david dieHl - New York Giants

Q: When things go well for Eli, he’s very good at putting it aside and focusing on the next task. Is he
also that way when things don’t go so well for him?
Coughlin: “I think so. I think he is. It’s the great thing about our game. You get a chance to line up again
and go. So let’s go fix it and move on. He’s mentally tough.”
Q: Do great players sometimes need a pat on the back?
Coughlin: “Sure, everybody does. Everybody needs to know that everyone is totally behind them and
that we believe completely it can be resolved. I always told Eli when he was just a young player, ‘Look,
understand this - the head coach and the quarterback are going to receive way too much praise and way
too much criticism. So if things are going well, you’re the greatest thing that ever walked the face of the
earth. It’s not going well, where else are people going to look to place the blame? Right at the same
spot, so you’ve got to learn how to deal with that.’ Then when you couple that with John Wooden and
the way he felt about it, it makes it very simple. He said, ‘You’re going to be praised. Some of it is
warranted and some not. You’re going to like it. You’re going to get criticism. Some of it is warranted
and some not. You’re not going to like that. But if you let that affect you in any way in terms of your
preparation, then you’re wrong. It’s a mistake. You can’t fall into that trap.’”
Q: You did some one-on-one drills with Eli and the receivers in practice yesterday. When you’re not
doing as well as you want in an area is it good sometimes to go back to the fundamentals?
Coughlin: “Sure. It’s all about fundamentals. We always associate certain drills with certain things. As
you get into the season and you make your adjustments according to health issues, for example,
practice opportunities, sometimes you have to adjust that. So in this regard in discussing this with Eli, I
already knew what he was going to say, because that’s something that he looks forward to on a full-time
basis. He has the ability to do some one-on-one work with the receivers, so we were able to get back to
that yesterday and everybody looked forward to it and looked at it as a positive.”
Q: Victor Cruz said teams are being more physical with him in coverage. Are you seeing that?
Coughlin: “Yes, everybody knocks you around. It would be derelict in their duty if they didn’t. They’re
not going to let you go where you want to go within that concept and also the rules. You have five yards
to do it.”
Q: How much confidence do you have in Lawrence Tynes?
Coughlin: “Outstanding, and he deserves it. Do I wish he would have made the 51-yarder the other day?
Of course. But he’s been tremendous. The operation has been tremendous.”
Q: You brought up the lack of first downs (the Giants have 24 in the last two games). How much of
that is a third-down conversion problem?
Coughlin: “Big time, it’s a part of it. You get 11 drives normally. What you do with those drives is critical.
You don’t make third downs, you’re not going to have any first downs, and so you have to convert. We
haven’t done that. We have four in the last 20. That’s ridiculous. We’ve got to get going.”
Q: You often talk about your 8 a.m. Wednesday meeting with the players when you begin the work
week and introduce the upcoming opponent. How important to you is that meeting and how much
time do you spend preparing for the meeting?
Coughlin: “I spend a lot of time on that. I spend a lot of my Monday night and Tuesday just researching
the opponent and digging and, admittedly, I spend a lot more time at it than we did 20 years ago. But
that’s the message that starts the week off.