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Players Quotes - 10/1: Manning, Bradshaw

QB ELI MANNINGQ: In retrospect after watching the last pass play to Ramses, what were your other options?
A: I think we go with the same approach. Obviously, you can try to run the ball there and do different things and kick a 44-yarder. Obviously, if you knew what was going to happen on that play, that's what you do, but I think I just could have thrown the ball differently. Probably just throw it back shoulder with the way the corner was playing, so you don't put Ramses in a situation where he is worried about the absolute worst thing that could happen is an interception. That's what you can't have occur. Then (it's) game over, you don't even have a shot. So I just could have put the ball in a better spot.

Q: What were your options with 15 seconds left in the game?
A: It's risky and it all depends on what defense they're playing and you never know… You can try to get, obviously, something to the sidelines. They would probably take that away. They're going to play some sort of… probably a two-man technique where it's going to be tough to hit anything on the sidelines and they're going to probably tackle you in bounds and then it's just… You can say if you throw a little five or six yard pass, you could probably spike it, but you just don't know if that's available and you don't know what's going to happen. There's a lot of maybes in that situation. I think if you run another play, you risk the possibility of not having an opportunity to kick the field goal and win the game.

Q: Did you have a run option on the play to Ramses or was that totally a pass play?
A: That was a pass play called and you try to get closer. We're at the 26. Usually, when we do two-minute drives at practice, if we need a field goal, we say to get around the 17 yard line. If you're at the 25, 24 and clocks running out, you understand those circumstances or we talked about getting to the 17 and we always think to try to get as close as possible and if you can score a touchdown, you try to score a touchdown. That's the mentality that we have. You see a lot of teams get to the 30-yard line and then all of sudden get conservative and then you've got to kick a 48-yarder. Those aren't guaranteed as well and so you want to get as close as possible to try to insure the win.

BRADSHAW: There's a lot of different things we can correct and execute a little better, get in there and then it goes both ways. We played our butts off. We just didn't finish.

Q: You guys passed a lot more than you ran. Is that kind of how the game unfolded?
A: That was just the game plan, I guess. It could have been a couple of situations where we could have done different, but it's just how the game goes, how you feel, the feeling of the game and what the coaches feel like calling and how they feel the defense is playing.

Q: Did you want a few more opportunities to run the ball?A: Definitely. I'm sure everybody has seen that and everybody wanted that if I was a Giants fan. They look at it now and think different about it, but the game went the way it went and we played fairly well. We just didn't finish.

READ MORE >> RB DAVID WILSONQ: Were you sitting there saying that I can break any of these returns for a touchdown?
A: Yeah, like every return. Even the one I got tackled inside the 20. I made a cut and slipped and if you watch it on film, it was a long cutback lane I was trying to get to.

Q: It seems like this was your best returning week. Did you feel like things were clicking this week?
A: Yeah, I think the guys in front of me, they did an excellent job setting it up and getting on their guys and coach always says, 'Get a good returner back there, guys get more motivated to block for him.' So hopefully we can keep it going.

Q: The one you were tackled on inside the 20, you also were pretty deep in the end zone. Do you have the green light to take it back out from wherever you are?
A: Yeah, five yards deep is the minimum, but the off returner is the one that tells me to stay in or come out.

WR RAMSES BARDEN Q: If you could do it all over again, how would you play the final play differently?
A: Maybe do something different at the line of scrimmage. Maybe try to hold him inside longer, but once you're 20 yards down field… If he's ahead of you or he's got inside position and the ball is kind of tracking him more than me, then I've got to find a way to not let him get it. So something on the front end maybe, but after that's it's he can't come down with the ball. So I'm not ashamed about that at all.

Q: Would he have intercepted the ball if you didn't get involved?
A: That's what I have to assume, you have to. I can't just let him go and hope he doesn't. He's a talented guy. He's one of the best corners in the league. Arguably the best, so you've got to assume somebody has a fair track to a ball that he's going to come down with it, so I can't let that happen. I thought it was clean enough to maybe not call it, but I respect the call. What's done is done.

Q: How were your emotions after Lawrence's kick?
A: You wait till the end of the kick. I wish we didn't have to put him in that position, but Lawrence is a hell of a kicker. He had a tremendous week last week and we tried to set him up with a game winner, but it wasn't fair to him to ask him to kick it that far.




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