Tom Coughlin's too old? Don't tell him that

Tom Coughlin is 67 years old and he knows that there are critics out there who believe the two-time Super Bowl winning coach is getting too old to keep up with the ever-changing NFL.

"Has the game passed us by? I don't think so," Coughlin told Mike Francesa Tuesday afternoon on WFAN. "People can say what they want to say. You're in this because you love it, you got a bunch of guys with you that want to fight.

"You adapt and you adjust and you do what you have to do."

The critics are, of course, coming out of the woodwork with the Giants 2-6, the first time during Coughlin's tenure as coach they have not won at least five games during the first half of the season.

Coughlin issued a challenge to those critics, saying "come on out here, get with me at 5 in the morning and see who works harder in the morning, see who is able to go."

Coughlin pointed to how well the Giants have handled the Philadelphia Eagles' read-option offense this season, holding LeSean McCoy below 50 yards rushing in both meetings, as evidence that he and his coaches can adjust to new styles of play.

"I don't see anything here that would indicate that we're not doing the things that we have to do to win," Coughlin said, referring to the team's preparation. "Do we have to play better, yeah. We've gotta coach and play better."

Coughlin knows that his team is lucky to still be only two games out of first place in the NFC East after starting the season 0-6.

"To say that you're in striking distance for the start that we had it gives us the excitement, the incentive to really not only enjoy ourselves in this bye week but to be excited about coming back and going to work," Coughlin said. "It is a difficult second half, it usually is. We're excited about having a chance.

"Three in a row at home, five of the last eight. God bless us, here we go."

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