By Giants QB Eli Manning: “It’s Good To Get This Little Reality Check”
November 6, 2012 – 7:00 am by Steven Cuce
The New York Giants had their four-game winning streak snapped on Sunday after giving up a double-digit fourth-quarter lead. Big Blue hasn’t played their best football since their convincing win over the San Francisco 49ers a few weeks ago. They were able to overcome the Washington Redskins with a late fourth-quarter touchdown a few weeks ago and six Cowboys turnovers helped the G-Men escape Dallas with another victory on the road last week.
On Sunday the Giants’ offense was non-existent in the fourth quarter. Eli Manning was disgusted by his team’s performance and even went as far to say that in the following interview. All is well for New York, though. They still own a commanding lead in the NFC East and take on a struggling Cincinnati Bengals team this Sunday.
Eli Manning joined WFAN in New York with Mike Francesa to discuss the New York Giants being disappointed they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers at home after Hurricane Sandy, the Giants’ offensive struggles the past few weeks, the team responding to adversity and the effects of Hurricane Sandy on the Giants’ practice schedule.
It seemed like Tom Coughlin was very disappointed that the team couldn’t give the victims of Hurricane Sandy a win to enjoy on Sunday:
“He spoke about that and everyone on the team wanted to do that. We wanted to go out there and give the Giants fans and the people around New York something to cheer about. A big game against a good team. We weren’t able to do that. It’s disappointing, just the way we played. There are some games that you lose, but you feel like you did some good things, and you don’t feel as bad. This is one that you just … it was hard to sleep last night. You want to kick yourself and you want to fix it as soon as possible and get back to practice and get back to work and make sure you go back out next week and get a better performance. That’s what we’re going to do, and it will get done.”
This offense hasn’t looked crisp in the last few weeks, especially against Dallas two weeks ago and this past week against Pittsburgh. Do you agree?:
“Right. That’s something, even in the Dallas game, we were able to respond in the fourth quarter and get some good drives and have two good drives to go regain the lead, and we had our opportunities this past weekend. We were down four with plenty of time and a two-minute drive and we go three-and-out and don’t get the ball back after that. We need to look hard at ourselves. It starts with each person looking at themselves. It starts with me looking at what I need to do to get better, what I need to do to help out our offense and help out our team and making good decisions and throwing the ball accurately. I’ve gotta be sharper. I’ve gotta make sure that everyone on the offense has a great understanding of what’s going to happen, how plays are going to turn out and what’s going to occur to make sure everybody is going to do the right thing. Sometimes it’s good to get this little reality check. We’ve been winning the two previous weeks without playing our best. We were able to hold on and make plays in the fourth quarter and win games, but when you lose a game, finally, and you play poorly, I think nothing hits home like that. And so we’ve got to really look at our practices, look at our decisions and make sure we’re doing everything really well.”
Do you expect this team to handle the adversity well?:
“Yeah and we gotta do that. That’s what great teams can do. You are going to have a bad week. You are going to have things when everybody is on you and everybody is, all of a sudden, you’ve been getting praised and now everybody has got you and everybody is worried and starts changing their tone. It’s how you respond to that. It’s, ‘Hey, what is our attitude going to be on Wednesday when we get back to work at practice and preparation?’ I thought the guys had a good attitude [Monday]. We came in and everybody felt bad. It’s easy to sit there and kind of whine and have your head down and blame everybody else for the loss, but I thought our guys did a good job of saying, ‘It starts with me.’ It starts with your own self and you gotta look at it and be self-critical of yourself to make these adjustments, and from there we can move on to be better.”
How did this past week, with Hurricane Sandy, effect the team?:
“It definitely wasn’t [an easy week]. Things were off and a lot of guys without power trying to figure out, what you are going to do for your family? … Schedules got mixed up. I thought the team rallied well and we prepared well. Everybody was focused once we were in meetings. I thought our practices were crisp. I don’t think it affected the game or affected our preparation in any way for the game. … I know I am back home. We got power again in my place, so it’ll be good to be back home and be around a regular schedule, and hopefully the rest of the guys will have that going. I know most of them have power back. That should be good, so we have a normal week of preparation and work.”
Listen to Eli Manning on 660 WFAN in New York here
Tags: Eli Manning, Hurricane Sandy, Mike Francesa, New York Giants, NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers, Tom Coughlin, WFAN in New York
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