Aug 122007
 

New York Giants Fall to Carolina Panthers in Preseason Opener 24-21: The following players were not in uniform because of injury: WR Amani Toomer (knee), WR Plaxico Burress (ankle), DT Fred Robbins (calf), CB Aaron Ross (gluteus muscle), CB E.J. Underwood (hip), CB Travanti Johnson (hip), S Michael Stone (hip), LB Gerris Wilkinson (knee), OC Todd Londot (ankle), and LS Ryan Kuehl (calf).

Head Coach Tom Coughlin’s Post-Game Press Conference: The following is the transcript of Head Coach Tom Coughlin’s post-game press conference.

Opening Statement: It is a process. You want to win every game obviously, but you have some things you have to get done. I think we had shoddy tackling, obviously. The cutback runs hurt us. We had some missed assignments in the secondary on the long touchdown pass, but we were very scrappy, I thought, very competitive. The offense did a few good things. We had individuals who performed well, for example, the young long snapper (Zak) DeOssie, his first opportunity, and (Jay) Alford, the short snapper, they did a nice job. Obviously, we did not get a whole lot done with punt returns; I will have to look at that on tape. So I think other than the big mistakes, other than the cutback runs, I thought it was a pretty even game. We tried to put ourselves in position there at the end, but our pass protection was not really very good. We did not have the opportunity to come back and win in that situation at the end of the game. As I said, there are many things that you work on. This is part of the process. I am not going to tell you that it is a good start because we did not win the game, but for an opportunity to play and to have a number of objectives, most of which were individual-orientated, I thought we certainly have a lot to teach from and to direct this week’s practices in an attempt to get better.

Q: How would you assess the running backs?

A: Certain things jump out at me. The one run Brandon (Jacobs) had was an outstanding run. The slip screen that Reuben (Droughns) had was a good one. Ryan Grant did a nice job. Derrick Ward did a nice job and again showed some more quickness when he was in the game. (Ahmad) Bradshaw did a good job up until the fumble. You can’t put the ball on the ground. I think overall they did a decent job.

Q: Were the cut backruns intentionally aimed at Mathias Kiwanuka?

A: I don’t know. I would have to see the tape. To tell you the truth I did not see, nor hear who exactly. It was someone different each time. He may have been one of them, but I am not sure about that.

Q: What is your assessment of Eli Manning and the first team offense?

A: Not a lot of snaps. They got down in good field position after the kickoff return. Eli made a nice play to scramble up in the pocket and get the ball to Jeremy (Shockey) in the middle of the field for a touchdown. There were a limited number of snaps. We did have to punt the ball on a drive where I thought we were going to be in pretty good shape with, but we did get a touchdown and we did take advantage of field position.

Q: Was the long touchdown that Carolina had before the half a result of a coverage problem?

A: That was part of it. It was a missed assignment. The guy who had to take the seam did not react to it and did not do a good enough job over there.

Q: How do you think David Diehl did tonight?

A: From what I could tell in 11 or however many plays it was, 16 or 17 plays, he must have done a good job.

Q: What do you look for in the first preseason game?

A: I have any number of objectives in mind. Most of them are individuals and how they play and perform and how we might be able to take full advantage of their abilities. There are certain things of a team nature: obviously you would like to win the physical battle, you would like to stop the run, which we did not do, and you would like to be able to run the ball. There are some basic specifics, but a lot of the first game has to do with individuals and trying to put them in positions under pressure and see how they perform.

Q: Any injuries?

A: Not that I know of right now, nothing to speak of.

Q: Why was the run defense poor tonight? Was there anything you set up that went wrong?

A: Yeah, we didn’t play the cutback very well.

Q: Is that a problem that can be a result of an overly aggressive defensive scheme?

A: It can. To be honest with you, the defense has been very good in training camp, but when they have had a couple of issues they have been against the cutback runs. Obviously we need to pay some particular attention to that. There are a couple of things that I think were very positive tonight: number one, I think that in the first half, in the first quarter, that Carolina did a lot of things which involved Kiwanuka in which he had some great learning experiences because of that. You could not have asked for a better situation. He did not have to just go out there and line up and the ball went away from him or whatever. He had to be involved in some motion adjustments, he had to be involved in coverage, and he had to step up against the run. You could not have asked for a better opportunity if you had scripted it. To put a guy who was in a position change in a situation where he had to perform multiple roles, I think that was a real plus for us tonight.

Q: What did you think of Will Demps’ play?

A: Will flashed. He flashed against the run. He made some plays in the opponent’s backfield.

Q: Do you think that Jared Lorenzen throws too hard?

A: Not usually. He does have a nice ball. He throws a real nice ball.

Q: How do you think Mathias Kiwanuka responded to being challenged by Carolina’s offense?

A: I think he responded well. I think it is a major learning experience, but I think he responded well. One of the things that you have to, again, and talk to all of your players about is, as I told them tonight, that the basis upon which we operated in this game was that if they prepared themselves, it was not a complex plan, if they were prepared they could play very hard and be very physical. If they would do that, if they played as hard as they could, they could not fail. From that standpoint all of what I saw tonight was very good effort so from that standpoint you have mistakes, you have errors, and you have things to build on, but that is what you play these games for. No sensitivity, everybody has to check their egos at the door and we will make the corrections and we will move forward. That is what this kind of game is all about.

Q: Did you speak to Tim Lewis at all?

A: I did not. I did not have a chance to. I would have liked to but I missed Tim.

Q: Did Reuben Droughns say he was touched on the slip screen run?

A: He did not say anything to me.

Article on QB Jared Lorenzen: Lorenzen Eating Up His Opportunity by Ralph Vacchiano of The Daily News

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Eric Kennedy

Eric Kennedy is Editor-in-Chief of BigBlueInteractive.com, a publication of Big Blue Interactive, LLC. Follow @BigBlueInteract on Twitter.

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