Bills/Giants Postgame

BUFFALO BILLS HEAD COACH REX RYAN

OPENING COMMENTS
Alright, obviously we made way too many penalties to win that game. We also made way to many mistakes. So with that we had two guys get hurt. (MarQueis) Gray left with an arm injury and then Bacarri Rambo had a quad injury. Alright, so I’ll open it up for questions.

Q: How in the world can a team commit this many penalties after what happened two weeks ago?
A: Well, I’m going to tell you something. I’m proud of the way this team played. Now can we play a lot smarter? Absolutely. But I’ll take a team that will fight over a team that won’t, that’ll sit back and take it. Any day of the week and bring on the next team. So that’s how I look at it. Give me a team that’s got some fight and will compete till the very end. Right, wrong, or indifferent no matter how good the officiating is or whatever. Makes no difference to me. I’ll take a team with some competitive fight and some spirit. 17 penalties, ridiculous? Absolutely, 100 percent ridiculous. And so you say what you want, but I’ll take a team that’ll fight. I’m proud of this team and we’ll keep fighting, and eventually we’ll find a way to win. Eventually to eliminate penalties.

Q: How do you get that under control and find a balance as a head coach?
A: Well balance is, we’ve got to play within the rules. We all know that. Did it happen today? Apparently not, we had 17 penalties, two touchdowns called back, a fumble, all that kind of stuff. I get it, no question about it. But I mean…you know we can focus on the negatives and all that, and I get it. That’s your guys job, but you might not understand the game the way I understand because I’ve been on the other side. I’ve been a part of 20-some penalty performance by the Ravens, okay. And went on and we fixed it. We’ll fix it here. But one thing is we got heart, and at least I know we got that and that’ll line it up regardless of the stuff that we take, negative wise. We’ll be standing there, right there and ready to toe the line again next week. I promise you that.

Q: Are you surprised with the success of the Giants run game early on?
A: They did, they had…shoot they ripped us, for about 3.2 a carry or something like that. It’s probably the best of the year. So I get it. No question about it. You got to tip your hat to them. They did a great job and we were on our heels. It’s unfortunate with that one third down they converted in the second half was on our mistake. We had an alignment problem and those are the things we have to fix. More than anything else, fix ourselves other than…and then we’ll be fine. But we made too many mistakes and that’s what I was talking about. We made too many mistakes to win a game in the National Football League against a good football team.

Q: What was the problem on offense?
A: Well no we were struggling. I mean obviously in the first half, especially. We couldn’t do anything. They three and out us a bunch, we just couldn’t get anything going. But you got to give them credit, they did a great job. Especially stopping the run. I thought they did a tremendous job and it just one of those things. But we kept fighting. I thought we’d have opportunities at the end and it was tough. And we never lost because we had two touchdowns called back. That wasn’t the reason we lost but it took a little wind out our sails. I’ll be truthful about that and obviously one was a holding call and one was a chop block, I think.

Q: How much easier was it for their coaching staff to plan without having Sammy Watkins and LeSean McCoy on the field?
A: I have no idea, I think you’d have to ask them about that.

Q: Was it a factor?
A: I have no idea, we have some good players in there. We have a deep roster. Are you better with your starters, a LeSean McCoy and a Sammy Watkins healthy? Of course. But we got to be good enough to win without them and that’s the name of this game.

Q: Did you sense the team got a spark after Ron Brooks got that big hit?
A: Yeah, I sensed it I mean it was a great hit. It’s hard to hit somebody that hard. I mean it was a great hit. You know big hits a lot of times will change the momentum of a game and I think you’re right. I think that one put a spark in us, there’s no doubt.

Q: Did you ever feel like that spark was missing earlier on or in the third quarter?
A: Well I never thought…I thought the third quarter we were alright. I just thought the…we just couldn’t get anything going in the first half and I think that was the most frustrating thing is just we couldn’t get a spark. But to our guys credit they kept fighting and hanging in there. But it’s just…you know yeah it was tough. Obviously we got to do a much better job on both sides of the ball and again we got to get back to work because it won’t get any easier.

Q: How frustrated were you with Dan Carpenter’s missed field goal?
A: Well, I mean it certainly didn’t cost us the game. But Dan’s a pro, he’s got to make that kick.

Q: Is there a lack of disappointment with this team?
A: Uh, I don’t know. I guess you guys write the stories so you’ll write it the way you want to write it. I know, the one thing I know for a fact is we got heart. The discipline things, you know I get it. You get 17 penalties, that’s obviously a sign of lack of discipline. I think though that’s not the real deal. But, you know hey it is a free country. Write what you believe.

Q: It sounded like the real deal two weeks ago?
A: I don’t know. We’ll see.

Q: You trying to change anything?
A: I’m not changing anything. But I’m going to change the results and that’s what I’m looking to do.

Q: Thoughts on the play where it looked like the Giants returner fumbled, but then made a big return?
A: That was a great individual play by that kid. I mean that was a heck of play by him. I thought we had it pinned down there. We usually do a great job on that but the kid made a great run. Got it out and then we had our chances. We had him, you know third and like five or six. Thought we had the perfect call for what they ran, but we didn’t have the perfect…you know didn’t run the perfect result. Never got lined up the way we should have and it obviously cost us.

Q: Earlier today Fox reported LeSean McCoy will be missing 3-4 weeks with that hamstring.
A: Well I wish they’d checked with me on that because I haven’t heard that report. We’re day to day, week to week, thing. Hopefully, you know I’m hoping that he’ll be back soon and hoping all our guys will be back soon. So I haven’t heard that report. I don’t believe that’s coming from our doctors or trainers. I know it’s not because I think they might have told me.

Q: How will you address the kicking situation?
A: We’ll look at everything right now. We got to get better, we know that.

Q: Two minutes left in the first half with three timeouts you didn’t seem too urgent or aggressive there, what was the thinking?
A: I don’t know, I would have to go back and look at the tape. I am not as sharp right now as I should be probably.

Q: The last touchdown on the left sideline what did you see?
A: Oh, it was frustrating. But that was the call. We obviously didn’t get lined up right. We probably should have someone covering the back, on that play. But we didn’t and then the kid broke a couple tackles. You can’t tackle big running backs like that. You got to tackle them low, and we went high. And the kid, that is a big hoss back there and obviously he made a great run.

Q: Coming back against New England and now the Giants to do it don’t you have to keep your poise down the stretch?
A: We do. I think everybody needs to keep their poise, 100% we got to keep our poise. You’re exactly right on that, I think everybody needs too. I am talking about everybody. I mean obviously and probably Scott [Berchtold].

Q: How limited was Cordy Glenn?
A: I saw him go out a couple times. Hopefully he will be okay. I know he finished the game so hopefully he will be all right.

Q: Anything wrong with Percy, he seemed to becoming in and out?
A: No. Sometimes I think in a two-minute you run a guy vertical, and things like that. Sometimes it is hard to get him reset and things like that. So that’s why I thought Percy [Harvin] was fine.

Q: Steve Spagnuolo has worked with Tyrod and has more tape on him. Did that play a factor?
A: Well, I am not sure. We, Tyrod [Taylor] had his moments in that game, unfortunately he had a couple back, a couple touchdowns called back. Steve does a nice job, he is a good coordinator and things like that. So I am sure you got to give him credit.

BUFFALO BILLS QUARTERBACK TYROD TAYLOR

Q: Why did you guys throw the ball more down the field in the first half?
A: The plan was to execute somewhat of a quick game and get some things going and get some guys going. We just didn’t get as many yards as we wanted to on those third downs when it came down to it. We’re not executing on third down and we know to be good team that we have to win the third down battle.

Q: How frustrating was it for you to have two touchdowns called back because of penalties?
A: It’s something you have to deal with. Definitely want to eliminate those penalties. To be the team we want to be we need to eliminate those penalties across the board. It would have been big to have those touchdowns but you have to play and keep going.

Q: Is this team undisciplined with all of the penalties?
A: It’s definitely something that we have to address as a team. To be the best team that we want to be we definitely have to eliminate those penalties. It cost us some yards and it’s something that we need to address moving forward.

Q: Is it frustrating to see those penalties continue even after the Patriots game?
A: It’s just something that, like I said, needs to be addressed. It’s something that we talked about but obviously we’re not getting better in that area. It’s something that we need to get on top of now, sooner than later.

Q: The run game seemed to have trouble gaining traction. From what you were seeing on the sideline, were they just crowding the line?
A: Yes, there was limited running area for us. They did a good job of moving the gaps. We could be better as far as executing the run game and getting the offense more balanced but we have to learn from it and continue to keep working.

Q: You mentioned having to get better with penalties. Who spearheads that? Is that Rex [Ryan] or is that you? Who takes control and takes charge of this team?
A: It’s definitely going to come from the leaders and a couple of the guys have already talked about addressing it. It’s definitely something that we have to bring up going into next week.

Q: How does that happen? How will you do that?
A: Just by talking to the players and stressing the importance of the yardage that we lose when we get those penalties. And just by playing smart football. You have to play smart to win in this league and we have to eliminate turnovers and penalties.

Q: Rex made it clear that he didn’t think the officiating was that good. Do you think that they’re targeting you guys?
A: I can’t control that. You have to go out there and play the game. I’ll let the coaches worry about the officiating and we as players have to go out there and worry about executing the game.

Q: Was putting together two touchdown plays and having them called back a momentum killer?
A: From my perspective on those, you just have to continue to keep working. Once the penalty brings it back, you can’t dwell on that. You have to try to put something together and put another scoring drive together.

Q: Do you consider yourself one of the leaders who needs to talk about penalties or is that just veterans?
A: I definitely put myself in that group coming from my position. I’ve been around for a couple years now. And we have a bunch of veteran guys on the team who are willing to step up and speak about it and address the situation.

Q: How much did the absence of LeSean [McCoy] and Sammy [Watkins] affect you?
A: When you lose those type of guys you leave some plays out there on the field but the guys who came in and stepped up played well. We just didn’t execute as a team. Those guys could have helped but we knew going into the game that they weren’t going to be with us so we have to go out there and continue to keep fighting and that’s what we did.

Q: You were continuously able to find [Charles] Clay. Was he a focal point of today’s game?
A: We liked his matchups and he did a good job of getting open. It’s my job to find him and he did a good job of getting open.

Q: How much of an issue is your ankle and is it keeping you from what you want to do?
A: No, my ankle is fine.

Q: It was three times in the first half on third down you were short.
A: It’s definitely something that we have to get better at. Like I said, we know to be the team we want to be we have to get better at third down. If you look at our wins over this year, when we’ve been good at third down is the ones we went out and had good success. So it’s something that we have to pick up.

Q: What happened on the goal line stand?
A: I went with the play call. It was more so a lack of execution from us. Just have to get it in, there’s no way around it. In that situation we need that touchdown and as players we have to do a better job of getting it in.

Q: How do you improve on third down?
A: Like I said earlier, just going out there and executing the quick game. We felt that they were dropping, trying to get underneath and get the first down after the catch. Weren’t able to do that on some of the throws and stalled on the drives.

Q: It seemed like you were taking a few seconds longer than necessary on some of the plays. Do you need to play quicker?
A: We were in a fast tempo. We didn’t huddle but a couple times. That was our plan.

Q: Was it anything that they were doing offensively that affected you guys in the first half?
A: No, more so just us not going out there and executing on third down. We had the opportunities but just Didn’t do it.

NEW YORK GIANTS HEAD COACH TOM COUGHLIN

Opening Statement
We knew it was going to be a tough game. They’re a good team. They played very well. They’re the number one rushing team in the league. We knew all those things. We knew it was going to be a battle, and it was a battle. I thought the offense did a great job in the first half. I thought the defense did a great job throughout the game. We didn’t get the big break on field position today, but we hung in there and we did our job on special teams as well – we eventually covered well. Our punter did an outstanding job. Our kicker came back on that last kickoff and kicked it out of the end zone, so I was pleased with that. The atmosphere out there; the environment was super. I thought it was an electric environment prior to the game. It was an exciting time, a great place to be and I was just thankful to win.

Q: Can you talk about the significance of the Rashad [Jennings] touchdown?
A: It’s a great play. They blitzed; he broke it on a hot, he broke one tackle, he broke another tackle, the other guy hit him in the back, he still straightened up and ran it in the end zone. That was the play that gave us the opportunity right there to take a deep breath. We hit the screen; we get the call for being downfield, and it was upsetting for us. It cost us the mid-field mark and who knows there, but that’s the way it goes. But that play, in the second half offensively, was the key play that put us in position and then we got the two-point conversion as well so I was glad to see that happen.

Q: Can you talk about the significance of the goal-line stand?
A: No question there because there was plenty of time. There was time left to do whatever they needed to do. I wasn’t pleased with us not getting a first down, but when you’re back against the wall, you’re careful about what you do there. There’s no question about it, it was a tremendous series right there.

Q: Is that symbolic of your game today – six or seven different guys made touchdown-saving plays?
A: It was incredible. The guys played hard. We do play hard. People like Kerry Wynn flew around and played a great game. I’m excited to see the tape, but there was no doubt, a lot of different people contributing. We talk all the time about team; that’s what we got today, team.

Q: Can you talk about the Bills front – obviously you were thinking you could run?
A: We knew we had to run. For a while there, we had some very good runs. Then for a while, we didn’t. Let’s face it; Eli [Manning] in the first half, directed pretty much everything. Our offensive line held up. We got the ball out of hands quickly. He was able to direct traffic quickly and did an outstanding job with that.

Q: The first three games you weren’t really able to put teams away quickly – how did it feel to have this one early?
A: I wouldn’t say we put this one away either, so that wouldn’t be my quote. We got the two touchdown margin and that certainly helped, but the interception took the wind out of my sail to be honest with you. Let’s drive the ball down and score; I wanted to score. It’s third and whatever from the goal line, and we threw it away. They had been driving hard on the slants; we knew it and Eli [Manning] knew it as well. Rueben [Randle] had done an outstanding job with the slant route, and he let it go. It’s unfortunate that it happened, but again, that’s my responsibility.

Q: How about your team fighting back to 2-2?
A: It shows grit. We are the team I thought us to be. To be honest with you, we didn’t practice as well as we wanted to early in the week. By the end of the week we did, and I told them that before the game started. Our meetings have been very good. They’ve done a great job. They’re battlers. The coaches are doing an outstanding job. I’m proud of the way our staff is putting these plays together. The sideline is not always as smooth as you want it to be, but that’s football. There’s a lot going on out there.

Q: What did you think of [Devon] Kennard’s interception?
A: Super. Great play. That was great, and stayed inbounds as well.

Q: When you were 0-2, did you think you could get to 2-2?
A: Always. Win a game; get started. The process is to work hard during the week, have great preparation, and execute it on the weekends. That never stops. When we’re 0-2, we just need to fight. That’s what we do. It’s what this thing is all about.

Q: They clearly wanted to run the ball. Do you think you established something early on?
A: I thought we did a good job with that. I don’t know what the numbers are. [Tyrod Taylor] has a couple runs. He’s a good player. We still did a good job overall.

Q: What about the effort from [Ereck] Flowers today?
A: I worked him out before the game to see where he was at. The kid’s a tough kid. I ask him how he’s doing and he says, “Good.” He’s always good. The key thing is, on the first play of the game, he hurt the ankle again. He came out and before you know it, he’s back in. I respect the hell out of it.

Q: When a team and individuals are willing to play hard, can that cover up some mistakes?
A: Hustle makes up for a lot of errors.

Filed under: Buffalo Bills

Tagged with: Buffalo Bills, New York Giants, Rex Ryan, Tyrod Taylor