Perry Fewell was pretty direct on Thursday when the defensive coordinator basically absolved himself of blame for the team's defensive struggles and pinned it squarely on under-performing players, saying "we’re in position to make plays, and we haven’t made plays."
Does head coach Tom Coughlin agree? Well, sort of. Maybe. it was actually kind of hard to tell how much blame Coughlin assigns to Fewell from the answer he gave when asked about it on Friday.
"Those are his words and that's the way he feels," Coughlin said. "I don't think the defensive players would argue with you at all. We're in position. We haven't really tackled well. We haven't made the plays.
"It's not just on defense; we haven't made any plays on offense, either. That's one of the things that, for so many weeks, we were counting on and looking at always; big plays, and the last two weeks, they really haven't been there."
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So, the head coach agrees that plays aren't being made, but didn't exactly absolve Fewell by saying "that's the way he feels."
We won't find out the answer to how Coughlin and the organization feel about the job Fewell has done with the Giants until the off-season.
Of more immediate concern is what kind of effort the Giants will give Sunday in a game they have to win to keep their flickering playoff hopes alive. Coughlin said Friday he thought the attitude of his team has been "pretty good" this week.
"The guys are looking forward to the game. They're looking forward to the opportunity that's been given to them. They practiced well. They seem to be in it. Yesterday was a good practice. Today was also pretty good," Coughlin said.
Of course, one of the recent refrains for the Giants -- outscored 67-14 over the past two weeks -- is that solid practice has not been translating to good play during games. So, all we can do is wait until Sunday's 1 p.m. kickoff and find out.