Giants’ coach Brian Daboll: ‘The whole season obviously is in front of you right now’

Nov 25, 2022 - 7:31 PM

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New York Giants coach Brian Daboll spoke Thursday night about the “ebbs and flows” of an NFL season.

The Giants raced out to a shocking 6-1 start. They have come back to earth by losing three of their last four, including back-to-back games to the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys in a four-day span.

The result? The Giants are 7-4, currently the No. 6 seed in the NFC playoffs. Maybe they weren’t as good as the 6-1 start made some people believe. They probably aren’t as bad as the recent stretch of losses makes it look.

“The whole season obviously is in front of you right now,” Daboll said on Friday. “We have a long way to go. Obviously, the rest of December here and the early part of January. So, we have to focus on getting ready to play Washington, but you’re sitting at 7-4. You put yourself in a position to play meaningful games in December, which is important. Last year [in Buffalo], I think we were 7-6 after 13 games.

“Look, anything can happen in this league. I’ve said it before, it’s a humbling league. You can be on the top of the mountain one week and fall off the next week. The biggest thing for us is to remain consistent in the things that we try to do each week to give ourselves the best chance to win. Do they always work? No, but I think a consistent approach is the best approach.”

The Giants have a mini-bye week to rest and get ready for the final stretch — two games against the Washington Commanders, two against the Philadelphia Eagles, one each against the Minnesota Vikings and Indianapolis Colts.

Daboll has preached that consistent approach all season. The results were better early than they have been of late, but that approach is not going to waver.

“I just think that consistency helps in the seat that I’m in. Certainly, you don’t want to lose games, have bad performances, have bad decisions, have bad play calls. You take a lot of pride in what we do,” Daboll said. “We knew and we know, just being in this league a long time, you’re going to face a lot of this stuff. And it’s easy to get down on yourself or get down as a team. I think the important thing is to just keep the main thing the main thing. (It’s) ‘What can we do to help improve the results?’

“So, do I like to lose? Do we like to lose? Hell no. We don’t like to lose. But I think you have to keep the main thing the main thing. Look, every team in this league, from the start of training camp on, has certain goals they want to achieve. But I think you have to make short-terms goals throughout the season as you go along and be consistent with that.”

The goal right now is simple — give themselves the best possible chance to win their upcoming game against Washington.

Injury updates

Daboll was asked about the possibility that right tackle Evan Neal (sprained MCL) and three players currently on IR — guard Ben Bredeson, tight end Daniel Bellinger, edge defender Azeez Ojulari — might be available against the Commanders.

“I think all those guys are improving,” he said. “They’ll have three good days of treatment here coming up. We’ll see where we’re at on Monday.”