Q. Give you us an update on Michael Turner and his status for this game and where his injury situation is?

A. I can tell you this. On our injury report today, Michael will not participate in practice, and he is really going to be day-to-day to see where he goes. He is working extremely hard. He did injure his ankle in the ball game last week and wasn’t able to finish it. But he is working extremely hard to get back as quick as possible.

Q. Regardless of his status, do you expect Jerious Norwood is going to be healthy enough to contribute?

A. Jerious continues to get better. He was able to do a little bit more last week and we are anxious to see him practice today.

Q. If you have to make any adjustments without Turner, do you think you change dramatically what you do? Or is your team still built to emphasize the run game regardless of who is back there?

A. Of course Michael has been an outstanding runner for us since we got here. But we do feel comfortable with the running backs that we have. Jerious has a little different dynamic than Michael and as far as skill set. But we like what he has done. We also are very comfortable with Jason Snelling. Jason has been a guy who has been able to play both fullback and halfback for us. We are going to put our game plan together to try and emphasize the strengths of all of our players.

Q. You are a defensive guy. When you look at the numbers that have been put up against your run defense, what do you see as the issue there?

A. We have not played defense like we would have liked to, of course. Our number one goal year in and year out is to keep people out of the end zone. We are in the middle of the pack in terms of scoring defense. We have given up way too many explosive plays. To me that is the biggest thing that has been the difference is that we have given up the 20-yard plus plays both in the pass game and in the run game. We knew that we were going younger and more urgent on defense. We made that commitment last year in terms of retooling our roster and we have gone through some growing pains. But these guys have shown a very good attitude and have been very resilient and have played extremely hard for us this year.

Q. It looked like on two of those long runs against the Panthers last week, one looked like guys on the second level got blocked and on another they got caught up. Has that been an issue?

A. When you give up explosive plays, guys, there is usually one of four things that happens. Really three of the four are about you. Either a missed tackle, a missed assignment, or poor leverage. And then there are times when it is just a great play by the offense. But the majority of the time, we believe that when you give up an explosive play it is usually one of the three things that are about you. That’s poor tackling, missed assignment or poor leverage. Obviously you guys were very observant on that play and saw what occurred.

Q. Michael Boley has had a couple injuries since his arrival in New York, but when healthy, he has played really well. He looks like he has the ability, so it makes people wonder why you guys decided to let him go or even last year put him on the bench?

A. Michael Boley, I thought, played very well for us last year. When you are building a roster, decisions have to be made and they are made from both sides. He was a free agent and he chose to test the market. Michael, I think, is a very athletic linebacker that has been very productive in his time here in Atlanta. I don’t see any reason why he won’t be productive there in New York. When he has had an opportunity, when I have seen him on film, he looks like the athletic Michael Boley that we had here.

Q. You mentioned it right there, the guy clearly has the athleticism, so it makes you wonder why a team would think that athleticism isn’t that valuable. Why would you look at him and say maybe he isn’t the right fit for us anymore?

A. Guys, like I said, Michael had an opportunity to test free agency and he tested free agency. That’s the way the system is set here in the NFL.

Q. Did you guys make an effort to keep him?

A. Guys, I am not going to get into that, in terms of negotiations and on a specific player.

Q. When you look at the Giants defense what do you see from the other linebackers and the defensive pass rush?

A. I think up front they are very strong. I am familiar with Danny Clark, I had Danny Clark back when he was with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He is a very, you know, strong, tough linebacker. Antonio Pierce, his resume speaks for itself. Really the guys up front are the guys you have to be concerned about. Osi Umenyiora at one defensive end, Justin Tuck at the other and then Mathias Kiwanuka, those guys can rush the passer and their statistics basically say that you have to be aware of where they are. They have a good rotation inside with Fred Robbins, (Barry) Cofield and when Chris Canty is healthy and playing, he is a big force, as well. This defense is the number one defense in the NFL as far as giving up yards per game. It is going to be a big challenge for our offense to compete against these guys because they are very good.

Q. At least numbers-wise, it looks like Matt Ryan has taken a step back this year. Is that the case or are you asking him to do a whole lot more as a sophomore than as a rookie?

A. I think his numbers are comparable when you start talking about completion percentage and touchdowns to where they were at this time last year. Of course, Matt had an outstanding rookie season and playing quarterback in the NFL, to me, is one of the most difficult positions there is. We know that Matt has got to play better. He knows that he has got to play better. But there is a learning curve and it is not something that happens in a very short time. It is something that you have to experience and Matt is going through those experiences right now.

Q. How much has it helped to have Tony Gonzalez, not only on the field but in the locker room?

A. Tony Gonzalez, his numbers speak for themselves in terms of what he’s been able to do throughout his entire career. The thing that Tony brings to us is professionalism. I don’t think there is a guy who works harder than Tony. He is a great influence for everybody in our locker room, not just the offensive players. Here is a guy who is arguably going to the Hall of Fame and he is out working on his blocking, catching passes early, catching passes when the defense is working and the offense is not, in terms of our scripting. He is a great influence for everybody on our team, for all of our young players.

Q. Did the break do what it was supposed to do?

A. Yeah, I think so. I think going nine weeks in the season without a break from training camp and everything, I think sometimes you don’t feel tired until you get away and realize that your body is tired, your mind is tired. So I think it was good for us for it to come at this time and get the break. We came out today and guys are excited to be back and ready to go and excited about playing well and ending the season on a good note and get back to winning games.

Q. What did you make of last night’s Colts/Patriots game and what does that tell us about the NFL’s playoff situation?

A. Well, it was a great game. It was a great game to watch and you never know in this league what can happen. You have to keep fighting and put yourself in a situation where you have a chance to win in the fourth quarter. That’s kind of what the Colts did; they kept fighting and found a way to win. It was a fun game to watch.

Q. What did you think of the Cowboys and Eagles losses and what that does for your chances over the next seven games?

A. Well, we have to worry about the Giants. We have to handle our business; we have to go out there and play well and win games. We know that we have to play Philly again, the Cowboys and the Redskins again. Really what it comes down to is we have to focus on Atlanta this week. That’s all we can do is focus on them, go out there and play well and see if we could get a win and get back on a winning streak.

Q.  A lot of people are saying that with the losses of the Cowboys and Eagles last week that there is still hope for this season. But that is kind of the way you guys went into the bye week, right? 

A. Yeah, we felt that all the way along. We knew we weren’t in an awful situation. It’s not exactly where we wanted to be, but we knew that there were still a lot of games left, a lot of season and if we went out and handled our business and play well, got hot again and got back to winning some games, we would be very much into the playoff hunt. We need to have that mindset. It really comes down to all we can worry about this week is Atlanta, go out there and play well and see if we can get a win.

Q. Have you seen enough in the last couple weeks to give you any confidence that you can take advantage of the situation with the Cowboys and Eagles losing?

A. I have seen enough in our team and the way that we have responded and put ourselves in a situation to win the game against San Diego that we can play at a high level and win some games. I know in the NFL you are never out of anything, especially after nine games. There is a lot of football left and teams can turn things around. Teams can get hot at the end of the season. We have to go out there and start playing better football and we are capable of doing that.

Q. Did the week off help your foot or is that going to be a constant for the rest of the year?

A. No, the foot feels fine, it’s not an issue. That injury I think is kind of over and done with. I think a week off of not practicing, not putting any pressure on the body and the arm definitely helps and refreshes the whole body.

Q. What did you do to get away from it?

A. I went back to Ole Miss. Hung out there, watched them play on Saturday and just relaxed for the most part.

Q. Did you watch a lot of football on Sunday?

A. Yeah, I watched a lot of football on Sunday. It’s fun to sit at home and take advantage of Direct TV and have all those games on. I was flipping back and forth to a lot of games, a lot of football being played.

Q. When you and your teammates got back to the complex today, was it a sense of guys are champing at the bit, can’t wait to get going again or was it kind of hard to shake off the rust of being off a few days?

A. It wasn’t hard to shake off the rust. We went out and practiced, it wasn’t a real long practice, but I thought there was good energy. Guys were sharp, we were excited about the opportunity that we have and excited to come back and play. I think they enjoyed the time off. I thought guys took advantage of it, were smart about getting back healthy and getting fresh and that we have to come back knowing that we have a great opportunity ahead of us. But it’s a matter of what we are going to do with the opportunity. We have to take advantage of where we are and know that we have to win some games.

Q. Were you able to heal up to a satisfactory level during the bye week?

A. I feel pretty good. I think the bye week really helped me. I got a lot of rest, a little peace of mind and got away from football. So I feel kind of revived a little bit.

Q. Do you think a week away to clear you heads is something that is going to help this team?

A. Well, time will tell, but I think it did. In our little work that we did today it seemed like guys were happy to be back. Guys were bouncing around and things like that. But like I said, it only matters what we do on Sunday so we will find out this week.

Q. What do you think about the way the division took a step back towards you guys while you were off with both the Cowboys and Eagles losing?

A. It shows you how tough the NFL is. If somebody would have told me that going into that game Dallas was not going to score a touchdown until the last seconds of the game when the game is out of reach… Then I thought Philadelphia would be able to handle the Chargers, but that is why you go play the game. Lucky for us it puts things back in reach with us. But we still can’t worry about what other people did, we have to go out there and win games for ourselves.

Q. The way you guys finished up going into the bye (week), do you think this team is capable of taking advantage of the opportunities now that the Cowboys and Eagles lost?

A. I hope so, that is the plan. Again we have to have a great week of practice this week. We have a tough team coming in with Atlanta. For us, we can’t worry about what Dallas or Philadelphia did. We have to come out and hold serve at home, our fans are going to be up for this one. We have to match the intensity that Atlanta is going to bring. If we can do that, I think things will work out for themselves.

Q. When you said you felt revived, specifically not banging on the shoulder. How much did not banging on that help you?

A. It helped me a lot. It allowed me to do the strengthening work that I needed to do without having to go out in practice and bang on it and gave it a lot of time to recover. So it felt pretty good today and today I will probably do a little bit more work on it and then have tomorrow off. Hopefully I will be that much better coming up this week.

Q. How much of an issue has it been the last couple of weeks?

A. I don’t know, it’s been an issue, but if you go out there and play then you go out there and play, but obviously I haven’t been 100 percent. But I don’t make that an excuse; nobody is 100 percent in this league right now.

Q. What did you do to get away too clear you head?

A. I went to the mountains and (hunted?).

Q. What did you catch?

A. I didn’t catch anything, it was peaceful though.

Q. What were you trying to catch?

A. Whitetail deer.

Q. You got none?

A. I didn’t get any.

Q. Michael Turner got hurt; that probably does a lot of damage to the Falcons. What are your thoughts on that and what does their team look like without him?

A. I expect him to play, honestly. Until he is ruled completely out then we will start to prepare for other people. But until then we are preparing like Michael Turner is going to play.

Q. Did you look more at the Falcons than you normally would have because of the fact that you didn’t play last week? Are you a little bit more ahead of the game or are you still going to wait for Wednesday for that?

A. I mean today we didn’t work on anything Falcons-wise. We have seen film on them and we saw the game (last week). Other than that, that is pretty much it. But yeah, mostly we will just dive into it on Wednesday.

Q. When you talk about your shoulder being an issue, is it more of the physical pain of it or the limitations of wearing that harness?

A. A little bit of both.

Q. Do you see a point this season when you will be able to take the harness off?

A. That’s the plan. When will that happen? I don’t know. Will it happen? I don’t know, but that is definitely the plan and I would love to get to that point.

Q. The team looked at itself, scouted itself and did all that. Do you think now with the break that you have a clear idea what went right and certainly what went wrong the last four games?

A. Yeah, we need to play better.

Q. That is a very wide-open generic statement. I am sure you guys deal in specifics everyday. Is there anything specifically that maybe upfront from your point of view that needs to get done on a more consistent basis?

A. We need to stop the run more consistently and sack the quarterback more consistently. That is pretty much it. Everybody can make football very complicated, but when it comes down to it, it really isn’t.

Q. It’s often said that sacks are just numbers and it’s about getting pressure on the quarterback. It sounds like you are in a position that you really want to get the quarterback taken down?

A. Well, yeah, I agree with you. I guess we kind of proved ourselves wrong because I have felt like we have gotten a lot pressure on quarterbacks. But they have still completed passes on us, so yeah, that is definitely a focus for us. Coach (Mike) Waufle often says we need to stop hitting the triples and start hitting homeruns.

Q. If you don’t get into the Falcons until Wednesday and you have tried to forget about everything during the last few days of the bye, what specifically was the primary mission of coming back today?

A. Get some work in. Normally you have a bad practice after the bye week because guys haven’t been on the football field. Today we really used that to get the cob webs out and get some running in and things like that so we can come back Wednesday and really hit the ground running.

Q. Can you talk about the development and how your linebackers are coming together. They have certainly drawn some criticism. Can you talk a little bit about the criticism there?

A. Well I think anytime you have a group, you try and come together during training camp and get to know each other. It’s hard because obviously Michael Boley didn’t have as much time in with the guys. But he was in every meeting and I think that’s where you get to learn about the group, especially me being new coming in. They are a very intelligent group of men and they work well together. They can talk football together, which I like, and then you can tell how good a group is especially older guys and see there correspondence with the younger players, having a young rookie like Clint Sintim in there and Jonathan Goff and Bryan Kehl are still young players. I love that involvement with each other, so in terms of synergy I think that’s where it all starts. Then, on the playing field on Sundays, you like to be able to have the same three guys, week in and week out every single snap, but as we all know that usually never happens, especially at the linebacker position. I think the guys are doing a good job of understanding the expectations for the position not the player. So whoever plays the ‘Mike’ linebacker or whoever plays the ‘Sam’ or the ‘Will’ position, this is the expectation for that position and they understand what’s required of them. So I think they have done a good job of that. Again you would like to have continuity of them taking every single snap but that is hard to do.

Q. When you look at Antonio Pierce, other then the fact that he’s the captain, do you think he takes unfair criticism?

A. To be honest with you, I think it’s no different than the quarterback on offense. If the offense isn’t doing well, the quarterback gets ripped. If the defense is not doing well, then the linebackers aren’t doing their job. To me it’s the nature of the position and really that’s part of the job. He is a pro. There is always going to be criticism, it’s part of the game and you learn to deal with it. The real thing is Antonio Pierce is able to come in on a Monday and watch the game and if he does anything fantastic, it is he evaluates himself. He watches himself and before I even come down to go into the film room, he has graded himself. To me, that’s what you want out of a pro, a guy that evaluates himself.

Let’s start off by saying Happy Veterans Day to all of the veterans and our soldiers and our troops, how proud of them we are, how thankful we are for them.  We have a group of Wounded Warriors here today.  They are very special to us.  I just talked to a bunch of guys that were in Afghanistan and Iraq.  They give of themselves so that we can sleep under the blanket of freedom.  And we should never forget that in this country. This should be remembered as a very special day – Veterans Day.

As far as a couple of other things, let me start out by saying that I’m responsible for all of the decisions that are made with our football team.  The green zone decisions are my responsibility.  They are nobody else’s.  No one else made a mistake.  The quarterback did not make a mistake.  The decision was mine.  I was asked the other day if I had an opportunity, would I change it; would I do something different?  Well, my answer to that is: does that mean that I can also change the fumbled snap, the ball that we thought was going to be a fourth and inches that ended up being fourth and 10, which nobody has even recognized or talked about that. Can I change the running into the returner on the fair catch penalty?  Can I change the 29-yard pass interference penalty?  If you will give me a chance to change all of those, I’ll change all of those, too.  But it is my responsibility and that is where it stops – right here.  Nobody else is to blame.  So let’s not continue to grope around trying to figure that situation out.  I will tell you right now, we were doing everything we possibly could to win.  We had managed the game very well.  Our kicking game had helped us out. We were in a position where we thought that the opponent would have to drive the ball the length of the field and score a touchdown to beat us.  And, unfortunately, that is what happened.  But the on-the-field decisions are mine.

Q:  You have Aaron Ross back today?

A:  He did come back and he got limited work and he seemed to work well. 

Q:  Hakeem Nicks?

A:  Hakeem and Boothe both had a couple of shots and the doctors didn’t want them to work today.  But they will be back.

Q: Was there a need to say what you just said to the staff and the players?

A:  It was the first thing that was said on Monday morning.  It is always the first thing that is said.

Q:  Do you feel like they were taking too much heat?

A:  It was called to the attention of what someone said this morning.  And I just said, well, geez, here we are on Wednesday and it is still being talked about last week.  I thought it was perfectly clear, but let me express it so no longer does anyone else receive any type of blame.  The blame goes right here.  That’s all.

Q:  Could you talk about the new cornerback, D.J. Johnson, you acquired?

A:  We had really liked this young man for quite some time – D.J. Johnson.  And with the opportunity, unfortunately with Gerris Wilkinson being injured and Gerris going on IR, we did have a roster spot.  So we made the invitation and fortunately for us the young man decided to come.

Q:  What does he play?

A:  He plays both – he has played corner, he has played safety.  He has played well on special teams.  He did have a good grade going in.  Our pro scouting department had tracked him during the preseason, etc.  So we felt good about him.

Q:  When you made a move like that, do you factor in at all that he has played for a team that you have to play in a very short week?

A:  No, that wasn’t part of the decision.  But after you get him here, it is a plus. 

Q:  Are you looking at him as a safety or a corner?

A:  Initially, because of the balance, we thought of him as a safety, yeah.

Q:  We know guys play hurt, we are used to watching that. But Kevin Boss, in particular, has taken some really big shots. Are you ever surprised how he is able to come back?

A:  He is a tough guy; he is a tough guy. The problem with that whole thing – and you are alluding to it, is that he has two personal fouls on him and neither one of them were called. So that is kind of an interesting thing.

Q:  Have you sent your input in on that?

A:  Yes, sure.  

Q:  Have you heard anything back or no?

A:  They agree that it should have been called.

Q:  RE:  Getting Aaron Ross back and possibly moving a corner to safety

A:  We’ll see, we’ll see. I don’t know that – we will factor all of those things in as we move on. I think that we do have to allow that we see Aaron practice a few days in a row before we make any kind of decisions along any lines really – including active and inactive.

Q:  You had said that during this bye week you would do the self-scouting process.  Were there any revelations, anything that was really shocking to you that you didn’t already know or didn’t already figure?

A:  Unfortunately, we already knew that our red zone defense and our green zone offense are not very effective.  You saw us – we did two periods in there today. I think that is pretty much where we start. We have other areas, obviously, that we are concerned about.  But that is a good spot to start. The only problem with that whole thing is that, to be honest with you, we had set that as an objective in the spring. It is an objective in the summer. And here we are – it is still a major objective. So we will keep working.

Q:  Historically when this team has had its back to the wall they have found a way to come though.  Do you sense they can rally around that in the second half of the season?

A:  I certainly think that we can. And I believe that we can.  I believe that we have the players. We have the staff. We have the ‘know how.’ And there isn’t any doubt -- you can ‘should have, would have, could have’ for the last month and I can give you a bunch of answers. But they don’t mean anything. The facts are the facts. And what I would like them to do is to go have three or four days with their families and reflect on our situation and come back here with a greater purpose and a greater desire to get this righted. Historically it can be done.

Q:  Back to the red zone, you talked about Ramses Barden could be an option here – down the stretch.  What does he have to do?  What does he have to show you?

A:  The special teams aspect of being – not one of the top three (receivers) is a major consideration, because whoever is active has got to help some team.

Q:  He just hasn’t performed in that area?

A:  Well, he has had some good days and some bad days. And we need more consistency – not that he is alone. 

Q:  This has been a tough month for you. Could you start with just how this has affected you and what your weeks have been like as things have kind of spiraled here.

A:  It is no fun, that is for sure.  In terms of your approach, I think if anything, it galvanizes you to make sure you work even that much harder to make sure that you are doing whatever you can to put your players in a position where they have a chance to be successful; make sure they understand what you are trying to accomplish, what the defense is trying to do and how to best go after it.  And when it doesn’t bear fruit after the investment of time and effort, then it is very disappointing. But it is important, I think, as a coach that you just continue to show resolve and a positive outlook that things will get turned around as long as we continue on the correct path.

Q:  Coach Coughlin has said the green zone has been a focus this week.  Do you feel like you are close there sometimes?  What do you see?

A:  We are about as close as we can get without being successful. Last Sunday, besides the last one, the first two we get down there right on the fringe. We throw a pass and make it second and two on the 22 and run the ball twice and wind up short yardage not getting it, and then the botched field goal. And the next time we come down there we pick up three on a power play. The next time we try a fake go screen, which we had had a lot of success with – throwing the go screen. We thought we would get a better reaction. We didn’t. And Eli wound up just throwing it to the receiver. We lose three and then we throw the ball to Steve and we think we have a first down or fourth and inches, we are ready to go. And we wind up with nothing. And the next two times down there we score until the last time. The penalties just set us so far back it made it difficult.  We were close, you’re right.  But it is not good enough.  The bottom line is that you have to be very precise down there. You have to be more exact there than anywhere on the field. And as the field gets shortened and condensed, it is important that you do everything just about nearly perfect to have some success.  And we weren’t quite as good as we needed to be. 

Q:  There were positive signs.  Jacobs’ numbers were good as far as yards per carry.  Eli talked about getting back into a rhythm.  Is that what you build on?

A:  That was the goal. That was the goal going into the game. Again, how can we best put our team in the position to win the game? And one of the things was to get some things with the throwing game that Eli would feel comfortable with; get into a rhythm as you say; quick passes trying to get the ball out of his hand quickly.  We had some chances for some bigger plays which we didn’t quite capitalize on – should have capitalized on. We did not. But it did start to force them – put them on their heels a little bit, which opened up the running game which was good to see.  And again, the problem is that it is all good strategy. And you put yourself in a position to win. Then the most important thing of all is then when you are in that position you have to take the next step. We took the first step to put ourselves in a good position and then the next step we didn’t quite finish out on.

Q:  RE:  Coach Coughlin taking responsibility for everything that has taken place.  As someone who has been a head coach, do you think that he is handling the situation the right way?  

A:  Yeah, I think it is very – it is what needs to be done. It is the correct thing to do and it does not surprise me at all that he would do that. That is the type of leader that he is. I didn’t know that he did that, but that is good to hear.  But again, it is up to us as the guys that work underneath him to make sure that we carry out that message. And that idea is to implement his overall plan in the way that he would like to have it done. But also to make sure that he players understand the subtleties of it and make good decisions within the framework of that plan, so that again, we finish on top instead of one point underneath. 

Q:  It seems that the Monday morning quarterback said, "In the last series why – even after the penalty -- why didn’t the Giants go into the end zone and try and put the game away?"

A:  When it is first and goal from the 15, it is a little tougher, obviously. You would like to be in that seven or eight yard line.  You keep people guessing.  Like the first time we kind of got what we thought and we ran it down to the one and got the penalty. That killed us. Now they were smart and they stayed back and dropped everybody in. If we had thrown it into the end zone, it would have been a good chance that it would have been a disaster. Now, what you hope, like with the screen pass, you throw something underneath and you make a run in there. We were calling – as we always do – "do this or that based upon the look." And then if they give you the look that tells you to run, then you hope that you are going to split it and get it into the end zone. But in hindsight you wish – if we hadn’t been as conservative, maybe we would have taken that option away and just say, "Let’s try to throw it." Now, again, I can’t say, "You throw it in the end zone," I think if you throw it into the end zone it is probably picked off and brought back the other way. And that wouldn’t have been real smart, either. Because then all they had to do was drive it down it down and kick a field goal. But there are still other things that you can do. And in retrospect, you wish you had done them.

Q:  Given all of the time you guys devoted to what you were going to do during the offseason and now half a season is already complete, how dramatic can the tweaks be as you go into the second half of the season?

A:  I don’t know if they have to be very dramatic. I think the margin between victory and failure is not very much. We are right on the cusp. But I think there were – the penalties were a big bugaboo and the green zone has been an area that we haven’t been as effective as you would like to be. And the thing that is really disappointing is our third and short. Our short yardage now is killing us. It affects our ability to hold on to the ball. And the longer you hold onto the ball, the more chances you give our team. And the bottom line is we give our offense enough changes, we are going to make plays.  We are doing a tremendous job of helping our team and helping our defense by holding on to the ball.  And that is great strategy. But when you are down there, you have to finish it. And that is what we are not doing at the level that we think we would like to be doing it at. 

Q:  Is Brandon getting enough carries – not yards but carries?

A:  Oh, I don’t know. As I said to you early on when all of you were complaining that he was carrying it too much and not doing it well enough, that in the end of the season I thought the numbers would reflect a solid season for him.  I think I still feel the same way.  When it is all said and done it will all balance out.  But they are trying to get --- Ahmad at the beginning of the year was our hot runner and doing a great job. And everybody wanted to get him more carries. And now everybody wants to get Brandon more. You can’t do it all. So you try to split it up. And it is up to our running back coach, who does a great job. And Tom, again, sets the parameters that Gerald operates in. And you just hope that you have the right guy in at the right time.

Q:  Danny Ware didn’t touch the ball a lot, but did he show you enough to really be a part of this rotation going forward?

A: He has to be. He can be, as I said earlier on, he has to be a guy that can give us some relief on first and second downs, certainly; but also, especially, on third down. He has to start to evolve into that player. So he has to prove that (a) first and foremost, you can do the protection sufficiently. That is what you are going to do more often on third down than anything else. And then I think you have a terrific runner and you have a guy you can throw the ball to out of the backfield, which would give us a dimension that we are looking forward to having. But he is still getting himself back into ‘in season’ form. And I think that he showed some things and some things we are still looking to knock some of the rust off.

Q. Coach Coughlin said that you guys were going to work a lot on the red zone during this time period. What have you seen there?

A. No different than you do in any other parts of your game. You look at what people have tried to do against you. Mostly route problems that they try to give you down there. Are you outplaying your basic red zone coverages against them and how you might modify or wrinkle them slightly to better matchup the routes. That is basically what you try to get done in a bye week.

Q. If there was an area that you needed to put on top of the priority list for when this defense comes back, what would it be?

A. I would say that. It is very easy and obvious because of the statistics, but it is our red zone stops. For large portions of the game we play very well, but for a bunch of different reasons, we haven’t done a great job of stopping people when they get the ball down in the red area. That has got to change because you can play great for 50 snaps a game, but if they get the ball inside your 10 and you are not putting up enough resistance to keep them out of the end zone, they are going to have seven points instead of three. You are going to have a hard time winning games. If it had to be one thing, it is very easy to pinpoint and say that would be it. Doing a better job of executing and keeping people out of the end zone and forcing field goals.

Q. Now that you have had this time to self-scout, is there something else that you have uncovered that you didn’t expect to see?

A. No, I wouldn’t say it that way. You can sit back and look at a nine game self-scout and kind of take a picture of what you are doing down there in that area of the field. How you are playing defense and what kind of calls you are or are not making. It gives you a chance, about a couple of days to do that, to maybe rethink some thoughts defensively about what you can do maybe a little differently down there. Whether it is in your base red zone defense but also maybe some other calls outside of that, that maybe you normally don’t bring into that part of the field. Whether it is different type of pressures, ideas or something like that.

Q. How much can you really tweak given that you have had an entire off season, preseason and now you are nine weeks into the regular season?

A. That is a good point. You can’t make dramatic changes but you definitely can modify it because we do that every week anyways, even with our base stuff out in the middle of the field based on what the offenses do. Your point is taken there. You got a whole spring, a whole preseason invested in playing a certain kind of coverage down there but even that defense, that coverage, everybody has their red zone coverage that they play, we do tweak that every week based on what kind of routes the offense gives us. You are not going to make a whole full-fledged overhaul and just dump what you have been doing because you invested a lot of work and you taught your players how to play the coverage. A lot of times, just like out in the middle of the field, you just need to play the coverages better. I think you can step back and take a look at what you are doing and maybe consider some other types of things, maybe some pressure kind of ideas that maybe you normally don’t think to bring down when you get inside the 10-yard line.

Q. Teams don’t usually get one, two, or three starters back at this point in the season. You already have two starters back, if you get Aaron Ross back, you anticipate that being a real injection of something into this defense?

A. Yes, just because Aaron is a former starter for us.

Q. All of them, the whole three?

A. Yeah, oh yeah. I think it helped us the other night. Chris and Michael playing. That will be great to get Aaron back because, like I said, he has been a starter here. Whether or not he will be ready and how much he will be able to contribute in his first week back because he has been out for so long that has to be seen in practice. But it will be a great shot for us to have him back.

Q. This seems like the group you were planning on having during the summer?

A. I mentioned this before, I don’t know if you can appreciate this or not. The reality of it is we don’t even think like that. It is great to get him back. When you are in the middle of it, I guess we are so wrapped up in scheme and who we are defending that we are always thinking just put the next guy in there. It is a wonderful, I don’t want to say pleasant surprise because we anticipate them coming back, but it is wonderful to have those guys back. Because you are right, those are the projected players and starters.

Q. What did you see from Clint Sintim on Sunday and what do you see going forward?

A. He is talented. He is a big, explosive kid. The thing about him and Danny (Clark), as you guys probably know, we don’t play a whole lot of base personnel. Mostly first down and maybe some second down. The rest of the game we are in sub or nickel, as we refer to it. So, those guys, even Danny, don’t get as many snaps as the guys who play in the substitution personnel groups. All of his best football is ahead of him, he can be a dynamic pass rusher in base or in sub personnel. He is only going to get better in playing the coverages. Just like any rookie would be coming in, no matter what position they play coming in and learn how we play and teach coverages. He is a good player and I look forward to him contributing down the road.

Q. RE: Aaron Ross return

A. It’s great to see him out there practicing a little bit today. He’s worked his tail off in rehab. He came back and had a set-back a few weeks ago, it’s unfortunate. Those things happen every once in a while. Sometimes you work too hard, try too hard to come back too soon when that happens. We are looking forward to having him back.

Q. RE: How to get Aaron Ross back into the lineup.

A. He missed all the pre-season and all the regular season. Missed 13 games, so you first have to get the rust off and get his timing back and do all those kinds of things. Hopefully, we will get a situation where he can bump people around a little rather than going right into live football the first time he makes any contact. It’s nice to kind of wean him in during the preseason, a few plays here and few plays there and build it up. He doesn’t have that opportunity right now, so he’ll have to get himself ready. When he puts some pads back on, he’ll hit the sled, do some things with leg-driving, wrapping up and those kinds of things.

Q. Do you think it’s good that people are taking a break, the coaches are getting some break…?

A. Yeah, we will get some break over the weekend. Coach did a great job with the bye week to get ready for Denver and Atlanta because of the Thanksgiving game. Our schedule is fantastic, to let everyone get away, get a break and come back raring and ready to go and get back to Atlanta.

Q. Have you done any work on Denver?

A. Yeah, we did. We did some demo-work. We are splitting it with Denver and Atlanta so we can get a head start on that. So when we come back after the game on Sunday against Atlanta, that Monday we are ready. Everything is done, all the paper work and stuff is done so we are ready to go on the field.