Two months ago, Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul was musing about his team going undefeated. Now he’s just hoping they can win a game -- and he knows they need to do it on Sunday at Philadelphia.
“Honestly, it’s a must-win game,” Pierre-Paul said Friday, via the New York Post. “We know we need this game. It’s a division game. I don’t see us going 0-3.”
Then again, he didn’t seem then going 0-1. Or 0-2.
“This is how I see it, and this is how I play: Go out there like this is a Super Bowl,” Pierre-Paul said. “You got one game to play, and this is a Super Bowl. Don’t worry about the 14 games we got left. Go out there and play like this is a Super Bowl and you’ll come out with a win. When there’s a Super Bowl, you’re under the big lights. Forget Monday night, forget Thursday night, forget Sunday night; when you’re under the big lights, you just see those bright lights and you want to perform at your best, right? So why not do it every day?”
The problem isn’t on Pierre-Paul’s side of the ball, however. And Pierre-Paul seemed to acknowledge that, somewhat tactfully.
“We’ve started 0-6 before, but this team, we’ve got good talent on this team, we just all need to come together,” Pierre-Paul said. “[The] offense needs to come together. Everybody sees it. We got to help them, too, as well. . . . [T]here’s nothing the defense can do on that side of the ball, but I’m pretty sure they’re gonna come out and play [well] this week. . . . We just got to find that willpower to get things done.”
Especially on offense.
“Eli’s a great quarterback,” Pierre-Paul said. “He is. You need to block up front and that’s just the point of the game. When you’re playing football, it starts up front. . . . We’ve got to play our best on the defensive line and the offensive line has to play their best. They’re gonna come out and do good this week.”
It sounds good, but the reality is that the Eagles will be trying to do the same thing. And the Eagles have looked much better this year than the Giants, with a win at Washington and a closely-contested loss at Kansas City.
