New York Giants notes, 10.16.08

Here are some New York Giants notes.

• Shaun O'Hara and Gerris Wilkinson are among the wounded heading into Sunday. Eli Manning appears to be fine.
• Coach Tom Coughlin was peppered with questions about the Giants defense during his Wednesday press conference. Here is some of what he had to say.

You not getting the pressure on the quarterback…?

Yeah.  That is an issue, that is an issue for us.  I don’t use that term at all.  I have heard all kinds of crazy things about losses and good losses and all that.  I don’t buy any of that.  You play to win, that is what you are there for, and you go as hard as you can and that is your mindset always.  There is no acceptance of anything other than that.  What I say is that we make no excuses for it and we lost a game that we expected to go out there and play a good football game and win and we didn’t do it.

You haven’t forced many turnovers this year. Can you prepare to try to do that?

We do it every day.  Every day we talk about it, we do it, and there may be something to it, but in my opinion, there are some balls that we could get to and we are just, for whatever reason, not getting ourselves in position, but we need to going forward, there is no doubt about it.  Even playing a game air-tight and not having any opportunities for good field position makes it a little bit harder.

Are you concerned when you are blitzing and not getting to the quarterback?

Absolutely. 

Last year you were effective at that?

Oh yeah sure, no question.  We were constantly looking at, manipulating it, trying to come up with new and different ideas and thoughts and putting people in different spots.  It is an ongoing thing.  The one thing I will say, though, is it is a long season, okay?  And it is a marathon, not a sprint.  We are 4-1, we have had some great opportunities, we let one get away from us the other night and I will take full responsibility for that, but it is a long season and we have to move on.

• The 49ers hope to follow the Cleveland Browns blueprint for beating the Giants.
• CALLING ALL RANGERS FANS: Our man 'jrs' has started his own New York Rangers blog, 'BroadwayBlueView.' So, if you like the Rangers -- or just 'jrs' occasionally off-beat sense of reality, check him out. And yes, you can feel free to give him grief for the rather 'unoriginal' name he chose for his site.