December 26, 2011 New York Giants Injury Report

December 26, 2011 New York Giants Injury Report: Head Coach Tom Coughlin was asked for an injury update on WR Mario Manningham (knee), TE Jake Ballard (knee), and DE Osi Umenyiora (ankle/knee) yesterday.  “Probably questionable to start the week,” replied Coughlin. “I would hope Manningham could make it. He started to feel better at the end of the week…Today, nothing different (with Ballard). Hopefully by Wednesday it improves a little bit…Osi’s still (the same).”

Ballard has a partially-torn posterior cruciate ligament and he said the normal recovery time for such an injury is 2-4 weeks. “It is getting better every day,” said Ballard. “It is day-to-day. I am going to keep rehabbing and try to build the strength up and hopefully be able to go. We will see…I haven’t even run outside yet so we will see what happens.”

Press reports quoting unnamed sources say that Umenyiora is unlikely to return for at least a couple more weeks.

Head Coach Tom Coughlin’s Monday Press Conference: The transcript and video of yesterday’s press conference with Head Coach Tom Coughlin are available at Giants.com.

Player Media Q&As: Transcripts and video of yesterday’s media Q&A sessions with the following players are available at Giants.com:

• WR Victor Cruz (Video)
• TE Jake Ballard (Video)
• DE Justin Tuck (Video)
• DE Dave Tollefson (Video)
• S Antrel Rolle (Video)

WFAN Interview with DE Justin Tuck: The audio of yesterday’s WFAN interview with DE Justin Tuck is available at CBSNewYork.com.

Article on the Giants-Jets Game: Giants-Jets Game Review: Emotions Run High in Giants Victory by Mike Garafolo of The Star-Ledger

Article on Head Coach Tom Coughlin: Toughness of Coughlin Rubs Off on Giants by Mark Vierra of The New York Times

Quotes: LB Michael Boley on why the defense improved on Saturday against the Jets: “As a defensive unit, we said we’re going to take it upon ourselves to place more emphasis in practice. You play how you practice. All week it was an all-out mentality, and it carried over into the game. There was a different mentality, guys took a very different approach. It was more businesslike. It was everybody. It’s not just one person saying, ‘This is what we’re going to do.’ It was a collective agreement. I think it was a mindset vs. the week before. Things were a little lackadaisical at times in practice. That was something we didn’t want to keep happening.”

DE Dave Tollefson on the same: “Sometimes at practice you get caught up in, ‘Oh, it was practice, we messed it up, we’ll get it right.’ More often than not that’s not necessarily the case. You mess it up in practice, eight out of 10 times, you’re probably going to mess it up in the game. We were really focused that we crossed all our Ts and dotted all our Is last week. You go out, you practice well and you play well. That’s something you learn. It’s not like you figure it out by seeing it on T.V. or film. You practice well, you play well – oh, ain’t that a weird thing? These young guys are figuring it out and the old guys are putting the pressure on each other, too. We expect to have another great week of practice.”