Super Bowl XLVI – Monday, January 30, 2012(on the key to rattling Tom Brady) “I think it starts with hitting him, even when you don’t actually get sacks, just keeping people around him so he can’t step up. I think he gets a little frustrated when he has to go to his second or third receivers. You can kind of confuse him sometimes with our coverage. I think there are a lot of things that can get him rattled, but it just seems like not too many people are able to do that.”
(on what the Giants were able to do so well against Brady in their previous Super Bowl meeting) “I think it’s just pressure. We had a lot of hits on him. Even when we didn’t hit him, he didn’t have the time to sit back there and allow some of the routes to develop. We know that as a D-line, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make sure that we are in his face. He is a hell of a quarterback, and he is going to do a lot of things to throw us off our rhythm. I really expect them to use their screen game, quick throws to kind of get us out of rhythm early. You are going to get your shots because they are an explosive offense and they like to take shots downfield, too. We are going to have our chances, and we just are going to have to do a great job of taking advantage of them.”
(on if hitting Brady around his legs is more important since his ACL surgery) “It doesn’t matter if he had surgery or not. As an athlete, you don’t want anybody around your legs. As a D-lineman, I don’t want O-linemen cutting me. I’m sure as a quarterback, you don’t want guys diving at your knees either. I’m sure that would find a way to get to his psyche a little bit, but I don’t think it has anything to do with him just being a quarterback. I think it has a lot to do with just athletes in general.”
(on if the Giants are more subdued this Super Bowl) “Yeah. Honestly, for us, that ’07 thing was kind of like us coming together as a football team. We just said we wanted to kill a dynasty, and that’s what they were. But now, we’ve been here before and we felt as though all that is secondary. We just want to come in here and have our mind focused on playing a great football game, and not really getting caught up in all the hoopla around the game.”
(on if this feels like a regular game) “I don’t know how many people were out there today to send us off, but I don’t know that we’ve had that when we just went and played a regular football game. We all know what the game is. A lot of times you say it doesn’t hit you until you actually get here. I think it hit us. I think it hit us early, and I think just seeing the focus of the last couple of practices we had before we left, you could kind of tell that guys elevated their passion about this sport. They understand that you are in the Super Bowl, and this is where 30 other teams wish they could be. It’s going to be something you will never forget, so we knew where we were going.”
(on if this Super Bowl has a different feel than the previous one) “Not really. We didn’t really buy into all the underdog stuff last time. We knew it was there, and we knew nobody was giving us a shot, but we always believed in ourselves. It’s still the same here. I hope to say it would be the same if we were favored or not, that we believe in ourselves. That’s all that really matters. We never really cared what other people outside of those guys in that locker room or our owners or our coaching staff has said anyway.”
(on if he heard about Brady’s party) “No sir.”
(on what it says about the two teams playing such close games against each other) “It says that it’s just two great teams. That football team over there has been, I think, the model of consistency for the last 10, 11 years in this league. We’ve tried to kind of hang with them a little bit. In these games, it goes back to the whole Boston-New York thing. These games have always been kind of a little bit more elevated than people outside the game would know. We’re looking forward to it again. We think it’s going to be another fourth quarter game. It always does come down to it in games with them because, I think, we are so evenly matched. We know each other pretty well, even though we are not in the same division or we play each other every year. Our coach and their coach have been on the same staff. We are kind of built the same way that they are. So, it’s a lot of … I don’t know. We’re very familiar with each other, I guess.”
(on the frustration of his season due to the injuries and if he is 100%) “I’m not 100%. I don’t think anybody is 100%. It’s just something you deal with as a football player. I think, for me personally, I allowed it to kind of affect me mentally going into some of the early games this year. That really took a toll on me as just a person, because, me personally, I wanted to be the leader this football team can always look to. I thought I had to do that by only what I do on the football field – only sacks and tackles for loss and things like that. This has been an eye-opening experience for me knowing that leadership doesn’t necessarily have to do with how you play on the field. It has a lot to do with what goes on behind closed doors and how you can motivate guys in other situations. I have learned a lot from that this year, and I think it has made me a better football player, better person.”
(on if he would have liked to have a big pep rally to send off the Giants) “Not at all. I wish we could have flown in at night with nobody knowing we were here, and I could have woke up to do this instead of having everybody cheer you on because all that … What for? Nobody wants to talk about (partying) before the Super Bowl. Everybody wants to talk about after it. If you leave this place being the winner of the 46th Super Bowl, then you can have as many parties, you can have as many pep rallies, you can do whatever you want to do after that. Until that happens, I could care less for all the hoopla.”
(on the Patriots’ pep rally) “I have heard about it.”
(on if he has seen the Patriots’ pep rally) “No.”
(on the success of the Giants’ pass rush late in the season) “We’ve been a little healthier. We have played more games with each other. JPP (Jason Pierre-Paul) has had a great year all year long. Me and Osi (Umenyiora) have kind of battled with injuries and never really got in-sync, I guess. But, these last couple of weeks, we have had the opportunity to play with each other. I think chemistry is very important to the play of four down-linemen. That ’07 year, we played the whole year with each other, and we just knew how to play off each other. I think a lot of times this season we’ve kind of got in each other’s way, if you believe that, because insertions, you just didn’t know how guys were going to play off of certain looks. But, the last couple of weeks, it just seems like all that has started to go our way.”
(on how the pass rush benefits the linebackers and secondary) “Obviously, if you have seven guys back there, you can kind of cover up a few more of the holes. When you have a pass rush that is hot and is going well, you don’t have to cover as long so you can take a few more gambles, you can do a few more things coverage-wise to confuse a quarterback or give him some different looks.”
(on why the Giants continue to respond to Tom Coughlin) “I think this team responds to Coach Coughlin because you know what to expect from him. I know we have had some roller coasters and some ups and downs, but he has always stayed consistent. I think it’s the players that haven’t. But, the last couple of weeks, you can just tell that we have rallied behind him. It’s something about kind of being backed into a corner or being backed against a wall. It seems like we were there at 7-7, and we’ve come out fighting. I think he has done a great job as far as … When Coach Coughlin comes up, everybody wants to talk about how rough he is, how unforgiving he is, how the reigns are pulled back pretty tight on the football team, but playing for him is golden for me. You know exactly what to expect from him, you know what he expects from you. It’s easy to go out and do your job when you don’t have to go out and worry about what we are doing here, what are we doing there. I love playing for the guy, and I hope I get to play the rest of my career for him.”
(on if the team still has the brashness that they had during the last Super Bowl) “A little bit of it. But, at the end of the day, it’s just all about coming out here and getting the win. That’s what we’re focused on. I know last time we came out here, and we all wore the black suits. I know a lot of people asked us about that. I think this team is focused on the fact that the ’07 team and this team are completely different, so we kind of wanted our own identity. But, a lot of that has still stayed the same. It’s a team that believes in itself, believes in our coaches. Sometimes you can kind of get misunderstood for brashness, I guess.”
(on if the Giants’ defense and pass rush are in the Patriots’ heads) “No. They are professionals, and they understand that any given Sunday those guys can come out and play this game just like we have never beaten them before. I expect us to do the same thing. But, this game will not be won off what we did in ’07 or what we did earlier this year. It will not be. I hope we don’t fall into that trap of believing that because that team has won 10 straight. They are playing, I think, better football – team football – than they played in ’07. But, I think we are playing better team football than we played in ’07. It’s going to be a fun matchup. It’s going to be a fun atmosphere, and I am looking forward to it.”
(on Osi Umenyiora’s comments that the Patriots’ offensive line is dirty) “That was an individual matchup between Osi and (Patriots T) Matt (Light). I’m not even going down that road.”
(on how he thinks the Patriots’ offensive line plays) “I think they play well together. I haven’t seen anything on film that would suggest them being dirty. But, honestly, in the trenches everybody has some kind of dirtiness to them, offensively or defensively – you have to. You can’t play this game without it or you will get pushed around. I think anytime you talk about D-line or offensive line play, the word dirty can be used.”
(on if the team feels like underdogs) “We didn’t feel like underdogs in ’07. I told you all earlier, we don’t care what the odds makers or the insiders or whatever they may be, say about these game lines. Any given Sunday, any day you line up, you can be beat or you can win. So, do we feel like underdogs? No.”
(on if they feel like the home team) “I haven’t got the opportunity to even be here long enough. But, I could see why a lot of the Colts’ fans would root for the Giants.”
(on the comeback season of Mathias Kiwanuka) “It’s just fitting that he gets the opportunity to come back to Indianapolis and play in the Super Bowl after what happened with him personally, with his brother. It’s been a rough road for him. We are all very happy for him and hoping that we can get a happy ending to this for him because he definitely deserves it. He is a competitor, and he never kind of hung his head either way. He knew he had a long road to go back, and you talk about neck injuries, that is always something very scary. But, that guy is not faulted either way. He continued to work, he continued to come back. He deserves everything that is coming his way right now.”
(on the defensive line playing off of each other) “It’s just having that chemistry with each other and knowing that in certain down-and-distances or certain calls, how Osi likes to play it, or in certain formation sets, how I know JPP (Jason Pierre-Paul) likes to maybe make an inside move to this or to that. That’s what I mean by playing off each other.”
(on the team’s Super Bowl experience being a big deal) “I think it is. I don’t know how much of a big deal it is comparing ours to theirs, because they have been to a few themselves. But, having been here the first time in ’07 and kind of being wet behind my ears then, I know what I know now is completely different. Knowing what to expect and knowing how to prepare yourself for this football game is totally different. I think the experience can help, but at the end of the day, it’s all about playing good football. If the experience helps you play good football, then there you go.”
(on what he is telling the younger guys this time around) “Play good football. That’s all that matters. Don’t get caught up in all the hoopla because we are not going to any parties. We set a curfew earlier than what we did last time. The party starts Monday, or the party starts Sunday night for one of these two teams. We are going to try to do our best to do everything in our power to make sure that we are partying Sunday night. That’s all that matters.”
(on how many times he has heard the word “finish” this season) “I have heard ‘finish’ just as much as I have heard ‘Justin.’ A lot. That is something that Coach Coughlin definitely believes in. It’s kind of evident in some of the games we’ve won. You are never out of the fight, you always have the opportunity to finish. I think this team realizes that you can’t succeed without finishing. There have been times where we have come back and when games looked like we weren’t going to finish, and there have been games that we have lost because we didn’t finish. The Philadelphia game last year comes to mind, and that’s something that sticks in all of our hearts. That’s one of the reasons why this offseason was so critical for us to kind of put that as a battle cry for us.”
(on how closely they monitor Rob Gronkowski’s injury) “You know what, if he plays, I am sure he is going to help that football team out. If he doesn’t, I am sure they’ve got other plans. They have a lot of weapons on that team – it’s not just about him. I don’t know. I’m sure they’ve got something planned to counter the fact that he won’t be 100%. But we’re not approaching it any different than if he wasn’t 100%. We are going to approach it like he is 100%.”
(on if Tom Brady proclaiming that he hopes there is a party in New England amounts to trash talk) “Man, it was a pep rally. What was he supposed to say? I don’t think it’s Tom doing anything but getting fans riled up.”
(on Eli Manning’s leadership and maturation) “It’s funny how things leak out of a locker room, but it’s not like that’s the first speech we’ve had this year, not like it’s the first from Eli we’ve had this year. But, I think why he did it was because he has been there before. He has been a Super Bowl MVP. He knows what it takes to get a football team ready for a game like this. He is just trying to give some of the young guys a heads up about what to expect, and he has matured this season. I’ve talked about it with a lot of different people about how he has matured considering New York being the media capital of the world. He’ll tell you right now, head coaching and quarterback-play in New York City, you always get a little bit more of the blame when you lose and maybe a little bit more of the praise when you win. It takes a strong person to be in the position that he is in and take some of the criticism he has taken over his career and bounce back the way he has.”
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