NFL

Coughlin believes Jason Pierre-Paul will return

Playoff elimination is a reality, but coach Tom Coughlin is not yet in look-ahead to 2014 mode, a point he stressed Monday and, as if offering up evidence to support his claim, said he is thinking Jason Pierre-Paul will play again this season, perhaps even this week against the Seahawks.

If the Giants, with three games remaining, wanted to make decisions today based on next season, they would opt to shut Pierre-Paul down, as the talented defensive end has missed two straight games with a right shoulder injury and admits he will not be fully healed until next year.

“As I know right now, that decision has not come down,’’ Coughlin said of shelving JPP for the remaining games. “As a matter of fact, JPP feels better and as of last weekend, thought that this week he would be perhaps in a position where he might be able to practice and prepare himself to play.

“That’s the way the weekend was left. I don’t know anything different just now, but we will assess each one of those circumstances and I’m sure that the medical people will allow us to look at it if need be and make those kinds of decisions going forward..’’

Mathias Kiwanuka called the flight home from San Diego “a tough one’’ after the 37-14 loss to the Chargers. “Obviously you always want to get a win, especially when you make the trip out there like that,” he said. “You want to have something to celebrate on the way home and we didn’t get it done.” … Antrel Rolle almost always is on the field for every defensive snap, every game, but he was shaken up in the third quarter, stayed down for a moment, got to his feet and jogged off to the sideline. Rolle stayed on the side for one play and then returned, meaning he played 71 of the 72 defensive snaps.


Three more turnovers (interceptions Nos. 19 and 20 for Eli Manning and an Andre Brown fumble) raised the Giants’ season total to an NFL-high 34. The Chargers scored 14 points off the first two turnovers. That increases the points scored off Giants turnovers this season to 116, 35 percent of the 334 points allowed. … The 135-yard receiving day for Hakeem Nicks was his 13th regular-season 100-yard receiving game, tying him with Del Shofner for fourth place on the Giants’ career list.


There was a time when it appeared Nicks, who, incredibly, is only 25 years old, would own every Giants receiving record, given his production in his first three NFL seasons. Now it appears he has three games left in his Giants’ career in a down season, still searching for his first touchdown of 2013.