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Locker Room: Eagles Defense/ST

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR BILL DAVIS

On what they did today to make [Giants QB] Eli Manning hold onto the ball longer: "Nothing different, we were just executing. We may have moved a few of the rushers around a bit. But they've seen all of our stuff on film, we may have added a couple of new wrinkles but it was the players executing it really was. It was great coverage, we pressed up on guys and we were disguising some coverages, you know with a guy like Eli you have to show him one thing and give him another and just moved it around on him a little bit.  The way they were together it really was just fun to watch."

On the last time the Eagles pitched a shutout: "I don't know, I don't think I ever did. As a defensive coordinator or conditions coach, those are hard to do. And it's a team shutout, it takes everybody, it takes drive starts, it takes the pass rush, it takes the coverage, it takes stopping the run, and it's fun."

On Eagles Head Coach Chip Kelly making the notion that he wanted his new defensive coordinator to have 'shutout-ability': "It's very hard to do in the NFL, it's rare, and like I said, it's a team shutout. It takes everybody to get one."

On what the priorities were for the defense when it came to stopping the Giants on offense: "We knew the run game was the balance that they had and we wanted to make it a one dimensional game. The guys did a great job stopping the run early, and then we took away some quick throwing lanes and that kind of got Eli holding the ball a bit. Then the pass rushers were really on their game today, they rushed well as a group. We moved it around a bit so you didn't know who was rushing and who wasn't, just got them looking at the rush and coverage was tight."

LB CONNOR BARWIN

On how they were able to get so much pressure on the quarterback and disrupt everything the Giants wanted to do: "We'll go back and look at the tape but from the beginning, [Giants QB] Eli Manning was holding onto the ball. It might've been our looks. Obviously the coverage was really good. I don't know if they were jamming the receivers, but he was holding the ball and it allowed us to get an extra second to get there."

On how it felt to get a shutout and to play a complete game: "It felt good to get a shutout. It feels good to play good football for four quarters. Everybody stayed locked into it. [Defensive coordinator] Bill Davis called a great game. Obviously, that's the kind of football we want to play every Sunday."

On whether the front four was generating all of the pressure: "There wasn't that many blitzes, and that's what I mean. I mean the coverages were pretty special tonight, because I know my first sack was purely a coverage sack and then the rest of the time like I said Eli was holding onto the ball."

On what it feels like going into the bye after this: "I think that's what we're capable of doing. We need to keep improving and we've done that within the first five weeks and that was our best full game of football on the defensive side. Obviously [P] Donnie Jones helped us out and gave us great field position and the offense played well too. We got the lead and forced them into a one-dimensional game."

CB CARY WILLIAMS

On the recent criticism of the defensive backs: "We can only control what we can control. Guys at the facility understand how we work, we work tremendously hard. When people criticize us we don't really care, or place the blame, it's all the same. All we want to do is get better each and every week, and this was a great way to kick off the bye week."

On the importance of playing press man this week considering how quickly the Giants like to get the ball out: "I think we did a great job of pressing and communicating in the back end. Up front did a tremendous job getting after [Manning], they were making the pocket muddy and wasn't getting too many lanes to throw in, and made our jobs a lot easier. So collectively, as a unit, we did a great job."

On whether the secondary felt in rhythm tonight: "I would say we collectively as a unit got together and made it happen tonight. It's great to see the potential that we have when we all come together. I think the sky's the limit with this unit. It was our best performance since we've been here as a team collectively and we just want to build on it. It was a great way to start our bye week."

On how tough it is to pitch a shutout in the NFL: "No question it is. It's very difficult. Those guys are very talented, but we were able to put it all together and it came through for us tonight"

On WR Victor Cruz's injury and putting the rivalry aside in those situations: "It's a brotherhood. The National Football League is a brotherhood. Regardless of who you're playing against, everyone is talented. Victor Cruz is a special player in this league and means a lot to everybody. You don't want to see a guy like that go down and it's unfortunate to see him go down the way he did. I just wanted to pray for him, let him know that regardless of the different color jersey we're still brothers, we're still boys and we can still pray for one another, be there for one another in our times of need. I hope he gets well soon, I don't know how serious the injury is…but it's all love at the end of the day. We're competitive we're going to compete until the clock hits double zero. But when you see those guys go down, you don't ever want to see that. To see a guy in that kind of pain, especially because he's a work horse. He's a guy that offense leans on, and is just a tremendous person."

On wanting to bring nasty to the defense, and if this was that kind of performance: "I think collectively it was a great performance from each and every person out there. It was 10 other guys out there that did their job, I did my job today. We all worked as a cohesive unit to get the job done. I think we played a complete game and it was a great way to start our bye week."

On whether the team challenged each other this week: "It was a challenge to play all four quarters. Everybody understood that we played in spurts. We played great defense in the first quarter, sometimes we played not so great defense in later quarters. We weren't able to get a complete game, and tonight was a complete game were everything seemed to go our way. We were just able to make plays today."

On the smack talk from the opposing locker room and if it feels good to punctuate it on the field: "Yeah, you can talk in the tabloids all day but it's about going out there and being productive on Sundays. We just wanted to talk with our pads, to put it out there tonight, and show the world that we can play."

LINEBACKER TRENT COLE

On the defensive shutout: "It was great. When we saw the zero up there going into the half, we knew we just had to keep it. It's great going into this bye week knowing that we accomplished something and we improved. We found out what we needed to clean up during the week. In the past weeks, I have always said we always have time to improve. During this week in practice, everyone was focused and we knew coming into this game what we had to do to put us in the position to win the game. We as players have to go out there and execute, and make sound decisions."

On the trash talking that occurred throughout the week leading up to the game: "It was a good game. Like we said during the week, we would see after the game and after the season."

On the defense having eight sacks: "When our defense works together and stays away from mistakes, things like this can happen. Everyone playing together, as an offense, defense and special teams, everyone came together and played together. Everyone helped each other out and it was a great overall win, especially going into this bye week."

CORNERBACK BRADLEY FLETCHER

On the feeling that the sacks made tonight were considered 'coverage sacks': "It goes both ways, when we're giving those guys more time to get there then they can get there for hurries or sacks or get the ball out by causing fumbles. And when they're getting up there fast it makes our job easier because we don't have to cover for as long when they get to the quarterback fast so it goes hand-in-hand both ways from the upfront guys to the secondary."

On what it feels like to finish the job compared to last week: "That's what we did today we finished it, we kept it at zero and to hold a team in the NFL at zero points you're doing something right, you're doing good things on the back end and the front end. Everybody is doing their job to hold a team to zero."

On this game being considered a punctuation mark after all the talk the Giants did this past week: "We play on the field. Some guys like to do things in the media or this and that but, what we do is we go out on the field and we play the game on the field and that's what we did tonight."

CORNERBACK BRANDON BOYKIN

On the Giants pregame action of stomping on the Eagles logo in the middle of the field: "That's embarrassing for them."

On what the secondary's plan was for the game: "We knew that they were going to try and attack us with slants and deep balls when we blitzed. I know [NY Giants QB] Eli Manning likes to check blitz and then go deep. We knew that was coming and just wanted to be prepared, our defensive line did an amazing job. Just to disrupt him and keep him rattled down there. I felt like at one point he was more concerned with the pass rush than he was looking at his receivers."

On the defense getting the Giants in third and long situations: "That was huge. Getting to third downs and then actually getting off of the field. We did a really good job of that this game in getting off of the field on third down almost every single time is great."

On what it means to shut out the Giants: "I mean it's huge, it's a divisional opponent and we're going to see them again but to make that statement that we're here and our defense is ready to play and ready to come every single game. I think this was an awesome game to roll into that bye week with and just the momentum that we have and the confidence that we have."

On the doubtful questions being stated about the Eagles having been 4-1: "Honestly we don't hear any of that stuff during the week. We're just doing what we have to do so, it's good that they're actually paying attention to all of that and talking and not being focused on what they have to do."

LINEBACKER BRANDON GRAHAM

On going into the bye week with a big win: "It was a great way to end the first half of the season. Our bye week couldn't come at a better time. I just take my hat off to everybody. I am just happy we did what we did to those New York Giants."

On his response to the trash talk leading up to the game: "My response is, let's see what they say. I am not going to go into it too much, but they have to watch what they say because they fired us up and we were ready. We definitely hit them in the mouth today and we just have to keep it going. Next time, when we head up there, I'm sure they won't talk as much, maybe figure out what they need to do to stop us."

On the atmosphere in the locker room following the game: "We were fired up all the way through. We wanted to keep that zero on the scoreboard. It was just fun. We played together as a team and that's all you can ask for. That was the most fun I have had in a minute."

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