Coughlin Corner: 'We have a lot of work to do'

New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin said pretty much everything that needed to be said about the team's 35-14 loss on Monday when he called it "a nightmare performance." After watching the horrifying film, Coughlin on Tuesday didn't use the "nightmare" word. He wasn't, however, bubbling with enthusiasm over what he had watched.

"We do have a lot of work to do," Coughlin said during his Tuesday conference call. "I am hoping that, despite the fact it is a short week, the players will jump right back in here tomorrow and we will get on with it."

Coughlin has often called his team's re-structured offense a "work in progress." He did not use that phrase on Tuesday, but he did find another way to say basically the same thing.

"In the real world, we are just getting started here," Coughlin said. "Progress is going to be continuing to take the basic fundamentals of what we know as a game of football, call it whatever you want to call it, and get better at it."

Coughlin said he won't raise the subject of last season's 0-6 start with the players.

"Quite frankly, this is a new year, it's a different team. I think one of the things you are seeing is that all of a sudden last night, in the start of the season, first game, you saw things occur which I think was a result of a lot of new parts," Coughlin said. "You saw things that you maybe hadn't seen before or hadn't seen on the practice field, hadn't seen on the game field, and some of that was a result of people just new to the program who one time or another had an issue that really confounded the intent. I think that was part of it but I am not going to go in to say that that is a reason we weren't productive. That is not going to be used as an excuse. It's perhaps a reality, but we need to perform better, no matter what the new parts are."

Coughlin was asked to assess the play of the offensive line, which was unable on Monday to open running lanes or consistently keep pressure away from Eli Manning.

"I think there is good, there is bad. No one wants to hear that, but that's what it is. There are some good plays, there are some bad plays. There are plays that I am sure the players would like to have over. I wish there was more continuity and consistency. You'd like to see it played like a veteran line that can look at each other, don't even have to verbalize and know exactly what the intent is as the guy you are lining up next to, but that is not the case right now," Coughlin said. "We are going to have to play our way through and there are probably going to be other changes and other things that take place along the way that perhaps even at that point will keep us from having that type of continuity. But it is an effort to get to the best we can be, so that is just way it is."

Notes

Coughlin said he had no update on the status of punter Steve Weatherford, who went for an MRI Tuesday on his injured ankle ... Coughlin liked what he saw from punt returner Preston Parker, saying "our punt return game showed a little bit of life." Parker had two returns for 30 yards, including an 18-yarder ... Coughlin said the team would monitor Jason Pierre-Paul and list him as limited this week, but did not seem concerned about the defensive end.