david dieHl - New York Giants

Q: Understood. But when you look at some of the statistics that are important to you - turnover
differential (plus-13), the penalties are down, you’re not allowing sacks…do you look at those and say
those are areas in which we’re doing pretty well?
Coughlin: "Yes. Then I look at the green zone and say, ‘We’re not doing so well.’ I look at the yardage
we’re giving up in the air, we’re not doing so well. We were the number one big play team in football
before last weekend. We couldn’t get away from anybody. That’s a concern to me. Every game has got
some kind of shock power that you just look at it and you say, ‘Wait a minute. What is going on?’”
Q: You had a nice run there with the passing game, but in two of the last three games you’ve been
under 200 yards.
Coughlin: “We’re not playing at the same level. We’re not executing. We’re not winning. We’re not
separating. We’re not putting ourselves in position where it’s a very confident throw for the
quarterback. Everything is so tight. The two jerseys are meshed. That’s not how you operate in the pass
game. The pass game is about getting open, getting separated.”
Q: You mentioned the other side with the pass defense. Those numbers are…
Coughlin: “Astronomical. They’re ridiculous. We’ve got to plug better than that. We have to contest
better than that. We've got to contest the ball. Make it tight, make it close.”
Q: You always talk about the ability to take the ball away, the turnover differential.
Coughlin: “That’s how we won in Dallas. Plus-four, we win. The whole first half we had the ball and we
had it almost in their territory (but kicked three field goals in four trips inside the Dallas 20). As I told the
players on Wednesday, ‘One touchdown in place of one of those field goals and the game is over.’
They’re not going to make it back with even a touchdown. You can’t leave those things out. You have to
finish.”
Q: You brought up the green zone stuff and I know you’ve been dissatisfied with the production there.
When you have an issue like that, can you devote more practice time to it, or does the schedule not
allow it?
Coughlin: “It’s cumulative. We devote, specifically on Friday, 16 snaps to the red and the green zone. Pay
more attention to it. Be more diligent about the preparation. Get some energy in when we cover the
routes, when we run the routes. Let’s go. Get the run game going in there. Pound the ball in there. Make
more people conscious of that. You've just got to try to stay on schedule. Sure, we’re all aware of it. So
you know right there that there is more emphasis, but as far as field time goes, there is no more field
time.”
Q: You talk about cumulative knowledge – what about cumulative confidence from coming back to
win games? Two weeks ago you beat Washington on a late touchdown. In Dallas, you lost a 23-0 lead,
94,000 people screaming at you, but the players don’t lose their poise and you come back to win the
game. Is there a cumulative confidence in being able to do that?
Coughlin: “Sure there is. There’s a belief in each other. There’s a trust of each other. There’s poise. You
hang in there together, stay together, stick together. Keep your eye on the prize. Continue to realize
what is at stake here. Reverse this trend. We had great momentum. They had momentum. Back and
forth, back and forth. Well, fine. But the game is on the line and we’ve got something to say about it. For
this moment in time, forget about the last snap, here’s the most important snap of the game. So the one
thing that our team does and the reason we won the game was the plus-four, but the reason we really
won the game is because of our power of the will, our mental toughness. Those things that you talk
about and you try to develop and you try to assert in terms of the team above self and the individual is