Q: You’ve been down at halftime in all three games. Why have you had difficult starts?
A: “We went down there and got points. Obviously, you want to start fast. That’s a heck of a team. It usually comes down to making plays when you have an opportunity to make plays. They did a good job, give them credit. That’s a heck of a football team there. We came back out in the second half, had a score, went for two to try to cut it to three. It was a 17-12 game. Just give them credit. They did a lot of good stuff. That’s a good team.”
Q: Why couldn’t guys get off the field defensively on third down?
A: “I think they were seven of nine in the first half. And a few of them were screens where they just caught and run. We’ve got to rally the ball out and make tackles. Third down was huge tonight in this game. It was a contributing factor to doubling the time of possession on both sides. When you’re not converting third downs and you’re giving up some third downs, there’s time of possession. Your defense gets tired and we’re not out on the field offensively enough. It’s a collective thing.”
Q: You knew the running game was going to be up against it without Giants RB Saquon Barkley. But were you disappointed in how little you got?
A: “Again, that’s a good football team. There’s a lot of stuff that we can do better in every phase. We’ll get back to work. The players will get some days off and we’ll try to correct some things and come back ready to go.”
Q: Were they doing anything specific to limit Giants QB Daniel Jones?
A: “No, no. They played their defense. They’re fast, talented, aggressive. Nothing in particular.”
Q: What did you see in Daniel?
A: “I’m going to watch the tape on the way back. I’m sure there’s plays he’d like to have back. I’m sure there’s plays everybody would like to have back.”
Q: Were you limited offensively because of some injuries?
A: “No excuses. We could do a better job.”
Q: With how shorthanded you were because of injuries, can you take any positives from the game?
A: “You have to take the good from it and you have to learn from the bad. Just like every game. The guys competed. We competed all the way to the end. They made more plays than we did. You go back and take a look at it and get going on the next week.”
Q: The missed tackles were glaring tonight. Is that because you weren’t able to get out on the field and have full practices?
A: “No. No excuses. Nope.”
Q: What made you decide to go with Giants RG Mark Glowinski?
A: “That’s something we talked about as a coaching staff. He was going to go in at left, right Mark or be a backup. We wanted to give him an opportunity to go out and play.”
Q: What did you see in the skirmish at the end of the first half?
A: “I saw a couple of punches thrown and then the referees backed everybody off. I couldn’t see the whole thing. I just saw a couple of punches there.”
Q: There was a report about Saquon’s high ankle sprain. Does that make it more difficult for somebody to come back?
A: “I’d say he was considerably better. I talked to him the day I talked to you guys and the next day he just said I don’t think I’ll be able to go. I said, ‘Okay, we’ll rule you out and we’ll see where it goes next week.’ But he’s walking around.”
Q: There were two plays that looked like you had a chance to get the ball to Giants TE Darren Waller.
A: “One was the over and the other one was a double move. That one was close. We missed it. We missed the one on the over. The other one was fairly tight coverage. He tried to put it kind of behind him. The one that we missed on the over, it was an 11-point game at that particular time and it just sailed over his head a little bit.”
Q: Is that a catch you make?
A: “I think it was a little bit high. It was overthrown.”
Q: Other than the first play, you didn’t really take many shots out there today. Were they taking that away?
A: “We called a fair amount of them, whether they’re high-Vs, crossers, middle posts. A couple of times we had them and the protection leaked a couple of times. They covered them. It was a delicate balance with that defensive line that they’ve got. You have to decide how many guys you keep in to help out the protection to make sure you can get off more vertical routes versus getting it out a little bit quicker. Again, I just give that team a lot of credit. They’re a really good football team.”
Q: Going back to Saquon, when you don’t have him, does that make it harder to have play action actually be effective because the defense doesn’t have to focus on him?
A: “No excuses with anybody that missed the game or who played. We have to go out there, compete and try to win our football games. There’s no excuses.”
Q: That illegal contact on Giants LB Kayvon Thibodeaux, do you think it was within the five yards?
A: “Yeah, but it wasn’t, I guess.”
Q: You guys had some costly penalties. Do you feel like some were questionable?
A: “They call what they see. They’ve got a tough job to do. Again, that’s an excuse. We’re not going to make excuses about any of it.”
Q: Did you get an explanation on why Giants DL Leonard Williams was called for roughing the passer?
A: “He landed on him with full body contact. I understand why they called it.”
Q: Does he have the break is full?
A: “Yeah, try to go to the side. It’s hard to do, but they’ve shown plenty of tape to us. Leo was playing his tail off, playing hard and just landed right with full body contact. They’ll call that mostly every time.”
Q: Most people will look at the 49ers as one of the best teams and the way you guys played today, it was close, but the final score wasn’t close. Is there a good lesson for these guys to see what it’s going to take to get to the top of the league?
A: “You have to be at your best every week. They are a very good football team. We play good football teams every week. A lot of work needs to be done. We’ll clean up some of the mistakes, learn from some of the good things and get ready to play next week.”
Q: Considering you said that you were optimistic about Saquon this week, do you think with 11 days, he can get back?
A: “We’ll see. He’s been getting better. We’ll see where he’s at. I’m not going to give it a timetable. I just know that since it happened, each day he felt a little better.”
Q: After spending six days on the West Coast, do you feel like you’re still a good football team?
A: “We just got done getting beat, so, you’re not happy when you get beat. I’ve got all of the confidence in the people in our room and we’ve got a lot of work to do. Again, make no excuses, roll up our sleeves, go to work and have a good week of practice.”
Q: Do you know anything about the severity of Giants CB Deonte Banks’ injury? Or Giants DL D.J. Davidson?
A: “I don’t. I haven’t talked to [Giants VP of Medical Services] Ronnie [Barnes] yet. Banks I see as an arm. Davidson’s an elbow. That’s what I’ve got on this.”
Q: What was the thinking about calling the timeouts at the end of the game and putting Giants QB Tyrod Taylor in?
A: “I wanted to give Tyrod an opportunity to try to get a drive, try to finish, play 60 minutes.”
Q: What about Giants WR Wan’dale Robinson?
A: “We had some good routes in there. It was good to get him back. We had a pitch count on him for this game and hopefully next week, we’ll be able to add a little more to it.”