Justin Pugh: 'There isn't a good enough word to describe how bad I played' Quote
PHILADELPHIA -- On a night where everything went wrong for the Giants, a majority of the struggles seemed to stem from terrible play from the offensive line.
Quarterbacks Eli Manning and Ryan Nassib were sacked eight times and the Giants mustered just 253 yards of total offense in a 27-0 shutout loss to the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.
Giants offensive tackle and 2013 first-round draft pick Justin Pugh took full responsibility for the Eagles onslaught of pressure reaching the backfield Sunday night.
"I started off the day in a bad way, and I let one play affect the next play," Pugh explained.
"I’m gonna have to go look at the tape, obviously I started off, set a bad tone, you can’t let a sack, strip sack, I let that affect me, I let it affect me throughout the game, and you can’t do that. You gotta forget those plays and drive on, and I think penalties hurt us. Really it was probably the worst game I’ve ever played, hands down, not even close."
Manning, who had seen so much success over the last three weeks in Giants offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo's west coast offense by and large because of his ability to get rid of the football quickly, held onto the ball and never seemed comfortable in the pocket against the Eagles.
Pugh said afterwards that as the game wore on, so too did the frustration he and his teammates along the offensive line felt as the Eagles put on a pass rush clinic led by outside linebacker Connor Barwin's three sacks.
"I mean you don’t want to see the quarterback getting hit," Pugh said. "We know what he can do when you give him time and we didn’t give him time tonight at all. That starts with me, I played poorly, there isn’t a good enough word to describe how bad I played. I’m gonna learn from this, I’m gonna work my ass off, I can guarantee you that.
"We didn’t get off to the best start, we were behind, we had our chances, I know obviously it didn’t look like that, but we score there and that first turnover the defense got us, the defense was playing great, right there we gotta put that in the end zone."
Things won't get any easier for the Giants next week against the Dallas Cowboys who currently sit tied with the Eagles for first place in the NFC East and beat the Seattle Seahawks Sunday afternoon, sacking Russell Wilson twice and forcing two turnovers in the process.
http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2014/10/justin_pugh_there_isnt_a_good_enough_word_to_describe_how_bad_i_played.html