I would like to give my congratulations to Coach Coughlin and the New York Giants. That is a championship caliber football team, not only from a talent standpoint but they showed great football character; they fought. I thought that our team fought. They made more plays than we did. Quite simply, we came up short. We accept that and we will take this as a learning experience. It is tough to swallow, but we will and we will march forward as a team and get ready for the Washington Redskins.
Can you talk about the injury to Greg Warren?
Greg Warren tore his ACL, so he was out. Nobody has two long snappers on their team; what you have is emergency snappers. James Harrison is regarded as the lead candidate in that regard; James Farrior is after him. We got some snaps on the sideline and we felt comfortable. We reduced the depth of our punter to 13 yards so that accuracy would be less of an issue. We weren’t able to execute but make no mistake, I take my hat off to James Harrison for stepping up and volunteering and being pumped about snapping that football. We just weren’t able to get it done. That was the first game that I have been involved in that we didn’t have a snapper; so be it.
Is that why you didn’t kick the field goal in the fourth quarter?
Absolutely. That was on the outer limits of field goal range. When you have a backup snapper in there you knew that they were going to come after it. I just didn’t feel comfortable kicking with whoever we put out there in that position. It was a manageable fourth down if you will; we took a shot with our offense.
Why don’t we see regular centers long snap in that situation?
There is a big difference between a shotgun snap and a long snap.
How about your other injuries?
The only other one that I have definitive information on is Ryan Clark with a right shoulder dislocation. It is back in place; we will see where he is. I don’t know what the length of time will be. The other ones are questionable; I don’t have enough information at this time.
Can you talk about Ben Roethlisberger’s interceptions?
In the first half, more than anything, they were picks; meaning that you have to give credit to the Giants. They flashed and made some plays, and really, that was the story of the first half. I thought it was evenly fought; we played the game on our half of the field because of the turnovers. Our defense did an awesome job keeping them out of the end zone and we were able to go into halftime down 9-7. The bottom line is that they made more plays than we did and I don’t want to sugarcoat it. I think anything other than that would be a discredit to their performance.
Did the loss of Santonio (Holmes) hurt you today?
No, you know our feelings in regards to that. The 11 on the field represent us and the standard of excellence doesn’t change. It is not a cliché; we will never waver in regards to that. That punt team on the field that produced the safety; is our punt team. I have no clear way to explain it other than that.
When did you decide that Aaron Smith was going to play?
Aaron showed up at the stadium and wanted to play. We wanted to provide him that opportunity because we have a great deal of respect for that man and that professional. It was great to see him.
Did you make a decision on Santonio yet?
I am going to visit with Santonio tomorrow morning; that is what I told you guys that I told him when I made the decision to deactivate him; that has not changed?
How did you think Limas Sweed played today?
He made a few plays for us; some significant plays. He moved the chains a little bit. He is a young guy who has earned the opportunity to participate a little bit. He made some plays when given the opportunity. We will see where we go from here. There is no question that there was some improvement, but he is in the process of writing that story. He is going to need to grow and develop for our football team, and I think that he is open to that.
Will you be signing a long snapper this week?
That would be a safe assumption.
Is the injury to Mitch Berger an issue?
We will know more tomorrow; there is no question that he was less than 100 percent for a majority of that football game. He sucked it up and played for us. Actually he kicked pretty decently after he sustained the injury.
How did the injury occur?
I think that he hurt a hamstring – punting.
Did Mewelde Moore step up again today?
We didn’t win, so we didn’t have a winning performance as a football team or as inidividuals. I appreciate his efforts as I appreciate everyone’s efforts. There is only one stat that matters to us, and that is winning. We didn’t do it today.
Can you talk about your performance on third downs today?
They did a nice job. They played two-man under and when we protected the people who had those people in the backfield had them. They did a nice job, they really did. They executed and we didn’t.
