Good morning, New York Giants fans! Here are some notes for you as the Giants get ready for a 'win and get in' game at Lambeau Field against the Green Bay Packers.
I am going to start with defensive tackle Barry Cofield, who was a veritable quote machine on Wednesday. Cofield's best quotes were in regards to the remarks by Michael Strahan we discussed Wednedsay, and the fact that the Giants now have their backs to the wall.
"Guys forget," Cofield said. "It’s like they never lost games. Once you go to the media and start talking it’s like you don’t remember any of the bad losses that you had."
Cofield, incidentally, was not angry at Strahan.
"We’ve all seen ups and downs," Cofield said. "Strah’s our guy. He set the bar high for our d-line. We know we’ve got to try and live up to that. We didn’t play our best football."
Now. with that out of the way, let's move on to other things. And let's try not to re-visit whether or not I was right to criticize Strahan on Wednesday. Been there, done that. I just put Cofield's remarks out there because I thought they were interesting.
How about a little more from Cofield? This time on the fact that the Giants are now in more of an underdog role:
"When people are picking us to win, I get nervous," defensive tackle Barry Cofield said. "This is a more comfortable position for us — coming off a loss and having people write us off."
I think that Barry's sentiments echo the way a lot of us here at Big Blue View feel. The Giants never quite seem to live up to it when everyone starts singing their praises. On the flip side, they have done some of their best work when expectations were not high.
Tom Coughlin is revered in New York, but another late Giants collapse could be the last straw
No one can take Tom Coughlin's Super Bowl away. But at some point, management will have to consider that it's only one line, and if this season has another disappointing ending, maybe they'll have to consider it immediately.
I know everyone has an opinion on Coughlin. That's how it is with head coaches -- everybody takes sides. Reality is, we can't judge whether TC deserves to stay or go until we see what happens the final two games. A second-straight season-ending collapse it's fair to question whether he deserves to remain for the final year of his contract. A fifth playoff berth in six years and it would be awfully difficult to make an argument he should not be retained for the final year of his contract. Even if the Giants get to 10 wins and don't make the playoffs -- which is possible -- I think it would be difficult to justify giving Coughlin a pink slip.
So, let's wait and have this discussion when all the facts are in.
O'Hara ready to play better - Giants Blog - ESPN New York
"I look back on the game film and I don’t think I will put that on my top shelf and say that was the best game I ever played," O’Hara said. "I set a high bar for myself. I know I can play a little bit better and I know I will."
I gave you his PFF numbers Wednesday, which were better than expected. We know, and O'Hara knows, he did not play as well as he can on Sunday. He is a quality player, though, and another full week of practice should help him.
Notebook: Giants Getting It Done On The Ground
"We’re physical up front, so we definitely want to establish that we can’t let their running game start early," [Ryan] Pickett said. "If you let their running game start, then they start with the play-action and they just build off their running game.
"We know if we win up front, we’re going to win the game. We really feel like if we can come out and play like we are supposed to play against this team and stop the run, we feel like we have a good chance of winning."
The Giants running game could be the difference on Sunday in the freezing Wisconsin weather. Sounds like the Packers know it.