Super Bowl XLVI – Tuesday, January 31, 2012
(on choosing to join the Giants staff over the Bears) “It was just a feel. I love (Bears Head Coach) Lovie Smith and enjoyed my time in Chicago and I knew that was coach Smith’s defense. He is an excellent defensive coach and I just thought that at the time, I probably needed to step out on my own and run my own defense. It was always going to be coach Smith’s defense and if I was going to make my mark in coaching I had to do it Perry Fewell’s way, and that was one of the main reasons I came to New York.”
(on the Giants’ defensive line) “I knew coming into this situation that we had a good front four. Jerry Reese, our general manager, he likes to bring in good defensive ends, and I felt like that would be a good match for me.”
(on paying Tom Brady) “I don’t know if you show Tom anything he hasn’t seen, because he’s played so many defenses and creates so many challenges. I think you have to be consistent with your football team and concentrate on what your defense does well and don’t take the focus away from your people and what they do well. Tom is going to make some plays. We know that, but we are going to make some plays also, and we have to make more than he makes.”
(on his emotional response following loss to Redskins) “I thought we didn’t play very good football. We didn’t play passionate football, and it is a little bit out of character for me, but I just felt like our defense and our people needed to hear how we felt about our play, and I thought we could do something about that, and our guys responded. That’s what you want, you want your team to respond.”
(on the emergence of Jason Pierre-Paul) “He was a different guy when he came back to camp. Obviously, the lockout affected us because we did not get a chance to see him grow in the OTAs and throughout that process, but against Carolina (in the preseason), he made a Reggie White move against one of their really good offense tackles and I said, ‘Wow I haven’t seen that out of JPP.’ He just kept getting better and better and he was a more knowledgeable player. He was destined to have a really good year because of the way he came into camp.”
(on Pierre-Paul’s impact) “He’s been the one consistent guy on our defensive line that’s played for us. He has not been injured, and he’s been studying. I’ve got to give (credit) to his defensive line coach Robert Nunn and JPP. It’s been a serious approach to the game. He’s wanted to do well, and he’s had a hunger and desire to do well, so when you have that combination with talent you just let it go.”
(on the key to the defensive turnaround) “Communication. It sounds simple, but it’s not easy. When your players stop listening, you’re in trouble and they never stopped listening. I knew we weren’t in trouble. They wanted to right it. They wanted to get it right. We had a lot of guys playing that really didn’t have the experience that they needed and didn’t really understand the concepts we trying to teach and what we were trying to get across with our game plans. But they never shut us out and they kept believing in what we were trying to get done.”
(on evaluating Pierre-Paul’s potential prior to the draft) “We saw 6-foot-4, 288-pounds that could stand up and do a backflip, and we went, ‘Wow.’ He’s like a gazelle. He could probably be a great tight end. If you saw him in practice when he’s joking around catching the football and doing things like that –you don’t want the offensive coaches looking at him because they’d probably want to play him at tight end. You saw an athlete, but you saw a guy whose talents were untapped. His potential was untapped, and if you could just hone those talents in, you could have a hell of a football player. Now we didn’t know how long that would take and I think you have to give our ownership and scouts all the credit, because I can remember on draft day Mr. Mara said, ‘Are you guys okay with taking this guy?’ and we said, ‘Yes we are, but please don’t expect him to start from the first day.’ We knew we had the support to bring this player along, and Jerry Reese and John Mara deserve a lot of credit because they saw an athlete that could be developed into a great football player.”
(on what makes New England’s tight ends so difficult to contain) “Matchups. If you take (Rob) Gronkowski away then (Aaron) Hernandez is available. Well if you take Hernandez away, then Gronkowski is available. Well, if you try to take both of those guys away then (Wes) Welker is available. Then (Deion) Branch is available. They have so many different weapons, and you can’t take all of them away, plus rush Tom (Brady). That monster that they have as far as the offense and the talent that they have they use that as well as anybody in the league.”
(on teams utilizing tight ends in passing game more often) “I think the league has evolved into that. You look at several teams across the league, we’ve faced more tight ends this year that give you problems as far as their flexibility is concerned and I think that’s the way the league is going now. When I first got in, there was just a couple tight ends, and it wasn’t like it is this year. It seems like every week there has been a tight end oriented offensive output.”
(on how he is different since his days in Chicago) “I think I’ve just gained some more experience and some knowledge. I don’t think I’m different in my approach, but I’ve just gained more experience and knowledge in the defense that I run and the philosophies that I’ve adopted.”
(on his experience as a head coach in Buffalo) “It was a good. I had fun. It was an experience that I’ll always cherish, an experience that I grew from, and I learned more in those seven weeks about how to use personnel -how to work with players - than I’ve probably learned in 13 years in the National Football League and 13 years in college football. When you are put in that position, there are so many different areas that you can grow and learn and experience. Its second to none as far as growth and development.”
(on the talent and the depth of the Giants defensive line) “It allows us to be flexible in our approach and our guys have been great because we put them in positions that normally defensive lineman would say, ‘No I don’t want to do that. I want to put my hand down and do this.’ Sometimes they are arguing and fighting to do the things we like to do with them, whether it be dropping back in coverage or playing a linebacker position. The game has become a lot more fun because the players have bought in.”
(on defensive end Osi Umenyiora’s contract situation) “It could have been a big distraction. It was not. Behind the scenes, Osi was in every meeting, Osi was paying attention to every detail. Osi was all in, and he was a professional. When Osi was hurt, he was doing everything he could to get right and get back on the field. Those are the things that you didn’t see.”
(on using more speed and athleticism in the secondary to combat tight ends) “No doubt. Like Antrele Rolle. Antrele Rolle came into the league as a corner and now he’s a safety. As a safety, sometimes we use him inside as a hybrid linebacker-type guy. But he is a special guy because he’s a tough man, and you have to be a tough man to do that. The athletes that are big, strong athletes that can do those types of things –yes, you move them around, and they give you flexibility.”
(on defensive end Justin Tuck) “If he goes, we go. That’s how special he is. If he doesn’t go, then we don’t go as well. What a leader. His talent on the field, his leadership, his ability to generate those around him and make them better –you can’t put a price tag on that.”
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