Tom Coughlin: Coach Lauds His Team's Character

The New York Giants have a habit of digging themselves out of messy situations, and they did it again Sunday in their 41-34 come-from-behind victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tom Coughlin recognized the character of his team after the victory.

"A lesser group of men would have had trouble," Coughlin said during his post-game press conference. "We hung in there and we kept playing. We obviously went back and forth there, their quarterback hit a couple of big plays late. Our quarterback hit some big plays. So it was right down to the wire. Thank goodness, we are so happy to be 1-1 at this juncture. There is plenty of stuff to correct and we'll work to get that corrected. But it's a lot better correcting it when you win."

Here are some of Coughlin's other thoughts following the victory.

On Eli Manning:

"He hung in there. That's the best example I can tell you as he does. He made a couple of bad plays and yet didn't get discouraged."

On Hakeem Nicks:

"You can't say enough about what he was able to do. He goes out one there with one day's practice and made an awful lot of plays in the game. Plays that gave us opportunities, kept us in the game for a long time there with the way he played. He is a great competitor, he loves to play and he loves to be in a game like this when the ball is in the air."

On taking the touchdown at the end of the game rather than running the clock down and kicking a field goal:

"That is something, I'm not comfortable with not taking the touchdown. I'm going to take the touchdown. I could have taken some more time off. That's on me."

On the final play of the game, where Manning took a hit while kneeling down:

"I don't think you do that at this level. You don't do that in this league. You don't just, you jeopardize the offensive line, you jeopardize the quarterback. Thank goodness we didn't get anyone hurt--that I know of. A couple of the linemen were late coming in."