Coughlin steals page from Belichick: We're on to Atlanta

By Jason Rowan

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin proved otherwise Wednesday when he borrowed from Bill Belichick’s “How to Obstinately Deal with the Media” playbook.

Coughlin did so by invoking a similarly themed retort on multiple occasions during his session with reporters to stonewall the media, much like the New England Patriots head coach did last season to much acclaim and/or condemnation when he repeatedly said “On to Cincinnati” over and over and over.

In other words, instead of addressing the fallout from the end-of-game debacle that occurred during Sunday night’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys, the cagey Coughlin instead opted to say the team has moved on from Week 1 and instead is focusing its attention on the Atlanta Falcons.

“We’ve had conversations, and we’re on to Atlanta,” Coughlin said, via NJ.com, when asked if he has had any discussions with Eli Manning after the quarterback admitted he told running back Rashad Jennings to not reach the end zone on consecutive rushes from inside the 5-yard line with less than two minutes remaining and the Giants up 23-20.

When asked if he felt it was necessary for Jennings to apologize to Manning in his weekly New York Post column, Coughlin again invoked a “moving on” mantra.

“I’m going forward to Atlanta, thank you very much,” he responded.

The media wasn’t about to let Coughlin off the hook just yet, but he turned back their parries once again when asked what his message for the team will be this week.

“Let’s go,” he said, gesturing toward the door.

Coach Belichick probably couldn’t be prouder of such a Belichickian display of media stonewalling.

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