Q: Where did you see the breakdowns from yesterday when you watched the tape?
A: It's little things all over the place. We had our opportunities. We had chances, even from early on like the third play of the game, I hit Hakeem down the sidelines and one foot gets out of bounds. On the next third down, Mario runs his route a little short to get a first down. It's just little things like that, it's how it's keeping it this way. We fought hard and had a great third quarter, get back in the game, fourth quarter take the lead, and just to end the game, we didn't play really well. The last two possessions, we had a penalty and a bad throw by me, a third down and we don't get it, a third-and-long. You don't want to be in that situation, but obviously we didn't finish the way we needed to win the game.
Q: How do you minimize the turnovers?
A: You have to be smarter. I don't think there is one thing that you say, "Oh, we just have to do this and it'll eliminate it." It's about just being conscious about it and being smart. We still have to compete, and we still have to go out there and play hard. You're going to have to make some throws that are tight but you don't have to force things that aren't there and you have no shot. For the most part, that's not the case. I don't think an interception - I'm throwing it into crowds and forcing things. You just have to be very accurate, put in the right spot, make my right reads, and just play smarter.
Q: Why is this still an issue for you in Week Ten?
A: I don't know. It's just happening. Sometimes you get in games in the end where you're down and you have to make some stuff happen and force some things. That's a situation where turnovers can happen. It's just how it happens. Hopefully if you have big leads, they don't usually become a problem. When you're fighting from behind, especially in the last two weeks, that's what will happen when you're forced to throw it a bunch and you're forced to try and make some plays.
Q: What is the fear factor for players when they are turnover prone to help stop it? You or Ahmad aren't going to be benched like other players around the league:
A: You just have to go out there and keep competing. I'm not scared of throwing interceptions. Like I said, I don't feel like I'm forcing balls into the wrong place. One, I shouldn't be working Samuel's side on that, but he jumped it and makes a good play. The other one was tipped off the back of a defender. Again, being smarter on some of them, but for the most part, you have to keep competing and you have to keep going out there trying to make plays, make throws, and that's all I can worry about. You can definitely stop them. We have had games where we haven't had turnovers. A lot of it is about being more consistent on first and second downs, and not getting into third-and-11 or 12 where you have to hold it a little longer. The defense is at an advantage there. A lot of it is taking care of business on the earlier downs, being more consistent there, and don't be in bad situations.
Q: How much do you worry about Ahmad's psyche?
A: I'm not worried about him. He runs hard and he makes a lot of plays for us. Every turnover is going to have its own excuse or own reason. He got kind of picked up in a pile, the guy did a good job of just getting his hands in there and ripping it out with a couple defenders around him. I think he's going to run hard and make plays for us. Right now, we have six games left and we have Jacksonville this week. They have some talent, and it's not a team we face very often so we have to have a great week of preparation, go out there, and see if we can play our best football.
Q: The numbers are mounting against the Giants in the second half, and this year you're 0-2. How do you stop that from snowballing?
A: We had a chance to win yesterday. It's not like we fell apart and got blown out. We had the lead in the fourth quarter and had some opportunities to win the game. We didn't play our best football at the end of that game. We have this week, and all we can worry about is Jacksonville. You all can worry about the rest.
Q: What's the confidence level that you guys can turn it around starting with this week?
A: Your confidence never changes as a team. You're always confident going into next week that you can go in there and win. It's about your preparation. It's about going in with a great attitude and knowing that if we play the way we know that we're capable of, we'll be in good shape.
Q: Is it difficult to have key people in the offense out for indefinite amounts of time?
A: No, with our offensive line, it is what it is. They have been playing the last three weeks almost, so those guys will hopefully have everyone for practice that's going to play in the game so everyone is getting their reps, working together and communicating. I think that's helpful. We're trying to get our receiver situation leveled out and everyone practicing where they're going to be so that everyone is in tune to what's going on. Having Hagan here another week, he'll get more reps and get our timing down. Sometimes you only get so many throws and you're throwing routes to him that you haven't thrown to him before. So that's just the way it goes sometimes, and we have to get as much work as we can.
Q: Have you talked to Hakeem?
A:I talked to him this morning. It was kind of before he knew everything was going to happen - I knew he was going to the hospital to just kind of get it looked at and then I got word he was going to be out for a little bit. So I have not - they just got that 30 minutes ago. So I haven't gotten to him yet, but I'm sure I'll talk to him later today.
Q: It's a big blow to have your top two guys seriously injured:
A: Yeah. You've got your top two receivers out, it's always a big blow. But we learn how to fight, learn how to fight through it and other guys have got to step up. We've got to run the ball, we've got to get guys open and get them keyed into what they've got do and I've got to play great football.
Q: When you get news like this about Hakeem, do you just go, 'We're undermanned?'
A: No. No. You just move on. You adjust, you think, 'Hey, who's going to fill that spot? How are you going to game plan and how are we going to go win this game?'
Q: Have you seen Hakeem really make a lot of strides this year?
A: Yeah. He's made great strides in just being a playmaker and cutting down on some of the errors, and hopefully we'll get him back soon to get everybody back for the end of the season when we need to be playing our best football.