david dieHl - New York Giants

just a part of it. It’s a link in this chain and if you really believe that and you play as hard as you can and
you put some faith in the guy next to you and he puts some faith in you, that’s what we did. That’s
exactly what we did. We hung in there. We persevered. We believed and we found a way to win.”
Q: Mark Herzlich started two games last year when he was an untested rookie. If he has to start for
Chase Blackburn this week, is he better prepared than he was then?
Coughlin: “Sure he is, no question. He’s older. He’s been in that room. He’s listened to all their
corrections. He’s a smart kid. He’s a tough kid. He’ll play.”
Q: You’ve been asked about what happens to Stevie Brown with Kenny Phillips returning. You’ve
played with three safeties for a long time. Can’t you play those two and Antrel Rolle together?
Coughlin: “I’m not asking the questions. As many good players as we can, we’ll find ways to play them.
Stevie Brown is having a remarkable run here and his ability to be in the right spot at the right time has
really just created tremendous momentum for his team. Kenny Phillips is an outstanding football player.
The more, the merrier. The more good players we can have, the better off our team will be.”
Q: The Steelers have long been thought of as an old-time running team, but now they pass the ball
much more often.
Coughlin: “Yes, but they can run it and they’ve proven that. Their four-minute offense is outstanding.
They've got an array of running backs that are all pretty much proven and they’re still very, very
physical. Their size is tremendous. Their defensive team is outstanding. They’re a physical defensive
team. They always have been. Their secondary is physical when they’ve got (Troy) Polamalu and Ryan
Clark playing back there. They’ve got two of the most physical safeties in the game. Their style is a little
bit different. Their ratio of pass to run is way up there pass-wise, but they’re doing it because they’re
trying to control the ball and do the same thing with the run game that they do with the pass game. It’s
a new concept for them. They’ll take their shots down the field. I disagree with what some people are
saying. They had an 82-yarder against Tennessee, so you know the ball goes down the field.”
Q: They’re the best third-down team in the league.
Coughlin: “By far. The quarterback (Ben Roethlisberger) has a 117 quarterback rating (on third down).
They’ve only turned the ball over six times this season.”
Q So third down is a big concern.
Coughlin: “You’re not kidding, because third-down is the key in terms of their goal, which is to win the
time of possession and keep their defense on the sideline and the opponent’s goal is to make sure that
that doesn’t take place. Tennessee was even with them. Just a few seconds different, but they didn’t
win. So time of possession is critical and still turnovers are going to be critical no matter how few they
have or how many we have; it’s still going to be the idea that whoever wins that is going to steal a
possession from somebody.”