On his expectations for this game against the Giants given how much they beat the Giants by last time they played: "They came out with all the fire that they did last game too, we just got on top of them early and kept rolling. The notion that we didn't get their best shot or they weren't playing as hard as they could, this is the NFL, so I don't think that's really an excuse. Right now we're prepared for whatever they do. I think they're going to come out ready to go. We're a different team than we were last time we played them. We had a lot of ups and downs, but I think we're a lot better team than we were back then."
On what games between NFC East rivals are like: "This is where it's at. Especially this time of year, playoff atmosphere, this is when it's a lot more fun to play. It's going to be cold. It's going to be wet. That's football weather for us. It's going to be a lot of fun out there."
On how the defense is better now compared to the last time they played the Giants: "We were just still kind of gelling, still putting new pieces together. We had a lot of injuries then. Now everybody is getting healthy. I think we understand our coaching a little more and our coaches understand us a little more. We're just all on the same page right now."
On S Sean Jones' play thus far this season: "He's done a good job so far. He's come in made plays, played physical, he's made plays on the ball. We haven't been perfect. He's made mistakes, I've made mistakes, but he's done a great job filling in and I think he's really settling in right now and getting more comfortable."
On CB Joselio Hanson's emotions regarding his suspension and what it is like to have him back: "The hardest thing is that he was out by himself. He couldn't workout with us. He couldn't be around us and you feel really isolated in that type of situation. I know that he's happy to be back. We're glad to have him back. (S) Macho (Harris) held it down for him at the nickel position and we're glad to have him back and he's going to go out there and play well this Sunday."
On potentially getting LB Akeem Jordan back this week: "He hasn't taken a whole lot of reps, but from what I have seen he's pretty much almost back to where he was. He can move around. He can run. Obviously he can make plays on the ball; you saw that earlier this season. Hopefully there's a not a big hangover with him getting back and getting re-acquainted with everything. We'll kind of keep and eye on that and see how that goes."
On Giants RB Brandon Jacobs: "He's always been dangerous. It's funny, some of the rookies were like, 'Man, he's that fast?' and we were like, 'Yeah, he's that fast. We've been saying that for a long time.' That's why every time we play him we have to key on him. That's not going to change for us. If you see what happened on that play when he busted for the long touchdown, that's the key right there. You can't let him get going. He can outrun you, he can run you over, and he's nimble, he can stay inbounds or he can shake. We definitely have to get a lot of guys on him, a lot of guys around him and it's going to be the same thing that we try to do every time we play them."
On whether their game plan for defending against Giants QB Eli Manning changes from the last game to this one: "The first time they did a good job with our blitzing. He saw our blitzes and checked out of it. I think we definitely have a different game plan this time. We are always going to be a blitzing team; we're always going to come after them. We just have to be smarter in the situations that we do and how we do it. If that means only bringing five guys instead of seven then we have to do that. The guys have to cover and the guys have to get to the quarterback, get some pressure on them. That's always been our thing around here."
On Manning having a lot of protection in the last game: "They had a lot of three-man routes, seven-man protection; it's pretty much like running into a wall when you have that. We just have to figure out a way to get some pressure on him. Maybe it's not blitzing, maybe it's letting our front four do their thing and just us covering all day and hopefully getting some coverage sacks."
On whether there is a secret to rattling Manning: "In my opinion any quarterback in the NFL doesn't like pressure. You want to be out there, you want to have the perfect pocket, perfect time, and perfect aisles to throw in so any time you can affect any of those three or four things you can affect the quarterback. If that's either getting pressure or messing up the timing, there are all different ways we try to affect that. We're going to do different things at times. We're going to blitz or we're going to affect the timing, I think that's one of the keys that we have to do with him. If he gets hot it will be a long day for us."
On the run defense and whether they are tackling better this year than they were last: "That's something we focus on every year. It's hard to say in years past because I think last year we tackled pretty well. I think right now we're tackling well, but earlier in the year we weren't doing a great job. It's something we work on tremendously and we seem to get better at it lately. Against the run, we've been up and down against the run. For the most part we've been pretty good, but it's usually when we key on it and we focus on it during the week, so hopefully we're focusing on it enough this week because this is running team, this is what they want to do."
On how much of tackling is based on technique rather than attitude: "I personally think technique, all that goes out the window, especially in tackling situations, just get the guy down. That's my take on it. In terms of stopping the run, you can have the right technique, you can be in the right gap, but at the end of the day you just have to beat that guy over and get off the block or run around the block, whatever it takes to get the guy down. That's really what I think is important."
On whether it takes a series for the defense to get a read on opposing running backs: "I think what teams try to do against us is that they try to change up what the do because they know we're a smart team and we key on the things that they. You might come out with a different run and it might work one time, but once we get together on the sidelines we're going to figure out a way to stop it. That's what you have when you have a smart, aggressive team and that's what we try to do."
On whether it is difficult to play against two division rivals two weeks in a row as the Giants are:"I think it can be. They have a veteran team over there so obviously it may or may not affect them. I don't really care what's going on with their mindset. I don't care. We just want to go in and win that game and we know that they're going to be ready to play and it's going to be big time football Sunday Night. All I care about is the guys in this locker room and how we're going to get the job done."
