On the "story" of the game: "You can look at all the stats you want, but that's not the story of the game. The story of the game is the fundamentals. It's tackling—when you have 21 rushes for 175 yards, I mean, we didn't tackle well. Our secondary didn't tackle well. We had created holes in the line of scrimmage, which I'll have to look at the tape to see it. We didn't cover kicks well. We gave them the ball at midnight on our kickoff team. We again threw interceptions. That's not the kind of football we teach, and that's not what we're all about, but there it was again, we definitely put ourselves into whatever this funk or however you want to describe this. I just told the players in there: 'nobody said this was going to be easy and we're going to fight 'til there's nothing left of us. And we're going to fight our way out of this.'
"We were 5-0 and playing well, we were doing a lot of things well. All of a sudden now we're 5-3, and we're not doing very much of anything well. Obviously, the second half was better than the first, but the first half put us in a terrible hole. To go 16-7, very similar to a couple of things that have happened here in the last couple of weeks, to be down 16-7 and just give ourselves a little bit of a sign of daylight, to cover the kick the way we did and give them the ball at midfield and have them score on the very first play, and then turn it over and let them again, be in position to score—you're not going to win games like that."
On the team's issues with fundamentals: "It says that basic tackling, and basic getting off blocks, taking care of the football, those are fundamentals that certainly we should be built up to at this point in time, but obviously we are not, so we're going to have to focus on that."
On if he has an idea of how the fundamentals became a problem: "Not really. I don't know. I don't have the answer for that right now."
On if there is any concern for the defensive scheme: "[The Eagles] do a good job, but still, a draw or a dive, is a play, and to not be in position—you look at a 3rd and 1 run that goes the distance, I don't understand that myself, but I wouldn't be able to comment until I see it."
On if the easy early part of the schedule masked the team's issues: "Well, the Raiders did alright against the Eagles."
On whether it was frustrating that the Eagles would respond to the Giants' scores with a score of their own: "It was 16-7 and we were excited. We fought our way back into that position and it feels like we're going to get ourselves right and play ourselves back to the way we should be playing, and then we go ahead and give up those scores in I don't know how much time it was, but it wasn't much time—two scores in that amount of time, so then you're right back behind the eight ball. We certainly did think at 16-7, we had a chance to do something."
On whether he was sending a message to his team by taking timeouts at the end of the game:"My belief is that you have to use whatever you've got, whatever your tools are, you use them. Message to my team: we're going to fight to the very end and that's all there is to it."
On whether he knows what the problem is with QB Eli Manning's accuracy:"No. Again, other than not being accurate with the ball, like I said, I'll have to look at it."
On whether Manning has mentioned his foot as being a problem: "Not really. No."
On whether Manning is "arm-throwing" rather than stepping into his throws: "That could be. I've seen that a couple of times on the practice field, but I really can't say that that is something that I've noticed today."
On if he is at his wit's end trying to figure out the problem with the team: "Well, I'm not at my wit's end. I'm just as frustrated as the next guy, and I know how we fought ourselves out of these situations in the past, but you mentioned that we're at the midpoint and there are things that we have to correct. Our things that you would hope that you would have played yourself into doing better than we are. Basic tackling—don't miss tackles in the open field."
On whether he will look at if Manning's foot is hurting his mechanics: "Well, that's the first thing you think of when someone injures themselves like that. Your concern is if the mechanics are changed, then the shoulder, the arm, the back—something else will be an issue if you're not careful. But Eli is not one to complain. He never does. He always seems to find a way to get back onto the field as fast as anyone that you'll see. But, as I said, I've seen a couple of times maybe when I've said to him: "do you know you're not pushing off?" but I don't know that that was the case today. I wouldn't be able to say that."
On his assessment of the Eagles after today's game: "I've always thought they were pretty good. They're a good team. I'm not going to make any statements about the other guy. We've got some issues to correct with our team."
On Manningham not playing, after saying on Friday that he would be able to play:"I don't know, he may have said that, but the first he appeared in practice was Saturday morning, and he didn't seem to be real comfortable just going through the jog-through."
On if Manningham has a separation in his shoulder:"No, I don't know what you would call it. Separation, sore shoulder, whatever."
On whether Manningham has been taking cortisone shots the past couple of weeks: "I don't think so."
On injury updates for WR Domenik Hixon and WR Sinorice Moss: "Moss was a foot, but I don't know anything more about it. And Hixon was just a reoccurrence of a hip."
