[Note: For those of you who can't -- or don't want to -- listen to the entire 13-minute Antrel Rolle interview, here is a transcription of the major points he made today on WFAN.]
Safety Antrel Rolle did not name names, but he left no stone unturned Tuesday in an amazing tirade on WFAN earlier today that shredded his teammates, his coaches and his organization following Sunday night's embarrassing 38-14 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
"I don't think the coaches gave us a chance, and I don't think we gave ourselves a chance," was just one of the many biting comments Rolle made during the interview.
Here is a transcription of much of what Rolle said while speaking to 'Joe & Evan' during his weekly Tuesday spot on WFAN's Midday Show. Which, by the way, just became a required listen for Giants fans everywhere.
The fun started when Rolle was asked "do you feel the defensive game plan was correct against Peyton Manning?"
"I don't feel that the game plan was right, but I also don't feel that it's wrong," Rolle said. "In my eyes it doesn't matter what call you put up there it should be executed and it should be executed to the fullest. Whether it's the best call for that particular play or not, that goes unsaid.
"I don't think the game plan was perfect. It probably coulda been called in a little bit different format, but at the same time there were calls made for us to prevent what they were doing at certain times in the game, and it just wasn't done."
Rolle was just getting warmed up. Here is his response to a question about the Giants dressing only two defensive tackles and not adjusting their defensive scheme quickly enough.
"The necessary adjustments might not have been made," Rolle said. "But you can't blame the coaches and you can't only blame the players. It's a team out there.
"I think things could have been called a little bit differently, but us as players could have executed the plays that were called a little bit differently.
"We were in a Cover 2 system pretty much the entire night, but I also see a lot of teams that stop the run in Cover 2 systems.
"I don't think the coaches gave us a chance, and I don't think we gave ourselves a chance."
On whether he was surprised how often Indianapolis ran the football.
"I wasn't surprised because they were having success running. A smart team will definitely stick to what they're having success doing.
On that I think they could have picked their poison. They could have either passed and had success or they could have ran and had success.
"For some reason it just felt like the team was very, very flat. They weren't into the game, no one was enthused. There was no excitement ... there was no 'dog.' There was no swagger out there on the field, which actually drove me crazy."
On whether he had a reason for that.
"I don't really understand what it was. I have my own perception of what I think it might have been because also honestly myself I don't feel I was up to par that game either," Rolle said. "I don't excuse myself. I was trying to get myself excited, I was trying to get myself pumped.
"Honestly in my opinion I just think that there was too much laying around before the game. The day before the game, the day of the game I just felt like we had too much down time doing nothing and just relaxing. I really felt that it carried over to the game."
Rolle was then asked "what needs to be done differently so this doesn't happen again?"
"We got to Indy 3 o'clock Saturday, so we had that entire day of doing nothing, of just sitting around not doing too much. And then we had the next day of just sitting around not doing much. Then we got to the stadium three hours and 15 minutes before the game started. I mean, we're sitting around the locker room not doing anything. Honestly, I don't know what you do in a situation like that because I've never been in a situation like that, so I'm just sitting around getting lackadaisical and I'm pretty sure a lot of players felt the same way. You can't tell me that the football Giants played that kind of football. I've seen differently, everyone else has seen differently.
"I don't make excuses for the game because the game is still the game. We got whupped, no matter how you look at it.. I'm not saying this is an excuse, I'm just saying I don't know the reason why we came out flat. I know the reason why I felt like I came out flat, but then again I can't speak for anyone else.
"To get to the stadium three hours and 15 minutes before a game, I've never done that. I've never heard of that.
"Two hours before game time, that's more than enough time to go out there and get done what you need to get done. When you're sitting around the locker room for an hour, and hour and a half not doing anything it's pretty much unheard of.
There's one thing you can't do -- you can't separate mind from the body," Rolle said. "You're not supposed to get massages right before the game because it relaxes you too much. I felt like we were way too relaxed."
Here is a very damning statement from Rolle on the locker room leadership and the attitude of the team.
"I saw some things that I wasn't too fond of in that locker room. I felt like there was no one that stepped up to the plate when the opportunity presented itself.
"I don't take anything away from any player. I love my teammates, my teammates are great, they're warriors. But I felt like in a situation like that something should have been done. I don't feel like there was enough done at all in that game.
Rolle finished by throwing some haymakers at the organization.
"I definitely see things, I see little things here and there, and it's not all with the players. There's a lot of other things that go on behind closed doors that a lot of people don't know about. It's not all about the players, sometimes.
"Things have to change. If you want a winning team, if you want a team to have the competitive attitude and to have that 'dog' mentality sometimes you have to let that team be a dog.
"Everything can't be controlled, and right now everything is controlled within this organization. Everything is controlled."