guys filling in. Guys were stepping up, competing and gave us a shot there to get back in the game but I don't think that was the problem from the offense. I don't think we completed enough passes or got into a good rhythm."
On the interception in the end zone:
"That was on me, just a bad throw. If I made a good read, got into the throw, found an open receiver, but I have to put that in front of him and we would have had a touchdown right there. Just a poor throw on my part."
On if he thought WR Odell Beckham Jr. was going to come down with the ball in the end zone:
"Yes, it would have been another great play. We threw a number of flies [fly routes] but we didn't hit many of them. We needed one there and he would have made a great play for us."
On the outlook for the rest of the season:
"We've still got a lot of football left and we're still in control of things, somewhat. It's going to come down to how we finish, and we have to play better football. We've got an opportunity this week coming up with the Jets and it's going to come down to how we handle it. We have to win some football games."
On if he thought he could take advantage of some of the injury issues in the Washington secondary:
"Yeah, I thought we would be able to when they were playing man [coverage], win those matchups. We just didn't take advantage of it and didn't win on it. They did a good job. You have to give them credit. They had a good game plan. They played well; they played hard, and we didn't execute well enough against them."
On potential miscommunications early:
"I don't think there was any miscommunication. I thought guys were doing the right things, but they just didn't execute the plays quite well enough."
On the impact of turnovers in the game:
"I thought our defense did a good job on the two interceptions early of turning around and getting stops or blocking the field goal. It didn't hurt us. It didn't put us down or behind. No reason we couldn't continue going and throw those off to weird plays or football bounces, [that's] the way it goes sometimes, and we just continued with our offense."
On the interception targeting wide receiver Rueben Randle in the end zone:
"I saw it pretty clean. I was looking out to the right to [RB] Shane [Vereen] on my first read. I stepped up and saw him [Randle] running clean and just had to put it on him [Randle]."
On playing the New York Jets next week:
"Yeah, in football, you have to get ready for the next game. Obviously it will be a big one versus the Jets, but they're all big at this point. It doesn't matter who we're playing. They're big because of the circumstances of the game and what they mean in our playoff hunt."
On [WR] Hakeem Nicks getting a reception:
"It was good to have him back a little bit. He has to keep learning, get another week, and get all the signals and everything down so that he can play fast. I thought he had a good week last week and it will be good to see if he can help us out."
On his touchdown catch:
"It really doesn't matter, man. You get 60 minutes to play and we didn't execute. We didn't do a good job, we came out flat. Too many mistakes, too many everything. Sometimes you have to tip your hat off to the other team. They came out here fired up, came out to play and they did exactly that."
On how he explains coming out flat:
"There is no explanation, no good explanation for that. We have to do better. You can't do that to your teammates. It was a case of being a little too late in this game."
On what influence his stepfather has had on him:
"He's been a great influence, a guy who has been in my life since I was very young, a father figure in my life. My dad couldn't be around and he has taught me many things. Just being able to grow up with a guy like that, it's special. He won a gold medal, he's been an athlete. That's the type of commitment it takes to do this. I couldn't have asked for a better substitute than that."
On what types of things his stepfather has helped him with:
"Just things in life in general – overcoming obstacles, overcoming injury, overcoming adversity. Obviously he helped me with that, my running form, making sure your legs are moving properly or you are running with the right mechanics, all those kinds of things. He is a very good man."
On the game:
"It's not good. We came out flat and they came out fired up. We came in knowing everything was on the table and we didn't put our best foot forward. The good thing about it is we have five more games to correct it. It's unfortunate but you can't hold your head on it. We will go in and see what we did wrong, which is a lot of things and just come out and correct them."
On being productive even though he was marked by the defense:
"You just try to keep going. Keep scratching, clawing, fighting for crumbs. Sometimes things pop. They did a great job of knowing the assignments and trying to take away certain things. They did a good job today."
On his touchdown:
"It really doesn't matter, we didn't win today. [Eli Manning] threw the ball out there and I laid out for it. I tried to catch it and it is what it is. We lost the game. It's not really something that is important right now."
On where the team's fight was today:
"I don't know. We need to come out with more fight."
On what can he do to make this team better:
"It's a team thing. We win as a team and we lose as a team. In all honesty, I'm going to come into work tomorrow, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and for the rest of the week and this year and give it my all. Each and every single day. Thing is, no time to slack off or to do anything like that, it's actually time to take it to another notch. We will be back on track."
On what caused the slow start today:
"Turnovers. They did a great job of creating turnovers and creating havoc. We have come out firing on all cylinders and beat teams. This is the NFL, you never overlook anybody. They came out at home, knowing what was on the line and went and got it."
On if the bye worked against the team:
"I don't think you can say that. If we had won the game, I don't think you can say the bye worked against us, it worked in our favor. It was a case of it is what it was. We didn't come out and execute and they did."
On what would have happened if they had one more defense stop:
"I feel like it's been so many games where the offense has had it late in the game and didn't do the best of job at finishing the game. Today we were hoping we would have a chance to correct some things we didn't do right this season. We just didn't get the opportunity. Sometimes the other team is going to execute better than you are. They came out and gave it their all today."
On if it was frustrating to be down at halftime:
"No more frustrating than any other time when you are losing. I hate losing, period. Can't go in down 17-0. You can't come back from that. You can't make the errors like we made and expect the outcome to be any different than what it was. We have to do better as a Giant's organization."
On if that is the definition of a 5-6 team:
"Yeah, that's the difference. We are 5-6 for a reason. You can go back on the season and look back at multiple games, 'coulda, woulda, shoulda,' it just doesn't do any good. 5-6 and you keep going from here. Adversity builds character and we will see what will happen now."
On if he is looking forward to a game where he can celebrate one of those receptions:
"Absolutely. It's no fun losing, period. You get a chance to make a play in the end zone, I just want to give it my all every single time. It's never fun coming up on a L."
Safety Landon Collins
On the game:
"We just didn't finish. That's about it."
On being tied for the division lead:
"We have to just keep playing, finish out these games and win. That's how I feel about it, we have to win. We have the D [defense], we've got the offense. I've got the defense."
CB Prince Amukamara On how the game played out today:
"It looked like that first half wasn't us. It looked like we had a bye week, a bye week hangover, but the second half, that was more of us. We're just a team that fought and we just didn't finish the job today."* * On what changed between the first half and the second half:
"I don't know, maybe we just woke up, but there wasn't any magic. We just had to decide that it was time to go out and change; have a better second half than we had the first half."* * On where he sees the team ending the season:
"I definitely see us winning the division still and going to the playoffs. That goal is still achievable and we just have to win the games we're supposed to from here on out.* *LB Devon Kennard On his thoughts about facing the Redskins today:
"I mean, obviously not well, we lost."
On what he thought changed from the first half to second half:
"I think we're just a resilient team and we came back and, you know, fought to win the game."
On if he sees the team winning the division:
"I mean, absolutely, that's obviously our intention."
