Antonio Pierce After Dominating : “I think all three phases played very well yesterday, pretty much exactly how Coach Coughlin planned it out on Wednesday when we met up.”
September 29, 2009 – 6:15 am by Bunk
So far so good for the New York Giants. The G-Men improved to 3-0 on Sunday by blanking the punchless Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-0 in their own house. The Giants weren’t spectacular offensively on Sunday, but they didn’t have to be. Their defense did much of the heavy lifting. Tampa Bay mustered a pathetic 86 yards on offense and picked up only five first downs for the game. The Giants defense also picked off Byron Leftwich before getting benched in the fourth quarter by Josh Johnson (who is starting in week four). The bottom line? The Giants defense was in complete control. That’s got to be a welcome sign for Giants fans, who saw their team jump out to a 2-0 record the first two weeks thanks to their offense. Linebacker Antonio Pierce has been a mainstay of that defense since 2005, and on Sunday he had a couple of tackles as well as two passes defended. He joined WFAN in New York to talk about the their dominant performance on Sunday, their 3-0 start to the season, and how the team plans on retaining their focus throughout the year.
On the suffocating game the Giants played in all three phases of the game, but most notably on defense:
“You know what, we went out there and handled business. Obviously we won against the Cowboys, but we felt like there were lots of areas, especially on defense, that we needed to improve on and go out there and play a lot better on. And I think we went out there and executed well. Offensively, our game plan was to hold the ball and pound it. And we did that by the stats telling you we had 200 yards rushing. And the special teams - I think all three phases played very well yesterday, pretty much exactly how Coach Coughlin planned it out on Wednesday when we met up.”
On just how much pressure they put on Bucs quarterback Byron Leftwich before knocking him out of the game – even though they didn’t have a single sack all game:
“Oh yeah it is, definitely. Because when you watch the film today, the hits that we put on that quarterback, he felt them. And you know, I don’t know what’s going on down there, but he felt them. It came the 4th quarter, they brought in another quarterback, maybe to change up the pace of the game. Maybe we knocked out that quarterback. I don’t know. But I know that the hits that our defensive linemen, and the hits our guys put on that quarterback, I know he had to feel it today.”
Listen here to Pierce with Mike Francesca on WFAN in New York
Tags: Antonio Pierce, best NFL defenses, Giants vs. Buccaneers score, NFL Week 3 scores, undefeated NFL teams, WFAN
