Q: How tough of a cornerback is Brandon Flowers?

MATT CASSEL: “Brandon Flowers is a great player. He has great quickness and good ball skills. He is a good corner and it is always fun to get out there and compete against him because he is always competitive.”

Q: What is so tough about Flowers?

CASSEL: “I think one of his best assets is his quickness. He comes in and out of breaks fast and does a good job with that.”

Q: How does it feel to not be on the injury report this week?

CASSEL: “It feels pretty good actually. I didn’t even know that I wasn’t on the injury report. It is good and I feel healthy. I feel like I am getting there, so it is good.”

Q: How tough is it for you to get comfortable with changes taking place each week on the offensive line?

CASSEL: “For the quarterback, really you are going back there and just doing your job and hoping that everyone around you does their job. You don’t really think about who is in there and you try and execute the offense that is called. We have timing routes, play-action routes and all different kinds of things we do. You go back there as a quarterback and try and execute the play, go through your progressions and sometimes you have to step up and run. It is all just based on what the play is.”

Q: Were you frustrated with not getting a chance to throw the ball down the field last week?

CASSEL: “I don’t call the plays. Coach calls the plays and I just try and go out there and execute it. When Coach feels it is necessary to take shots down the field then we will but that is a question you will have to ask him. I think we have take some shots down the field and WR Mark Bradley showed he can make a big play down the field last week with (WR) Dwayne Bowe the week before and (WR) Mark Bradley in Baltimore with a great play down the field. There is no doubt that we are capable of it.”

Q: Would you like to throw the ball down the field more?

CASSEL: “Anytime you get a chance to make a big play, of course, you love to do something like that. If Coach thinks the best situation is to go out there and try and throw the ball short, break a tackle and get the ball out quick, that is what we are going to do.”

Q: What does newly-acquired TE Leonard Pope bring to the offense?

CASSEL: “He is a big physical guy who is in there. I am getting to know him a little bit better this week but you can already tell that he has a great physical presence about himself and he was in Todd’s (Haley) system last year, so I don’t think it is much of a transition for him when it comes to terminology. Hopefully we can get him worked in quickly and he can go out and contribute.”

Q: What kind of problems do the Giants present?

CASSEL: “I think the Giants are a big, physical football team who is very similar in style in terms of blitz zone schemes to what Philadelphia was last week. We have to do a great job of handling the rush up front, when they are blitzing we have to be able to pick up and we are going to have to beat man coverage. They do a good job with the corners on the outside and they try and challenge you.”

Q: Has it been an adjustment working with a team that is younger than the New England team you worked with last season?

CASSEL: “I think it has been an adjustment for me this whole off-season. I’ve come to a new place, I have a new home, a new team and a new playbook. In terms of players, we have the players and we have the scheme, now we just have to play better as a unit. I go back to New England last year, we struggled a little bit early on but as we started to move along in the season we got better and played better together. We are three games into the season and there is no reason to hit the panic button. I have told the guys this week that we need to just keep going out. They want to count us out but we just have to keep pushing forward, correct our mistakes, eliminate the penalties and bad football and we will immediately get better.”

Q: Sometime being the underdog, teams use that as motivation. Has there been any talk of that amongst the players?

CASSEL: “We are very focused on ourselves this week. Offensively, anytime you go out and are 0-11 on third downs, you are not going to win very many ball games. We need to put great emphasis on that and get better on third downs. We just have to play better as a unit. We have to eliminate penalties and take it upon ourselves, every position group, to get better in different areas.”

Q: How do you get better as a unit when people are being shuffled in and out?

CASSEL: “There are a core group of guys here and we have to make it go no matter what we have to do. It is not like we have a whole new lineup every single week. We have to go out, we have our core guys and we have a good basis for what the system is now and like I said, it will immediately help us if we eliminate the bad football including penalties, turning over the ball; all of those things.”

Q: Were you frustrated running the ball as many times as you did in the second half of last weekend’s game when you were behind?

CASSEL: “Again, you never go against the head coach. If he thinks that is what is best for the team, then that is what we will do. I hope that whatever we do, somehow we figure out a way to get this thing going in the right direction and start winning.”

Q: What do you think the mentality of the locker room is like right now?

CASSEL: “I think we can’t worry about what is going on outside the locker room. We need to worry about ourselves. It is Week Four, it is not Week 14 and we have a lot of football left to play. If we can continue to get better each and every week and play better, then we are going to put ourselves in a position to win. We are not a bad football team, we are just making dumb decisions out there and as a result we are having bad outcomes.”

Q: Did you expect the growing pains to be quite as steep?

CASSEL: “We are definitely going through some growing pains, there is no doubt about it. At the same time, I think there is plenty of time to keep getting better and we are just going to keep working towards it.”

Q: How much better does WR Dwayne Bowe make this offense?

CASSEL: “Dwayne Bowe is a big physical receiver and he is a guy that has proven he can play in the National Football League. He is a guy that has a good presence about himself, so anytime he is on the field he immediately goes out and gives us a boost. I don’t know what the situation is with Dwayne this week but hopefully he will be out there.”

Q: Statistically QBs are struggling against this Giants defense. From watching film, do you know why?

CASSEL: “They just do a good job. They are a solid defense that does well together and create pressure with their front four but at the same time they play sound defense and don’t give up big plays. Like I said before, they are going to challenge us. Whatever we have to do from a receiver standpoint, we have to get out there and compete.”