Jason Pierre-Paul: Defense is a Little Soft

On Tuesday, safety Antrel Rolle spoke about how the Giants defense needs to play with more of a bite, be more nasty and aggressive.

Apparently, at least one of his teammates agrees with him.

“I’m behind Rolle 100 percent,” said defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul. “I think we’re a little soft, but I think we’ll get there. We haven’t played our best game this year, and I know that for a fact, that we haven’t played it.”

When it was pointed out that ‘soft’ isn’t a word that football players like to hear, Pierre-Paul didn’t back down.

“It ain’t, but like I said, I’m behind ‘Trel 100 percent.”

Pierre-Paul hesitated at first when asked why he thought the defense was soft, but then after thinking about it for a bit, he said, “I think the reason is because, like I said, we haven’t played our best game. We haven’t played our best game this year.

“As a defense, like, we have to make a statement, you know what I’m saying? We haven’t made a statement ever since, I’ll say, San Francisco. Well, I’m lying, because we did beat up on Green Bay quite a bit. But, ever since then, we haven’t made a statement.”

He was, of course, speaking about the Monday night game against the Redskins, who beat the Giants up in the second half and kept quarterback Eli Manning and the offense off the field.

“We’re all not playing together,” Pierre-Paul said. “When you’re a team, on an organization like this, you’ve got to play together as one; otherwise, you’ll keep going downhill.”

Pierre-Paul said the fix for what ails the Giants defense is simple.

“We’ve got to come in and just listen,” he said. “Don’t think you know it all. Come in and listen, and everything is going to be alright.”

Pierre-Paul wouldn’t identify teammates whom he suspected of being ‘know-it-alls,’ but did allow that there were some in the  locker room.

“Some, some, I don’t know. I can only talk for myself. I don’t know it all. I come in and listen and listen to the coaches and whatever they tell me to do, I do. There’s nothing to it. I do what they ask me to do, and I’m always running to the ball, and that’s basically it.”

He was also tight-lipped when asked if he thought some of his teammates were freelancing too much.

“I don’t know.  Maybe, maybe not.  All we can do is watch the film and correct. The Redskins game, it was a fight to the end but they wound up winning, and we’ve got to put it past us. We’ve got to put it past us now and that’s basically it.”