Brian Flores – December 5, 2021 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 5, 2021
Postgame – N.Y. Giants
Head Coach Brian Flores
Q: (Opening statement)
BRIAN FLORES: First I wanted to pay homage to Carl Madsen. He is a replay official — was the replay official on the staff. He passed away last month. I think there’s a lot of people in this league who help us play the game that we love. He was part of that, so I just wanted to send my condolences to his family because, obviously, the official is a part of the NFL family. Just wanted to start off with that.
Q. When you have a defense that’s playing as stingy – I don’t know if that’s the right word – in terms of limiting opponents when scoring touchdowns, how much does it ease the load that the rest of the team has?
BRIAN FLORES: I think it’s always — you always want to play a complementary game and play well in all phases: Offensively, defensively, and the kicking game. You know, when you can obviously keep the score down, it gives you more opportunities to stay in the game, keep a lead. I thought the Giants had a very good game plan. I thought they moved it on us. They played a tough, physical game. We knew it was going to be 60 minutes. I know they were down a bunch of guys, but they are well-coached, and I thought Joe (Judge) did a great job getting his team ready. I thought Pat (Graham) does what he does. He kept the score down and made it hard for us. So credit to them. Our guys played hard, and they just made a few more plays than they made offensively, defensively, and in the kicking game.
Q. It seems like regardless of – especially during the winning streak, regardless of how the offense might play for the first 50 or so minutes, it seems like a late win when you need to make a stop or when you need to stay on the field, Tua is able to kind of generate some completions or you get a big play. What do you attribute to that? It seems like the past couple of weeks you’ve always seen late game execution really thrive.
BRIAN FLORES: I think it’s obviously led by Tua, and making throws, making catches, doing a good job of protection, taking care of the football. We talk a lot about those late game situations, how important they are and finishing the game off the right way offensively, defensively, and the kicking game. I thought we did that really across the board. We moved it offensively. We stopped them, and we moved it offensively. We kicked and missed a field goal, and then turned around and kicked another one. That was great by Jason (Sanders) to turn right around and make it for us, put us up two scores. And then go out there defensively to finish the game there. It was a good team effort, complementary, and we get to take a little break right now which is good. Guys are obviously banged up obviously after 13 games. Take a little break, and we’ll obviously self-scout and reassess and try to take a little break. I think we need that.
Q. To add off that, while the late game execution has been good, Tua seemed like he had a measured tone saying the offense left plays out there. Is that a similar feeling you got where you are happy you won the game, but you just need a little more from the offense? Do you feel that?
BRIAN FLORES: I think that’s going be to the case every week. There are always plays that you wish you had back, throws, catches, protections, calls. That’s really across the board: Offensively, defensively, and the kicking game. I thought they made some plays. I thought Golladay made some catches, Engram made some catches, Cooper made some catches against tight coverage. Glennon made some tight-window throws. I think Joe had them ready. We just made a few more plays than they did.
Q. You spoke a little bit Monday about this being the time of year for rookies where the season is longer than they’re used to. What kind of response did you see from Jaylen, Jaelan, and Jevon, in particular, and Liam this week as they hit that and try to punch through that wall?
BRIAN FLORES: I don’t really talk about it too much. We need those guys to play for us and play well, so I think thankfully they get this week to rest up, heal up. I think all four of those guys — really five of those guys, including Hunter and Trill as well. These guys work hard. It’s important to them. They are all sponges. We’ve said this really the entire year. It’s a long season. It’s hard to gauge that and to know how their bodies are feeling, but it looks like they got energy, they got juice. They got the right approach, which leads me to believe that they’re ready to go, and we’re going to need them to be ready to go.
Q. To follow up on that with Jaelan Phillips in particular, does he seem to be getting kind of that peak or hitting that stride at the right time, or what have you seen from him that’s led to this uptick in production over the past six weeks?
BRIAN FLORES: I’m seeing the same things that we saw earlier in the year. I continue to say this. There’s a process there, and then I think a lot of people look at the production and think that that’s the kind of final analysis of a player, but I think he’s — I haven’t watched the film, but I know there are some other games that based on some things that I saw already that he did better in some instances in some other games. We had some production today. We need that. He is doing a good job. He is doing a very good job. We have a lot of guys that are doing a good job that aren’t getting the stats, the flash stats, but I think we got a lot of guys playing well, and he is certainly one of them.
Q. A lot was made when you guys didn’t have the post-London bye. Now is this… You played the last seven weeks in a row, and now you guys are rested for this final stretch run.
BRIAN FLORES: A lot was made of that and, I think maybe opinions are different now. I don’t know. But like I said then, this is the schedule we have, and we’re just going to play it out and it’s good to have some time right now for us to reassess, re-evaluate and for the players to get some rest.
Q. Obviously a seven-game losing streak is tough to handle mentally, but now a five-game winning streak, how much does that build on the things that you guys are coaching and reinforcing in terms of the message?
BRIAN FLORES: I think we’re just kind of focused on today. Today is a game against a good opponent. A tough victory in a 60-minute ball game, and we just try to take it one day at a time and not think about what’s happened in the past or talk about the future too much. We’re just trying to get better every day.
Q. What is your schedule for this week? Do the guys have to be in at all?
BRIAN FLORES: Yeah, they’ll be in tomorrow.
Q. Is there like an unwritten rule, written rule on bye weeks, sticking around, leaving town, coming to the facility?
BRIAN FLORES: Our guys got to be smart. They’ll have some time off, but my big message to them is be safe, spend some time with your family, go, enjoy yourself, relax, but be safe. That’s the big thing. Enjoy yourselves. They’ve earned it, but be safe. Hopefully you guys write about that and they read about that because that’s really the message I want them to hear. We’ll come in and do a little work this week. It’s been 13 games, so I don’t see us getting out there and putting pads on and banging on each other, but we’ll meet, try to make some corrections, try to look through some things that we can do better, but they’ll certainly have some time off to relax, get off their feet, and enjoy themselves a little, but be safe, please. Thank you.
