DE Brandon Graham
On his forced fumble: "We go over it in practice all the time, working on turnover drills, and that was my first time ever trying to go for it. I'm 1-for-1."
On the defense rising to the occasion against a rival like the Giants: "Well, you have those type of games when everybody's emotional, ready to go, just so jittery and wanting to get stuff done. We calmed down. We stepped to it. The offense made plays; the defense stepped in there when we were supposed to. That first half, we wanted it so bad."
On the overall mentality of the defense: "We just have to keep going. The defense just has to make sure we stay on it, make sure they don't score points. The offense did enough already, but if they want to keep going, just put it on us."
On the mindset of the defense when the Eagles trailed late in the game: "You get kind of nervous. You get nervous a little bit. At the same time, that's why you've got veterans, guys who come in here and step it up and tell you, 'Hey we've been here before. Now we've got to go out and step it up.' And that's what we did -- we turned it up."
On limiting both QB Peyton Manning and now QB Eli Manning: "We just wanted to make sure we rattled Eli back there, because we know both of those quarterbacks are great. We just wanted to go out there and play our game. We knew we'd win if we played our game."
LB Ernie Sims
On whether this was the best performance by the defense this season: "I wouldn't say it was the best. We don't have a lot of games where we don't perform well. This is definitely up there…we only gave up 200 yards or so. This definitely was a big game for us. We knew coming into this game that the offense wasn't going to be able to put up that many points. We knew defensively we were going to have to step up and make some plays, and that's definitely what we did."
On how tough the defense played tonight: "We knew it was going to be a physical game. That's what the guys were telling me all week -- it's going to be a physical game and that's how it always is with the Giants. We just wanted to come out and dominate defensively. We didn't want to give (RB Ahmad) Bradshaw or (RB) Brandon Jacobs any room to get off on us, and we did a good job."
On whether this game proves the Eagles are one of the best teams in the league: "Most definitely. We definitely feel like we're one of the top teams in the NFC, but we've got to keep proving it every week. Like they say, you're only as big as your last win, so we've got to keep going out every week and proving ourselves to the whole NFL."
On this season being his most successful yet: "In the pros, most definitely. This is something very special. I'm blessed to be a part of something like this right here. I'm just trying to put my two cents in. I'm trying to make plays whenever I can. This is exciting. We've got a ton of athletes on this team, offensively and defensively. The NFL really has to be looking out for us."
On how the defense was able to force five turnovers: "Keep putting pressure on (QB) Eli Manning. He's the key to the offense just like (QB) Peyton Manning was the key to the Colts offense. We knew if we could put pressure on him, we were going to cause a lot of turnovers."
On the defensive gameplan in the fourth quarter: "Just keep playing fundamental football. Don't blink. Keep the pressure on the offense. We knew at the end of the game it was going to be in our hands defensively. We just kept putting pressure on them, kept trying to do our jobs."
CB Dimitri Patterson
On whether he thinks the Eagles are the best team in the conference after a win like this: "I guess almost. Our expectations are high. We're not thinking about the playoffs, we're thinking about the Super Bowl. That's how we approach every game, that's how we approach every practice, that's how we prepare, we have a lot of expectations for this team, we're a talented team in a lot of areas. You guys understood tonight, against a very talented Giants team.
On how the turnovers played into the intensity of the game: "It was very intense. Obviously it was a rival game. It's been a rivalry for years, but we wanted to come out and show that we could be good consistently. Who better to do it then against the Giants? They're a respectable team. They came off a loss last week, but they're still a pretty good team. But, we wanted to come and show that we're a dominant team, we're a team that can get turnovers, we're a team that can be an opportunistic defense.
On what it means to the defense that they've been handle a dominant pedigree of opposing quarterbacks in recent weeks: "I don't want to use the word 'satisfaction', but it propels us and it gives us more confidence for the next week. We have high expectations for our secondary and our defense as a whole. We feel like we're very talented and every Sunday, we want to show how dominant we really are."
On how it feels to be sitting in first place of the NFC East through two-thirds of the season: "It feels real good. But, we're not complacent. It feels good, though. We want to be in first place and we want to have home-field advantage in the playoffs. Our goal is to dominate each week. That's what we try to do, and we feel real good about it."
S Quintin Mikell
On this team being one of the best in the NFL: "I feel like we're one of the top teams. Obviously, the Packers are up there, they've got a game on us. There are some good teams out there, but I feel like we can hang with anybody."
On the progression of the defense this season: "It's come a long way. Early on, we were kind of under fire for a little bit, but we kept fighting and kept getting better. We're starting to really put everything together. We're getting turnovers, big plays, and that's what we've always been about. The sky's really the limit right now."
On the key to shutting down the Giants offense: "The biggest thing was really our front seven doing well against the run. We knew coming in that they're a balanced team and if they can run well and get out in the open, it's going to create havoc for us on the back end. I think our front seven did their thing, and then we had opportunities to make plays on the ball and when we did, for the most part, we made plays."
On the high amount of turnovers by both teams: "These games are always like that when we play the Giants. There always seems to be a lot of turnovers. We knew going in that it was going to be like that. We were prepared on both sides. When we got out there, that's one thing we're always focused on -- getting the ball back for the offense."
On the key to shutting down the Giants offense: "I think when you play a team like them that is used to our defense, you've got to change up the looks and do different things that you don't always do. I think that was a big key. But I think the main thing was our stuffing the run. If they could run, that was going to be a double threat. I think our front seven doing a good job on the run, and then changing up the looks, jamming the receivers, I think that was a big key."
