Post-game quotebook: What the Giants said after bounce-back win over Carolina

Giants players react to dominant defensive performance

What were the New York Giants saying Sunday after beating the Carolina Panthers 25-3? Let’s dive into the postgame press conferences and find out.

James Bradberry on Panthers QB Sam Darnold being benched…

“I think their whole offense was getting frustrated. I know that our front seven did a great job of rushing the passer and getting after the quarterback. I think that affected him today. As far as seeing another quarterback come in, I’m not sure, he’s just another quarterback to me, and I’m trying to get an interception. That’s what I was thinking when he got in. I figured we still have to make some plays to keep our offense ahead.

“I wasn’t really surprised. I wasn’t thinking about it too much. We were about to get on the field, and they said, ‘number six is in.’ I said, ‘bet.’ Of course, you don’t want to see a guy get benched. I felt bad as a player, but that’s the business of it.”

Bradberry on facing his former team…

“It feels good to get an interception against those guys. (Panthers linebacker) Shaq Thompson was on the sideline talking trash the whole time to me every time I lined up to their side. So, it definitely felt good to throw it in his face and get an interception. Like I said before, a lot of the guys, personnel wise, they’re with (The Washington Football Team) now. They’re not even there anymore. I didn’t have any animosity toward the coaches.”

Logan Ryan on LB Benardrick McKinney’s team debut…

“I tried to help him get caught up, but I can tell you right now, it wasn’t perfect for him, for us, but man he set a tone with some of those hits. I mean, it’s as simple as that, some of the aggressiveness, the passion.

Ryan on Panthers HC Matt Rhule’s promise to run the ball 30+ times…

“I love (Panthers Head Coach) Matt Rhule to death, I respected Temple (University) when he was there and he’s a great coach, but he talked about them establishing their identity and running the ball 33 times to figure out who they are, and they just got to do it next week. They couldn’t establish it against us, so they got to do it next week and they’re a good organization over there.

“I always say how Michael Jordan took everything personal. But you hear that man, and this is our house, this is our fans, they pay good money. I heard a guy in the tunnel say he paid $5,000 for a PSL or whatever and hey, you know, I feel that. I want to give him his money’s worth. You just don’t let teams come in here and say they’re going to do this to you and do that to you.”

Leonard Williams on what the defense’s strong performance means going forward…

“This is big time. As a unit, we kind of talked about putting the team on our back more and how our team is—what we think our team is built around the defense. We take pride in being a defensive team and you know so far this year we haven’t really been stepping up to the plate and I think this was a really big game for us. We didn’t allow any touchdowns and we’re putting our offense in some good field position and we closed the game out like we wanted to.”

Daniel Jones on Jason Garrett’s game script…

“I thought it was a really good plan going in and like I said, there’s several different things that we practiced throughout the week. Understanding what that defense does well – their aggressiveness, their speed on defense and then planning according to that. I thought it was a great plan going in and I thought we did a good job executing it.”

Joe Judge on Jones’ physicality during the game…

“I think sometimes it’s maybe presented a little bit different because you see him running down the field and he takes a shot on the catch he makes and all that stuff. But there are a lot of times he stands in the pocket and I gauge his physical toughness based on how he stands in there with the rush coming at him and still delivers the ball. To me, there’s different ways you can gauge that. He definitely had a lot of plays today in terms of showing his toughness.”

Graham Gano on playing against his former team…

“I’ve had this game circled since the schedule came out. I knew they were coming here and I was excited about it. Obviously, I have awesome memories there, but at the end of the day, I’m a New York Giant and that win feels really, really good.”

Gano when asked if he was surprised by Jones’ athleticism…

“No, not at all. He’s an unbelievable athlete. I’m sure you guys see it on all the long runs he breaks. I saw some stat last year that he had one of the highest speeds on a run by a quarterback. None of that surprises me. He comes to work every day and works his butt off, so none of his athleticism or his gifts, his God-given ability, surprises me.”