SANTA CLARA – Here’s what Tom Coughlin said to Bay Area reporters about the New York Giants Wednesday morning on a conference call.
Q: How much of the success of your defense is related to your abilities to get pressure on the quarterback with just four guys?
COUGHLIN: That’s always been our strong point. We haven’t gotten much pressure this year comparatively. Obviously it’s something we’re trying to regenerate. Hopefully that’s going to occur soon.
Q: How resilient is Eli Manning?
COUGHLIN: I think that’s one of his strong points. It may come with maybe something adverse happening early in a game, it may come from different types of things that occur but he stays so mentally tough and focused on the job at hand. He’s had a unique ability to overcome whatever obstacles are in his way. When he was in the zone at the end of last year, it was a heck of a thing to see.
Q: How have you compensated for the loss of Mario Manningham and Brandon Jacobs?
COUGHLIN: We’ve had some people step up in the receiver role. They’ve done an outstanding job and really contributed to our season. Ramses Barden has done an outstanding job. He’s back healthy again and can practice. We look forward to him. And we’ve had other young guys along the way who have had to make (plays). Domenik Hixon has made plays for us. Rueben Randle stepped up and made some plays the other day. We’ve had some guys who have had an opportunity and they’ve tried to take advantage of it.
We drafted a running back here, David Wilson – not the physical presence that Brandon was, so that part of our game has not been satisfied to the extent that we don’t have a “big back.” In Andre Brown we had a young man who was being very well developed. Unfortunately he got dinged the other day. Da’Rel Scott has done OK when he’s had his chances.
Q: Has Victor Cruz gotten better this season?
COUGHLIN: Yes, oh yeah. You get better or you get worse; you don’t stay the same. He works at it, he loves it, he loves to play and I think he’s really studied and worked hard on some of the finer parts of the game.
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Mr. Rogers will not allow any mambo dances in his neighborhood. I think Jacobs plays in this game and scores a TD. I think Manningham gets a TD as well.
The Bay City Maulers (Joe Staley, Mike Iupati, Jonathan Goodwin, Alex Boone, and Anthony Davis) run over and maul the Giants front four. This group is playing with confidence and a real mean streak! They will give Alex time on play action to have a few big plays down field. I see Gore, Crab, Davis and Manningham having great days. The defense will be its typical self and stop the run, sack Eli several times, get off the field on 3rd downs, and create turnovers!
Niners defense is 32 in red zone pct. They are number one in points allowed. Conclusion – teams are not getting in the red zone much.
Eli made big plays on us by breaking contain under pressure and extending plays (and then throwing it as well as he does). If we can pressure and contain, maybe he throws it away to avoid the sack. Always need to shut down the run as job #1.
The thing about Eli is, for as good as he is, he will give defenses int opportunities because he’s fearless throwing into coverage. When those opportunities arise the Niners have to take advantage of them. They didn’t in the NFCCG and it cost them dearly.
How much of this game do you think comes down to coaching Rocket?
The Coaching is huge in every game Prime, but especially in games where the talent level is pretty even. That one look you can give that the other team hasn’t seen may be the difference. Davis shredded these guys last year, so I’m guessing that will be a focus for them which should allow us to have some good matchups with MM and Crabs in one on one situations. We’ve watched over the past couple of weeks how the Niner Coaches have put in some new wrinkles and I would guess that will be expanded on this week. They’ll have some good stuff for the Giants I would think.
The most intriguing thing about this game is I don’t see us dominating in the run game and the Giants will not abandon the run. This will make it a game of chess and where coaching might play into the outcome.
Eli will toss it around and we need to bang him around. I see the Giants defense stacking the box early and seeing what we do and make their adjustments. Their d coordinator is very good.
This game could come down to a late penalty or turnover to decide the game just like the championship game. This could be another 49er/Giants classic.
The Giants have 8 QB sacks this year. That’s only one less than the Niners. Last week against the Browns, they couldn’t generate any pressure with their base D rushing 4. They had to blitz to put pressure and they do a good job of disguising blitz packages. On one play, their LB came on a delayed blitz and the pressure caused Weeden to through an INT. They have the potential to cause havoc and the Niners pass protection needs to be sharp – like last week – in order to win.
The OL I am sure agrees with you Nick.