Earlier in the season New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin often referred to his team as "a work in progress." Did expect that work in progress to be 3-4 and reeling heading into their bye week?
"I was hoping we'd be 7-0," Coughlin said on Monday.
Here are some of the other highlights of Coughlin's Monday press conference.
Coughlin said he has not been pleased in recent weeks with the Giants ability to run the ball or stop the run:
"Our defense has been punched in the mouth with the run game, which is not pretty to see." ... Until that gets straightened out we're not going to be able to be in a position to get the wins the way we want them. The same goes with the other side of the ball. We talk about running the ball, we are going to run the ball, we stuck with it much to the chagrin of some. ... The fronts have gotta play better. We've gotta be more physical on both sides of the ball. We've gotta do a better job of stopping the run. There were too many big runs in the game."
Coughlin said the Giants expected to be able to run the ball Sunday night:
"We didn't run the ball well. I was not pleased with that. That is something that we were going to try to accomplish going in. We didn't block the run up front very well offensively. We did block the pass well, we had good, clean pass protection for the most part."
The coach said he does believe the Giants have the talent to get better:
"We're probably somewhere betwe the kind of night we had in Washington and how we were yesterday. ... We've got nine games to play. Hopefully we'll be able to talk about this team being a lot better than you see it right now." ...
"You've gotta maneuver some of the talent around. I think the talent is there. We've gotta get the best out of them every time we line up, there isn't any doubt about that. You can't make up for the players we've lost. Every team has those issues."
Injury Notes
Offensive guard Geoff Schwartz is eligible to come off short-term IR after the bye. Coughlin said Schwartz "has a long way to go. He's been standing on the sideline a long time." ... Coughlin wasn't sure running back Rashad Jennings (MCL sprain) would be ready to play against the Indianapolis Colts in two weeks ... The coach indicated that managing Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and his leg issues "is going to be a continuous kind of a thing."