'Miserable' Tom Coughlin not here for ice cream and cake

Tom Coughlin may be miserable, but he refuses to let his players see it.

That's what he said in his weekly interview with Giants.com when asked about using the word "miserable" with reporters earlier this week to describe how the seven-game losing streak is affecting him.

"I'm the energy," he said. "Despite what you would really like to say about circumstances, there is a difference between being honest and stating the exact state of affairs and trying to build off of that, and doing it in such a way that it's more of a downer. I find that the circumstance that we're in here is one of trying to get people back up, lift them up and encourage them."

So is he really miserable?

"Don't worry about me," he said. "They asked me a question and I told them exactly what it was. What do you think it was, ice cream and cake? That's not what we're here for. Nobody expected this, but guess what, you're not going to get me down. Not publicly. You're not going to see that. I am not going to cower to the adversity. I'm not going to do it."

Coughlin also had a long list of wishes for the final four games of the season, longer probably than the ones his grandkids have for Santa Claus. And probably more elusive.

"I want to win," he said. "I want to win the first game (Sunday at Tennessee) right off the bat. I want to play four quarters. I want to get to a situation where the game is on the line and win it and finish the game, which we've talked about since day one. I want to quit inventing ways to beat ourselves. I mean, there wasn't any question about the formula against the team (Jacksonville) last weekend. So what do we do? Not only turn it over, we give them touchdowns off of turnovers. It's the most incredible thing you've seen.

"There's a lot to get done. I want to score some points. Since when is 21 points enough? It's never enough. You're playing against good teams. They've got players that can put it in the end zone. I want to stop somebody on defense. I want to react well to the running quarterback. I want to force the other team to turn the ball over. Hell, catch the ball when they throw it to you. I want to do all those things. I want to run a punt back for a touchdown. I want to run a kickoff back for a touchdown. I want to get a turnover from a special teams outfit. I want to get better as the game goes on, like it's supposed to be. The greatest opportunity, you have 16 of them.

"All the practice and whatever, you can't fabricate the opponent and his ability and the challenges that he brings, so the player must rise to the occasion, improve, be a gamer, recognize what the other guy's doing, answer the call, figure it out, let your instincts and your ability take over. I'd like to see some of that in these last four games."

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.