Coughlin: Trash talk turned Giants into 'distracted group' last week

In his weekly exclusive interview with Michael Eisen of Giants.com, New York Giants head coach was asked if the trash talk before last week's game against the Philadelphia Eagles was "un-Giant like." Coughlin has addressed the issue before, but perhaps not as strongly as he did here.

"Absolutely. It's un-Giant like, but I don't believe in any of it and I voiced it. I used the word, they were a distracted group last week, I think," Coughlin said. "There seemed to be too much interest in that and not enough in playing the game."

Coughlin admitted that losing a game the way the Giants did Sunday to Philly, being beaten every way imaginable in a 27-0 rout, is difficult to overcome.

"Who wants to be called every name in the book and looked at as a second-class citizen? Nobody. ... In my opinion, when you have an experience like that, you lose some of the team thing that you built," Coughlin said.

The coach was asked once again to express his reaction to Victor Cruz' injury, and how the team will move forward.

"It's tragic. What do I always tell you? What does a coach pray for? ‘Dear Lord, can I please have the team that we started with, please?' When an individual goes down you stop and you talk to the team about that individual and how badly we all feel and how supportive we are and how we know that he's going to return 100 percent and that it would be his wish, as well as ours - next up, let's go. We don't have time. You can't feel sorry for yourself, that's the first thing I told them. There's none of that," Coughlin said.

Also noteworthy was Coughlin's admission that he talked to rookie Weston Richburg after Richburg said "that's football" after his unsportsmanlike conduct penalty last week, spearing a player after the whistle.

"I don't buy it. You don't put your team in jeopardy," Coughlin said.

Be sure to stop by Giants.com to read the full interview. Provided, of course, that you come back here.