8/17 NY Giants Preseason Quotes from Head Coach Tom Coughlin

The New York Giants defeated the New York Jets in the team's first 2010 preseason game on Monday night. It's always nice to win, even in the preseason, but head coach Tom Coughlin expects more from his team as a whole.

"I think it would be safe to say that we're disappointed in the play of our first offense," Coughlin said on Tuesday. "Our defensive team - the irony of the first half was that as you schedule all of the numbers of snaps in, the defense had a lot of snaps, didn't necessarily get the Jets offense out or off the field, and the offense didn't keep the ball so we kind of had a distribution of snaps somewhat different from what we expected, however, I think that once (Backup quarterback Jim) Sorgi got in the game and got in a little bit of the flow and started to be able to recognize some of the things that were going on on behalf of the Jets defense when he was under the ball and not just from the sideline, then things began to fashion a little bit better for our offensive team and of course we were able to make some big plays."

Coughlin went on to say "I thought our defense did a good job in the red zone of turning back touchdowns and forcing field goals and we did turn one ball over at the end of the game in the tight red zone as well. There were a number of things, lots of things to teach from, so we will go forward with one game under our belt and realize that we've got an awful lot to improve upon in this very short week."

Eli Manning took one of the most vicious hits of the preseason thus far in the second quarter of last night's game, and required stitches to patch up a cut. Coughlin didn't have a lot of information on Manning's injury, saying "I texted Eli earlier this morning and I think that the normal discomfort that a guy goes through when he has stitches and what have you was the experience. He didn't talk too much about pain but I don't have a whole lot of information because any time you have any injury that is a head injury they're going to do all kinds of tests so they're in the process of doing that right now." Coughlin did not say if Manning would play against the Steelers this coming Saturday.

Coach Coughlin also went on to say the Giants' running game will "take some time" to get going. "We didn't necessarily do a good enough job in terms of the blocking phase of it against a very good defensive team so somewhere in there is the answer," Coughlin explained. "Obviously we've got a film now to look at and having played against an opponent, that should help us along those lines but I just think we've got to do a better job of coming off the ball and being as technically sound as we can, getting our pad level down, doing a good job."

The Giants won the game but there's no question the team's first team offense and defense has to play better in the next few weeks. The pass rush was non-existent and the running game left fans wanting more. In all fairness, the Giants were without some big names last night (i.e. Steve Smith). Hopefully, Big Blue can have a productive and injury-free week leading up to the Giants' first home game of 2010.

All quotes via New York Giants Communications Office

More on Associated Content: NY Giants QB Eli Manning Busted Open Against Jets (Video)& NY Giants WR Victor Cruz Abuses Jets Defense (Video)

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