Giants’ coach Pat Shurmur: “If we play the right way, we can beat any team we play”

The New York Giants pulled off an upset Sunday in a wildly eventful game against the Bears. From pick-sixes to botching an onside kick recovery, the Giants snuck by the Bears in overtime. With plenty to talk about, head coach Pat Shurmur had a lot to say after the game. Here are the biggest takeaways from Shurmur.

On his team’s resiliency ...

“The takeaway is, and I told the team this - I’ll keep the swear words out of it – some people are fond of talented people, some people are fond of smart people, I’m fond of tough, resilient people. When you’re trying to flip culture, when you’re trying to build something, you’ve got to really dig in on that. There was some toughness and some resiliency. It would have been easy to cave when they came back, an 8-3 team, came back and tied us up, they had a little bit of juice, a little bit of mojo, but our guys found a way to put points on the board and then stop them at the end. I’m fond of toughness and resiliency, and our team showed that today.”

On the game going to overtime after losing a 10-point lead ...

“I really felt like we were going to get the ball and score, and we did that. It’s like the people that were ‘woe is me’ at the fact that we were up by eight at halftime against the Eagles a week ago. That’s not the feeling I had.”

On Saquon’s big run right before the half ...

“It’s sort of a give-up call to just run it, and when you hand the ball to Saquon, that’s not the case. He’s a super, super talented guy. The first run of the overtime, that was an outstanding run and he did a great job of staying inbounds. We’ve seen all year what he can do, and for those of you keeping track, I think he had 24 carries today, so that’s a good day’s work for him.”

On the offensive line’s impact against the Bears defense...

“They battled those guys. Along the way, they could have looked at it as criticism early, when I said, ‘we’re going to go as far as our line will block for us’, but they just put their head down, Hal (Hunter) and Ben (Wilkerson) worked hard with them, and they’re developing a group there that we can be really proud of. Listen, I feel like if we play the right way, we can beat any team we play and it always starts up front.”

On Alec Ogletree’s two interceptions ...

“When you catch the ball like he did, when you intercept the ball, when you do those things, it’s a good thing. He’s one of the guys that’s helping us flip this culture because he’s a winner, he’s tough, he’s resilient, and he made some game-changing plays today and that’s a credit to him.”

On fixing Eli Manning’s struggles in the first half ...

“I think we just got to get to some of the things he can do. We ought to always be able to lean on the run here and I think that if we can keep it kind of a run, play-action type setting, I think that’s good for any quarterback.”

On Aldrick Rosas’s performance ...

“Yeah, I’ve said this all along, too, I’m fond of our kicker and I’m fond of who he is as a football player, because he’s not just a kicker, he’s a football player. If a fight broke out, he’d be right there. He’s tough, he’s resilient, and I’m really proud of the fact that he’s having a really positive impact on our games.”