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December 1, 2013
FedExField
QB Robert Griffin III
On being decisive in the first half and what changed toward the end of the game:
“You want to go back and look at all the film and make sure you did everything you could on that play, like I said last week. That was a big emphasis. We were gelling early on, putting points up, moved the ball really well, and in the second half we just shot ourselves in the foot and got some bad situations. Weren’t converting on third down and the manageable third downs and you’ve just got to make plays on those longer distances. We weren’t doing that in the second half. That’s why some of our drives stalled.”
On his view of what happened with the chains:
“All I know is, we had the pass to [tight end] Fred [Davis]. We thought that was first down and the chains said first down. Then when we came back, we think it’s second-and-10 and they’re yelling out, 'It’s fourth down.’ No explanation, no measurement – didn’t stop the clock to allow the chains to move back. We just had to go ahead and call the play and go for it on fourth down.”
On if the call created confusion in the huddle:
“No. We try to stay in the moment. If the refs call fourth down, we try to make sure we’re treating that as a fourth down play. This is it. This is the game right here, we have got to convert this to continue to go on. Tried to stay in that moment, and then after the fact think about how everything transpired. We did a good job of that and got a good play. It just didn’t turn in our favor.”
On if he would have made the same decision if it had been first down:
“Probably not… We called that play – Coach and Kyle called that play thinking it was first-and-10. I’d get a nice shot down the middle of the field. He called it, we ran it and you can’t fault him there. If the sticks say first down, you think it’s first down.”
On wide receiver Pierre Garçon’s penalty and if there was a miscommunication on the play:
“We were just going over the pictures and trying to make sure when we get the right looks that we hit what we need to hit and on that one we didn’t. Yeah, there was a little frustration but it’s all frustration because we want to win football games. He knows he can’t do that. We have to keep our composure out on the field.”
On how frustrating late game drops can be:
“The biggest thing is all those guys are out there fighting hard. That’s all I can ask for right now. We’re sitting here – I think our record is 3-9 now – and I just think we’re too good to be a 10-loss football team. You know other people will look at it and say that’s what we are and think that guys are going to quit, but, like I told them after the game, I’ll go to war with any of them.”
On drops:
“I mean, I’m just not going to sit up here and talk about those things. Our guys did a lot of good things in the game and that’s what I have to draw off of. I’m not going to stand up here and talk about those things.”
On running back Alfred Morris and defenses working to take away Morris’s running game the last few weeks and maybe this opening up some things for Griffin III in the run and pass games:
“Yeah, I think it’s a combination of both. Alfred’s a very good running back – so is Roy [Helu, Jr.]. So teams are going to want to take them away and, in this game, they did a good job of stopping the run when it came to those guys, and I had a few more opportunities to make some plays with my legs, and I took advantage of it. It’s the old cliché, 'You take what the defense gives you.’ And a lot of teams have chosen to not let me run this year. When Alfred is playing as well as he is, I mean it’s only right for them to try to take him out of the game.”
On slipping on the red rubberized track on the side of the field:
“That was bad. We’ve got to get that changed or something over there [smiling]. [I was] just going off to the side, slipped a little bit, nasty fall, but you get up and play football. It’s a physical sport even if you’re having to take on the side of the field as well.”
On if he heard the entire stadium gasp when he slipped:
“I did not. I was gasping so... just trying to get up and make sure I was OK.”
T Trent Williams
On if he heard the referee say first down on the final drive:
“I just saw the marks say first down. I assumed it was first down.”
On why the team couldn’t sustain pressure after starting fast:
“I don’t know. That is a question I really can’t answer. I guess they just made more plays than we did.”
On if something changed in the game following the fast start:
“I mean, I feel like we were moving the ball. They made a couple good plays and we weren’t able to keep the drive going on third down and it ended up hurting us.”
On if he thought the play calling at the beginning was working for the offense:
“Yeah, it seemed like it worked. A couple times we got stopped and had to get out of it in third and long. For the most part, it was pretty good.”
On the confusion of what down it was during the final drive:
“I mean, it said first down. The refs changed it. It said second down, and then he said fourth down. I don’t know. Seeing the first down marking, it said first down. I really don’t know what happened.”
RB Alfred Morris
On the Giants’ success stopping the run:
“I mean, that’s what the Giants do. They definitely committed to stopping the run. They put eight up in the box and we just didn’t win at the point of attack. They beat us today, so that’s that.”
On if he believes the team has a better chance to win with him on the field:
“I don’t like starting stories, but no matter what – when I’m on the field, off the field – you know you can see me on the sidelines cheering my teammates on. It doesn’t matter if I’m on the field or not, I just want to do everything I can to help the team win.”
On the confusion as to which down it was on the offense’s final drive:
“There was a lot of confusion. The referee said it was first down and the other one said it wasn’t, but they marked it as a first down. If you call the first down, I think it should be a first down. If it was a problem, they should have stopped it right then. They shouldn’t have let the play go on. They should stop it before the play gets going. They’ve got a whistle. That’s what the whistle is for. It happens, though. I don’t know if it was the right call or wrong call, but definitely some confusion, so I don’t know.”
On how tough it is to be unsuccessful:
“Well, very tough, no matter what job you’re doing. If you come in and you bust your butt every day you come in, you put all these hours in and work so hard and you don’t get the result that you want, of course it’s going to be hard to face that. It makes it a tough pill to swallow. It makes it very difficult. It can be hard to continue to find something to keep you going, especially when things aren’t going your way. It’s tough, but we’ve just got to find a way to get it done. [We’ll] go back to the drawing board tomorrow, review the film, figure out what we messed up at and try to get better.”
WR Pierre Garçon
On what happened on the final offensive play of the game:
“Fight for yards and he took the ball.”
On what changed in the second half after getting off to a fast start:
“I don’t know. We didn’t score points.”
On what happened when he kicked the ball in the end zone:
“I don’t know. Kicked the ball, it’s a flag.”
On why he kicked the football:
“Because we didn’t score a touchdown. We spotted 75 yards and didn’t score a touchdown.”
On what did not come together for the team:
“We didn’t score touchdowns in the red zone.”
On why the team did not score more touchdowns:
“We have a lot of problems obviously.”
On losing in strange fashions this year:
“Losing is hard to deal with.”
On if he thought he picked up a first down on the final drive:
“I’m always going for the first down. If he said I didn’t get it, I didn’t get it. Move onto the next play.”
On if he thought he had gotten a first down:
“I’m always going for the first down.”
On if he thought the next play was a first down:
“They said first down.”
On if the referee called out a first down:
“I would assume. They moved the chains down. We don’t ask the referee if it is a first down, you just assume it is a first down.”
On what thinking it was a first down did to the play calling:
“Change the play calling up obviously if it is first down or fourth down or third down.”
On if he is shocked the Redskins are eliminated from the playoffs on the first day of December:
“I’m disappointed we’re out of the playoffs. We play for the playoffs. It’s disappointing.”
WR Santana Moss
On the confusion of what down it was on the final drive:
“I don’t know. I really don’t know. I don’t want to get into talking about the refs. We just have to put ourselves in better situations and we won’t have to worry about those situations that we cause ourselves to be in. What we have to do as a team is go out there and take advantage of the game early and win and move the ball because we can’t rely on the refs. All year we haven’t been getting anything. So at the end of the day we can’t rely on them to call the game for us because it has never [gone] in our favor.”
On the penalty calls against him:
“I mean honestly, you know, he called a holding and I just thought it was a B.S. call and I told him it was a B.S. call and he gave me unsportsmanlike conduct. I guess I got a unsportsmanlike conduct for saying 'B.S. call.’”
On the final play call at the end of the first half:
“We didn’t call a run play, we called a pass play and they were covering everything. They put everybody deep. So [quarterback] Robert [Griffin III] did everything he could do.”
On how frustrating the losses are this season:
“So frustrating to the point I can’t even tell you. But at the end of the day we still have some games to play. We have to put it behind us and keep pushing.”
On the losses taking a toll on the team and how they keep pushing:
“It’s a job, it’s a job. I can’t quit. I wouldn’t quit if I was allowed to quit. So at the end of the day we know every week is going to be a different challenge. And if you [are] here, you’re here for a reason. You’re here because you know it isn’t always going to be peaches and cream. The ones that quit are no longer here. So at the end of the day you have to put this behind you no matter how tough it is, how tough it hurts, how stank it smells. You have to go out there and fight another week and that is all we can do.”
TE Logan Paulsen
On things seeming like they are working on offense and then slowing down:
“It is extremely disappointing. There is no other way to put it. As an offense, we lost this game for the team, which is heartbreaking. The defense laid it out there, they made some plays and put us in positions to score points. [We] just didn’t get it done, which is not good.”
On dropped passes and special teams coming back to hurt the team in the end:
“I mean it is a wide array of things - the running game, we had a holding call. We have holding calls on consecutive plays. It’s everything. We need to be much sharper in every facet of the game offensively and in special teams. We can improve in that area definitely as well.”
LB Brian Orakpo
On the loss:
“It hurts, just for us to find another way to lose is disappointing. We came out strong and had opportunities, but we fell short. Give it to the Giants. They’re a good veteran team, and they found a way to win and pull it out at the end.”
On if he takes positives from his individual performance:
“No positives. I’m not that type of guy. I don’t really care about my numbers. It’s all about wins and losses with me. I don’t care about what type of game I had. It didn’t help us to win the game. It’s tough to swallow. I thought we had our chances. I thought defensively we did a good job getting [them] off the field at times. They had some momentum and were moving the ball at times, but we were able to stop them. It’s like a chess match, back and forth, but they came through at the end. It was just disappointing we couldn’t pull it off.”
On how they were able to pull it out in the end:
“They didn’t give up on their game plan because it was 14-0 since it was so early. They could still stay within their game plan, and that’s what they were able to do. It’s just very frustrating.”
On remaining confident during games in the midst of the losing streak:
“You have to. You always have to have confidence when you play football. It’s really hard to win in the NFL. We fight really hard during the game; we just cannot finish it. We could not finish and sustain drives, and we couldn’t get off the field at times. I thought our guys fought very hard. It was a battle to the very end, going back and forth. No moral victories, but we put up a good fight.”
On the recurring penalties:
“The penalties are something we have to address. It’s very disappointing when we continue to get penalties and shoot ourselves in the foot. It’s a big change in field position for them. We need to cut back on them. We have so many guys that play with a lot of heart and passion, but we have to know how to handle it.”
On if the defense takes pride in getting off the field in tough spots:
“We’re going to watch the film tomorrow and see what we did well. I know we had a lot of great things out there defensively, and that’s all I can speak to. I don’t really watch what’s going on with the offense. Defensively, we had some very good moments where we were able to put pressure on [New York Giants quarterback] Eli [Manning]; we were able to stop the run like we wanted to. We had some good moments out there. We’re going to look at the film and make some adjustments, but with the situation we were in with the short field, I thought we handled ourselves well.”
On if the penalties tell him anything about the state of mind of the players:
“No, it’s not a state of mind, but guys are just very passionate about this game. When things aren’t going our way, we tend to get a little more aggressive and intense. That’s all it is. Guys are playing with a lot of passion; we just have to make sure we handle it a little better.”
On the mindset heading into the last four games after being eliminated:
“We have to not quit, continue to play with confidence and see what we have. Obviously, it’s not going to be a winning season for us, but we have four games to show that we’re not going to lie down for anyone. We’re going to go out there and continue to play as if we’re making the playoffs. Hopefully, we can ruin other teams’ playoff chances. That’s our motivation right now.”
On the differences in the locker room between last year and this year:
“I have no idea. I wasn’t here last year. I was hurt, so I really don’t know.”
On the ability of the team to come together for the last four games:
“We have four games, and we have to stay confident. We know what we’re capable of. This is just a down year for us. We can overcome it. We have a lot of great players on this team. Our coaching staff is phenomenal. We have a great owner in Dan Snyder. We have a lot of positive things going for us. This is just one of those down years that teams go through after a successful season. You’ve seen it with the [Houston] Texans; you’ve seen it with Atlanta. You’ve seen it with a lot of other teams around the league. We’re going to be able to bounce back.”
On some of the flashes of good play in the first quarter:
“Yeah, it was a glimpse, we just couldn’t sustain it. At the same time, you can see what we’re capable of; we just couldn’t sustain it for 60 minutes. In this game it’s tough because they’re going to make adjustments and figure out their own issues. They’ll hit us with their counters, and we’ll have to counter back. I thought we played well; we just couldn’t finish.”
LB Ryan Kerrigan
On how he thinks the team will fight through the last four games:
“We still have four games left, so we’re going to go out there and give it our all. We have no other choice than to go out there and try to win.”
On the hot start and the subsequent Giants’ adjustments hurting them:
“The first two series, they didn’t get anything on first or second down, so in third down they were in some tough situations and had to convert on long yardage. With 'Rak [Orakpo] rushing as well as he was, we were getting off the field quickly. They’re a good team, and they’re going to get their yardage. That’s what they were able to do.”
On how last year the team won in strange ways and losing in strange ways this year:
“It’s really frustrating. We were up 14-0, and we just weren’t able to hold that lead, especially with how we came out, playing with so much energy. I don’t think the energy ever wavered, but we just weren’t able to sustain the level of play from the start of the game.”
On dealing with the frustration that comes with losing:
“We know the only way to get rid of this feeling is to win, so we’re going to go out there, work hard this week, and try to get a win next Sunday.”
LS Kyle Nelson
On his third quarter snap:
“It was just a miscommunication. I heard something wrong, and I just shouldn’t have snapped it. I should have waited. Worst-case scenario, we take a delay-of-game or false start, so that’s what I should have done.”
On if he couldn’t stop the snap:
“I was just caught in the middle of it.”
On what caused the hesitation in the snap:
“It was just a miscommunication.”
On what he is listening for in that situation:
“They didn’t do anything. We were ready for what they were doing in the game since we’d been practicing all week. We were ready for it; it was just a miscommunication. I heard something wrong, and did one other thing. Long story short, it shouldn’t have happened.”
On if a snap like that had ever happened before:
“No. Believe me, that was a shock to me, too. I was caught in the middle of the snap. I didn’t want to snap it, but at the same time, I wanted to get it off. It was just a miscommunication. Next time, I’ll know if I hear something I’m not sure about, I’ll just stop. If we take the penalty, we take the penalty. Maybe they’ll even jump offsides, so we’ll see what happens.”
On if the bad snap led to the holding penalty:
“Probably. With a bad snap like that, I’m going to do whatever I can do to not give them the ball. I’ll take a penalty all day as long as they don’t get the ball.”
G Kory Lichtensteiger
On the confusion about the downs late in the game:
“I don’t specifically remember, but I just remember it being a first down. I can’t specifically remember him doing the first down mark. Everybody just assumed it was first down; it looked like we had the yardage. It was just another weird kind of thing that happened to us. I don’t know why.”
On if that type of incident sums up the season:
“We certainly have had more than our fair share of plays, calls and things that haven’t necessarily gone our way. I don’t know if that sums up the season. I think it’s not just flukes why we’re losing. We haven’t come out and performed like we need to, but it’s just a little strange that weird things keep happening.”
On the emotions of having the great start and then losing the lead:
“You come out, play hard and expect to win, but you don’t necessarily expect when you score two touchdowns that it’s going to become a blowout. You don’t want to take your foot off the gas pedal. They were able to answer back, and we knew they had the weapons to do that. Offensively, we had to score more, and we came up short. I guess we’ll have to own up on that one.”
FedExField
QB Robert Griffin III
On being decisive in the first half and what changed toward the end of the game:
“You want to go back and look at all the film and make sure you did everything you could on that play, like I said last week. That was a big emphasis. We were gelling early on, putting points up, moved the ball really well, and in the second half we just shot ourselves in the foot and got some bad situations. Weren’t converting on third down and the manageable third downs and you’ve just got to make plays on those longer distances. We weren’t doing that in the second half. That’s why some of our drives stalled.”
On his view of what happened with the chains:
“All I know is, we had the pass to [tight end] Fred [Davis]. We thought that was first down and the chains said first down. Then when we came back, we think it’s second-and-10 and they’re yelling out, 'It’s fourth down.’ No explanation, no measurement – didn’t stop the clock to allow the chains to move back. We just had to go ahead and call the play and go for it on fourth down.”
On if the call created confusion in the huddle:
“No. We try to stay in the moment. If the refs call fourth down, we try to make sure we’re treating that as a fourth down play. This is it. This is the game right here, we have got to convert this to continue to go on. Tried to stay in that moment, and then after the fact think about how everything transpired. We did a good job of that and got a good play. It just didn’t turn in our favor.”
On if he would have made the same decision if it had been first down:
“Probably not… We called that play – Coach and Kyle called that play thinking it was first-and-10. I’d get a nice shot down the middle of the field. He called it, we ran it and you can’t fault him there. If the sticks say first down, you think it’s first down.”
On wide receiver Pierre Garçon’s penalty and if there was a miscommunication on the play:
“We were just going over the pictures and trying to make sure when we get the right looks that we hit what we need to hit and on that one we didn’t. Yeah, there was a little frustration but it’s all frustration because we want to win football games. He knows he can’t do that. We have to keep our composure out on the field.”
On how frustrating late game drops can be:
“The biggest thing is all those guys are out there fighting hard. That’s all I can ask for right now. We’re sitting here – I think our record is 3-9 now – and I just think we’re too good to be a 10-loss football team. You know other people will look at it and say that’s what we are and think that guys are going to quit, but, like I told them after the game, I’ll go to war with any of them.”
On drops:
“I mean, I’m just not going to sit up here and talk about those things. Our guys did a lot of good things in the game and that’s what I have to draw off of. I’m not going to stand up here and talk about those things.”
On running back Alfred Morris and defenses working to take away Morris’s running game the last few weeks and maybe this opening up some things for Griffin III in the run and pass games:
“Yeah, I think it’s a combination of both. Alfred’s a very good running back – so is Roy [Helu, Jr.]. So teams are going to want to take them away and, in this game, they did a good job of stopping the run when it came to those guys, and I had a few more opportunities to make some plays with my legs, and I took advantage of it. It’s the old cliché, 'You take what the defense gives you.’ And a lot of teams have chosen to not let me run this year. When Alfred is playing as well as he is, I mean it’s only right for them to try to take him out of the game.”
On slipping on the red rubberized track on the side of the field:
“That was bad. We’ve got to get that changed or something over there [smiling]. [I was] just going off to the side, slipped a little bit, nasty fall, but you get up and play football. It’s a physical sport even if you’re having to take on the side of the field as well.”
On if he heard the entire stadium gasp when he slipped:
“I did not. I was gasping so... just trying to get up and make sure I was OK.”
T Trent Williams
On if he heard the referee say first down on the final drive:
“I just saw the marks say first down. I assumed it was first down.”
On why the team couldn’t sustain pressure after starting fast:
“I don’t know. That is a question I really can’t answer. I guess they just made more plays than we did.”
On if something changed in the game following the fast start:
“I mean, I feel like we were moving the ball. They made a couple good plays and we weren’t able to keep the drive going on third down and it ended up hurting us.”
On if he thought the play calling at the beginning was working for the offense:
“Yeah, it seemed like it worked. A couple times we got stopped and had to get out of it in third and long. For the most part, it was pretty good.”
On the confusion of what down it was during the final drive:
“I mean, it said first down. The refs changed it. It said second down, and then he said fourth down. I don’t know. Seeing the first down marking, it said first down. I really don’t know what happened.”
RB Alfred Morris
On the Giants’ success stopping the run:
“I mean, that’s what the Giants do. They definitely committed to stopping the run. They put eight up in the box and we just didn’t win at the point of attack. They beat us today, so that’s that.”
On if he believes the team has a better chance to win with him on the field:
“I don’t like starting stories, but no matter what – when I’m on the field, off the field – you know you can see me on the sidelines cheering my teammates on. It doesn’t matter if I’m on the field or not, I just want to do everything I can to help the team win.”
On the confusion as to which down it was on the offense’s final drive:
“There was a lot of confusion. The referee said it was first down and the other one said it wasn’t, but they marked it as a first down. If you call the first down, I think it should be a first down. If it was a problem, they should have stopped it right then. They shouldn’t have let the play go on. They should stop it before the play gets going. They’ve got a whistle. That’s what the whistle is for. It happens, though. I don’t know if it was the right call or wrong call, but definitely some confusion, so I don’t know.”
On how tough it is to be unsuccessful:
“Well, very tough, no matter what job you’re doing. If you come in and you bust your butt every day you come in, you put all these hours in and work so hard and you don’t get the result that you want, of course it’s going to be hard to face that. It makes it a tough pill to swallow. It makes it very difficult. It can be hard to continue to find something to keep you going, especially when things aren’t going your way. It’s tough, but we’ve just got to find a way to get it done. [We’ll] go back to the drawing board tomorrow, review the film, figure out what we messed up at and try to get better.”
WR Pierre Garçon
On what happened on the final offensive play of the game:
“Fight for yards and he took the ball.”
On what changed in the second half after getting off to a fast start:
“I don’t know. We didn’t score points.”
On what happened when he kicked the ball in the end zone:
“I don’t know. Kicked the ball, it’s a flag.”
On why he kicked the football:
“Because we didn’t score a touchdown. We spotted 75 yards and didn’t score a touchdown.”
On what did not come together for the team:
“We didn’t score touchdowns in the red zone.”
On why the team did not score more touchdowns:
“We have a lot of problems obviously.”
On losing in strange fashions this year:
“Losing is hard to deal with.”
On if he thought he picked up a first down on the final drive:
“I’m always going for the first down. If he said I didn’t get it, I didn’t get it. Move onto the next play.”
On if he thought he had gotten a first down:
“I’m always going for the first down.”
On if he thought the next play was a first down:
“They said first down.”
On if the referee called out a first down:
“I would assume. They moved the chains down. We don’t ask the referee if it is a first down, you just assume it is a first down.”
On what thinking it was a first down did to the play calling:
“Change the play calling up obviously if it is first down or fourth down or third down.”
On if he is shocked the Redskins are eliminated from the playoffs on the first day of December:
“I’m disappointed we’re out of the playoffs. We play for the playoffs. It’s disappointing.”
WR Santana Moss
On the confusion of what down it was on the final drive:
“I don’t know. I really don’t know. I don’t want to get into talking about the refs. We just have to put ourselves in better situations and we won’t have to worry about those situations that we cause ourselves to be in. What we have to do as a team is go out there and take advantage of the game early and win and move the ball because we can’t rely on the refs. All year we haven’t been getting anything. So at the end of the day we can’t rely on them to call the game for us because it has never [gone] in our favor.”
On the penalty calls against him:
“I mean honestly, you know, he called a holding and I just thought it was a B.S. call and I told him it was a B.S. call and he gave me unsportsmanlike conduct. I guess I got a unsportsmanlike conduct for saying 'B.S. call.’”
On the final play call at the end of the first half:
“We didn’t call a run play, we called a pass play and they were covering everything. They put everybody deep. So [quarterback] Robert [Griffin III] did everything he could do.”
On how frustrating the losses are this season:
“So frustrating to the point I can’t even tell you. But at the end of the day we still have some games to play. We have to put it behind us and keep pushing.”
On the losses taking a toll on the team and how they keep pushing:
“It’s a job, it’s a job. I can’t quit. I wouldn’t quit if I was allowed to quit. So at the end of the day we know every week is going to be a different challenge. And if you [are] here, you’re here for a reason. You’re here because you know it isn’t always going to be peaches and cream. The ones that quit are no longer here. So at the end of the day you have to put this behind you no matter how tough it is, how tough it hurts, how stank it smells. You have to go out there and fight another week and that is all we can do.”
TE Logan Paulsen
On things seeming like they are working on offense and then slowing down:
“It is extremely disappointing. There is no other way to put it. As an offense, we lost this game for the team, which is heartbreaking. The defense laid it out there, they made some plays and put us in positions to score points. [We] just didn’t get it done, which is not good.”
On dropped passes and special teams coming back to hurt the team in the end:
“I mean it is a wide array of things - the running game, we had a holding call. We have holding calls on consecutive plays. It’s everything. We need to be much sharper in every facet of the game offensively and in special teams. We can improve in that area definitely as well.”
LB Brian Orakpo
On the loss:
“It hurts, just for us to find another way to lose is disappointing. We came out strong and had opportunities, but we fell short. Give it to the Giants. They’re a good veteran team, and they found a way to win and pull it out at the end.”
On if he takes positives from his individual performance:
“No positives. I’m not that type of guy. I don’t really care about my numbers. It’s all about wins and losses with me. I don’t care about what type of game I had. It didn’t help us to win the game. It’s tough to swallow. I thought we had our chances. I thought defensively we did a good job getting [them] off the field at times. They had some momentum and were moving the ball at times, but we were able to stop them. It’s like a chess match, back and forth, but they came through at the end. It was just disappointing we couldn’t pull it off.”
On how they were able to pull it out in the end:
“They didn’t give up on their game plan because it was 14-0 since it was so early. They could still stay within their game plan, and that’s what they were able to do. It’s just very frustrating.”
On remaining confident during games in the midst of the losing streak:
“You have to. You always have to have confidence when you play football. It’s really hard to win in the NFL. We fight really hard during the game; we just cannot finish it. We could not finish and sustain drives, and we couldn’t get off the field at times. I thought our guys fought very hard. It was a battle to the very end, going back and forth. No moral victories, but we put up a good fight.”
On the recurring penalties:
“The penalties are something we have to address. It’s very disappointing when we continue to get penalties and shoot ourselves in the foot. It’s a big change in field position for them. We need to cut back on them. We have so many guys that play with a lot of heart and passion, but we have to know how to handle it.”
On if the defense takes pride in getting off the field in tough spots:
“We’re going to watch the film tomorrow and see what we did well. I know we had a lot of great things out there defensively, and that’s all I can speak to. I don’t really watch what’s going on with the offense. Defensively, we had some very good moments where we were able to put pressure on [New York Giants quarterback] Eli [Manning]; we were able to stop the run like we wanted to. We had some good moments out there. We’re going to look at the film and make some adjustments, but with the situation we were in with the short field, I thought we handled ourselves well.”
On if the penalties tell him anything about the state of mind of the players:
“No, it’s not a state of mind, but guys are just very passionate about this game. When things aren’t going our way, we tend to get a little more aggressive and intense. That’s all it is. Guys are playing with a lot of passion; we just have to make sure we handle it a little better.”
On the mindset heading into the last four games after being eliminated:
“We have to not quit, continue to play with confidence and see what we have. Obviously, it’s not going to be a winning season for us, but we have four games to show that we’re not going to lie down for anyone. We’re going to go out there and continue to play as if we’re making the playoffs. Hopefully, we can ruin other teams’ playoff chances. That’s our motivation right now.”
On the differences in the locker room between last year and this year:
“I have no idea. I wasn’t here last year. I was hurt, so I really don’t know.”
On the ability of the team to come together for the last four games:
“We have four games, and we have to stay confident. We know what we’re capable of. This is just a down year for us. We can overcome it. We have a lot of great players on this team. Our coaching staff is phenomenal. We have a great owner in Dan Snyder. We have a lot of positive things going for us. This is just one of those down years that teams go through after a successful season. You’ve seen it with the [Houston] Texans; you’ve seen it with Atlanta. You’ve seen it with a lot of other teams around the league. We’re going to be able to bounce back.”
On some of the flashes of good play in the first quarter:
“Yeah, it was a glimpse, we just couldn’t sustain it. At the same time, you can see what we’re capable of; we just couldn’t sustain it for 60 minutes. In this game it’s tough because they’re going to make adjustments and figure out their own issues. They’ll hit us with their counters, and we’ll have to counter back. I thought we played well; we just couldn’t finish.”
LB Ryan Kerrigan
On how he thinks the team will fight through the last four games:
“We still have four games left, so we’re going to go out there and give it our all. We have no other choice than to go out there and try to win.”
On the hot start and the subsequent Giants’ adjustments hurting them:
“The first two series, they didn’t get anything on first or second down, so in third down they were in some tough situations and had to convert on long yardage. With 'Rak [Orakpo] rushing as well as he was, we were getting off the field quickly. They’re a good team, and they’re going to get their yardage. That’s what they were able to do.”
On how last year the team won in strange ways and losing in strange ways this year:
“It’s really frustrating. We were up 14-0, and we just weren’t able to hold that lead, especially with how we came out, playing with so much energy. I don’t think the energy ever wavered, but we just weren’t able to sustain the level of play from the start of the game.”
On dealing with the frustration that comes with losing:
“We know the only way to get rid of this feeling is to win, so we’re going to go out there, work hard this week, and try to get a win next Sunday.”
LS Kyle Nelson
On his third quarter snap:
“It was just a miscommunication. I heard something wrong, and I just shouldn’t have snapped it. I should have waited. Worst-case scenario, we take a delay-of-game or false start, so that’s what I should have done.”
On if he couldn’t stop the snap:
“I was just caught in the middle of it.”
On what caused the hesitation in the snap:
“It was just a miscommunication.”
On what he is listening for in that situation:
“They didn’t do anything. We were ready for what they were doing in the game since we’d been practicing all week. We were ready for it; it was just a miscommunication. I heard something wrong, and did one other thing. Long story short, it shouldn’t have happened.”
On if a snap like that had ever happened before:
“No. Believe me, that was a shock to me, too. I was caught in the middle of the snap. I didn’t want to snap it, but at the same time, I wanted to get it off. It was just a miscommunication. Next time, I’ll know if I hear something I’m not sure about, I’ll just stop. If we take the penalty, we take the penalty. Maybe they’ll even jump offsides, so we’ll see what happens.”
On if the bad snap led to the holding penalty:
“Probably. With a bad snap like that, I’m going to do whatever I can do to not give them the ball. I’ll take a penalty all day as long as they don’t get the ball.”
G Kory Lichtensteiger
On the confusion about the downs late in the game:
“I don’t specifically remember, but I just remember it being a first down. I can’t specifically remember him doing the first down mark. Everybody just assumed it was first down; it looked like we had the yardage. It was just another weird kind of thing that happened to us. I don’t know why.”
On if that type of incident sums up the season:
“We certainly have had more than our fair share of plays, calls and things that haven’t necessarily gone our way. I don’t know if that sums up the season. I think it’s not just flukes why we’re losing. We haven’t come out and performed like we need to, but it’s just a little strange that weird things keep happening.”
On the emotions of having the great start and then losing the lead:
“You come out, play hard and expect to win, but you don’t necessarily expect when you score two touchdowns that it’s going to become a blowout. You don’t want to take your foot off the gas pedal. They were able to answer back, and we knew they had the weapons to do that. Offensively, we had to score more, and we came up short. I guess we’ll have to own up on that one.”