Sports Radio Interviews

Brandon Jacobs Thinks the Giants Need to Use the Bye Week to Find Themsleves

After ripping off five wins in a row to start the season, it looked like the Giants were the class of the NFC once again this season and a legitimate Super Bowl contender.  However, New York has lost four straight games, looks nothing like a team with Super Bowl aspirations, and everyone within the organization is looking for answers.  Eli Manning is not playing very well right now and turning the ball over way too much, the defense has given 133 points in the four game losing streak ,and Brandon Jacobs is not having the same type of year that he had a season ago.

With the way the Eagles and the Cowboys have been playing recently, the Giants find themselves in a very difficult position heading into their bye week as they search for a solution to their many problems.  Things won’t get any easier in the second half of their season either.  After getting fat on a weak schedule to start the season, the Giants will play against just two teams with a losing record in their final seven games to finish out the year.  It’s going to be a very tough road ahead for Big Blue and the first few games coming off the bye could very well determine their playoff future.

Brandon Jacobs joined ESPN 1050 in New York to talk about not getting the ball as much as he did a year ago, the play calling at the end of the game this past weekend, whether he thinks the Giants can still make a playoff run and what they have to do to turn things around following the bye week.

On why he didn’t get the ball more in the game:

“We go out there, we’ve got an opportunity to the win the football game and we’ve got a lot of talent and try to use as much talent as we possibly can.  Run what’s called.”

On the play calling the past couple of weeks:

“Coach Gilbride has been doing a good job calling plays.  He’s been doing this for 20 years.  He knows exactly what he’s doing, the whole coaching staff does.   I love to see Ahmad (Bradshaw) in there getting runs because he’s actually making me excited when we get in there and run the ball.  We just gotta find a better way to try to win football games.  That’s all were concerned about now, each guy in the locker room, we just want to try to find a way to win.”

On whether or not he was surprised that they didn’t let Eli throw the ball on three straight downs at the end of the game:

“What surprised me about that whole thing is that we didn’t score.  We got the ball down there and our defense came up with an outrageous play when Terrell (Thomas) made an interception and ran it down there and we got a penalty.  We were still down there.  We had three downs to do it and didn’t get it in.  We could’ve put the game away but we didn’t.”

On whether or not he thinks the season is over after losing to the Chargers:

“With the NFL being such a long season, we still have a chance to rebound, come back and make the playoffs.  We’re in a tough division, we know that.  We’ve got a tough stretch that’s coming up; we just gotta go get it.  We gotta buckle down and use this bye week to our advantage.  Use it and go find ourself.  Find out what kind of team we are and what we’re going to be throughout this next little stretch that’s coming up.”

On his prediction of 13 wins:

“I don’t regret saying that because we’ve got a good football team, we’ve got great coaches and we work very hard.  That’s one I’m going to have to deal with for making that prediction.  That’s what I really thought then.  We had a good team and I really believed that.  It just so happened that we have not been playing as good of football as we can play and have penalties and those mistakes.  (We’re) Really beating ourselves.”

On the weakness of the team right now:

“We don’t really have a weak part.  We just gotta play a lot better.  In the game yesterday, us on the offense had a chance to put them away and our defense had an opportunity to put them away.  We both had equal opportunities.  Can’t fault the one unit and not do it to the other one.  It’s doesn’t go like that.”

On what needs to change following the bye week:

“We are who we are and all we gotta do is stop beating ourselves.  Give ourselves an opportunity.  That’s the only thing that needs to change to be honest with you.  No one is doing anything difficult to us, it’s just beating ourselves.  Penalties when we can’t afford them, just little bitty mistakes, that’s what’s beating us and that’s what we have to clean up.” 

Listen to Brandon Jacobs on ESPN Radio New York with Brandon Tierney (18:45 into podcast)

Tags: Brandon Jacobs, Brandon Tierney, ESPN New York, Kevin Gilbride, New York Giants, NFC East, NFL