AP

The Giants have won a pair of Super Bowls under Tom Coughlin, but he said it would have been three if not for Plaxico Burress.

During a taping of CenterStage for the YES Network (via the Newark Star-Ledger), Coughlin touched on a number of topics, but pointed the blame for the lack of a Lombardi Trophy after the 2008 season to Burress being arrested when they were 11-1.

Coughlin told interviewer Michael Kay he was sure they were going to repeat.

“We were the best team in the NFL at the time of the shooting,” Coughlin said.

Of course, over the next month, they lost three of their last four, and laid an egg in the playoffs against the Eagles. They never got into the end zone that day, losing 23-11, with Eli Manning throwing a pair of picks.

So while it’s easy to blame Burress for shooting himself in the leg, maybe Coughlin ought to have suggested his quarterback’s shooting himself in the foot as part of the reason too.