Post-Game Quotebook: Players React After Falling To 0-5

The New York Giants started the season with sky-high expectations. But after losing the first five games of the season, the fifth in terrible fashion, what are the Giants saying?

Eli Manning

On Odell Beckham’s Message After His Touchdown Touchdown ...

“Just that we’ve got to turn it on, we’ve got to make something happen, we’ve got to get things going to go win this football game. So, just got the guys together to get emotions back up, and just show some intensity for the guys.”

On Starting 0-5 ...

“Yeah, I’m frustrated with losing, but the questions come with it. So, if you want to fix it, you’ve got to get a win. Obviously, it’s tough to have close games, and have leads, and not be able to make completions, and make mistakes that hurt the team. It’s tough to swallow, but you keep fighting back.”

“We’ve got to play better,” Manning said. “That’s the only answer. That’s the only way. You know, there’s some good things, but there’s too many bad things, and not taking advantage of opportunities – that great field position in the first half, we couldn’t take advantage of it too many times. So, we’re just not playing well enough to win the games. It’s that simple.”

The Giants’ started 0-6 in 2014 before finishing 6-10. Eli was asked what about the experience he could bring to this year.

“There’s not a secret formula to fix it,” he said, “you’ve just got to play better. Keep grinding, keep swinging, keep finding ways to move the ball and finding ways to win. You can’t put yourself in bad situations, and in crucial situations in games in the fourth quarter, you’ve got to step up and make plays instead of making mistakes.”

Evan Engram

On Playing wide receiver after all the injuries ...

We have packages where I’m split out wide and we have certain plays and I’m kind of familiar with the offense enough to know what’s going on up there. So, it wasn’t that much of a difficult adjustment. There were just some small things that I just kind of had to go and roll with it. I felt comfortable out there. The next guy had to step up. We were trying to drive down there with the guys we had.

Justin Pugh

On the loss ...

“This one hurts. I thought we had this one, so it hurts.”

“In my mind there was never a doubt we weren’t losing this game, so it’s tough.”

“We just lost. I’m not feeling good right now, but I’ll go flush it and get ready to go. I still have to go out and play for the guys in this locker room and we’ve gotta go make something happen.”

“This one hurts. I thought we had this one, so it hurts.”

On if there were any positives ...

“We ran the ball well. Build off that, that’s one positive.”

Roger Lewis Jr.

When I spoke to Lewis over the winter, he stressed to me that his two goals this off-season were to improve his special teams play and to become more of a playmaker. He played well on special team and scored a touchdown in his biggest role thus far in the season.

It felt good. That’s what I’m here for, is to make plays. It felt real good, but it’s over. We got a loss and I just want to be able to capitalize next week.

What is the mood in the locker room like? ...

“0-5, we didn’t plan it that way,” he said. “I feel like there’s still fight in this team, and we can still do things.”

“It’s still fight. I feel like we’re a close-knit team and I feel like there’s nobody on this team that’s going to give up. We’re going to get ready for next week and go out and play hard again.”

Jason Pierre-Paul

On not being able to hold on to leads in the fourth quarter ...

To tell you the truth, very frustrating. All we can do is go back and look at the film, tell you what’s going on. Appreciate every guy that played their heart out, but it just wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough to win us the football game and all we can do is go back and see what’s going on. That’s all we can do.

On what coach Ben McAdoo told them after the game ...

“Keep our heads up. You already know it’s going to be positive. That’s what the head coach is going to do. But at the end of the day, those guys got to look deep in the mirror and if you feel like you didn’t play your heart out, then you’re only cheating yourself. Like I said, I feel like every guy played their heart out, it just wasn’t enough to win. We had a mindset coming in here and actually winning the game, but that didn’t happen. You could see it in everybody’s eyes before the game started. Everybody was synched as one, but like I said, we just didn’t win the game.”

On where the Giants go from here? ...

“Back to the film room. Back to the film room and see what we did wrong. They outplayed us and they won the game.”

“It’s only five games. We still have a lot more games to go. We are going to figure it out some way, somehow. We got to figure it out, right? We got to figure it out. We can’t keep losing, you know what I mean?”

Ben McAdoo

If there was one positive to the game, it’s that the Giants were able to run the ball effectively. Part of that was bringing in right guard D.J. Fluker.

“John’s been hobbled a little bit,” McAdoo said. “I thought D.J. played fairly well last week. I wanted to give him a chance in the run game.

“I thought there was some good and some bad, but more good [in the run game]. I thought we took a step in the run game. I thought we played physical. We needed a little bit more later in the game, but I thought our run game took a step forward today.”

What do the Giants do now? ...

“You just keep working,” McAdoo said. “You look in the mirror. You learn a lot about yourself in times like these. So, you’ve got to work for yourself, work for your teammates. We’re all pros – this is what we get paid to do. We get paid to win, not just compete. So, we’ve got to find a way to win.”

“Listen, I get paid to win, not merely compete, and right now we’re 0-5. I’m my biggest critic, I look in the mirror, and I have to do a better job.”

And where do the Giants go from here? “Back to work,” McAdoo replied.