Coughlin challenges veteran leaders on Giants
Photo credit: AP | New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin looks on from the sidelines during the second quarter of an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs. (October 4, 2009)
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Tom Coughlin called out the Giants' core of veterans, saying they must pull the team from its funk. "Leaders are lifters," he said. "They are the ones that show the way."
But at least one leader said that kind of public challenge wasn't necessary, mostly because it was already very obvious.
"We're on a three-game losing streak, we're turning into pretty much a laughingstock as far as how we're playing on defense, so . . . he doesn't need to call any of us out," Antonio Pierce said Wednesday. "Our star players, the guys you would consider stars, need to play like stars. The guys who are solid contributors need to contribute even more so. Everybody needs to do a little bit more now because what we're doing is not working."
Pierce went so far as to call himself "the biggest culprit" on a defensive unit and a team that has played without much vitality in recent weeks.
"If I'm the guy they call the leader of the defense, the captain of the defense, which I am, I need to do a better job," he said.
Pierce said for the most part the troubles - on defense anyway - have had very little to do with game-planning or play-calling.
"It's going above the X's and O's and playing a little harder, doing the little extra things, showing some kind of spirit that you really enjoy playing the game, a passion for the game," he said. "It passes you by really quick and we don't want to see our season pass us by."
They could be on the verge of just that. Coughlin described this week's contest against the Chargers as "a one-game season for us." Losing a fourth straight to head into the bye week could cripple the psyche of the team, not to mention severely damage its playoff ambitions. Eli Manning agreed.
"You don't always like to put too much pressure on one game," Manning said, "but I think in this scenario, that is kind of what you have to do."
The players decided not to have any special meetings this week and no one felt the need to stand up and deliver rousing oratory. But Pierce said he already has seen signs that the urgency of the week is being met with renewed vigor.
"You can tell our tempo and our excitement level and our eagerness to understand what the defense is about and the importance of this game," he said after yesterday's practice. "You have to do the little things. Sometimes when you win you let those little things pass you by and when you lose you look at them as those are the things that are killing you."
The Giants need a lot of little things this week, especially from their biggest players.
Notes & quotes: LB Michael Boley (knee) and DT Chris Canty (calf) both practiced Wednesday and both said they expect to be available for Sunday. Canty hasn't played since the opening game and Boley has missed four games after surgery . . . CB Aaron Ross (hamstring) said he expects to do individual drills during the bye next week and is targeting the Week 11 game against the Falcons for his first action of the season . . . WR Mario Manningham (shoulder) practiced after missing Sunday's game.
