The New York Giants find themselves in an unusual position this week — preparing for the NFC Divisional Playoffs.
The team has not been in this position in 11 years and many believe they shouldn’t be here right now. One of the big reasons they are is the job first-year head coach Brian Daboll has done this season. Some have equated him dragging his ragtag team to the postseason as nothing short of a minor miracle.
During his media session on Monday, Daboll was asked if he tried to “walk on water or multiply loaves and fish.”
“Have I?” Daboll responded with a laugh. “I would sink like a son of a (expletive).”
Daboll was hired last winter to turn around a Giants franchise that had desperately fallen on hard times. They had lost 10 or more games in five consecutive seasons and seven of the last eight, the worst stretch of football in the near century-long existence of the Giants.
The Giants got into the postseason as the sixth seed in the NFC and then upset the third-seeded Vikings in Minnesota last Sunday to earn the right to face the Philadelphia Eagles this Saturday night in Philly.
“I think every division game is important,” said Daboll. “We were, obviously, 0-2 against them this year. So, we’ve got to do a good job this week of getting ready to play the best team in the league, the best team in the NFC.
“Any time you play a division game, it’s a pretty good rivalry. Obviously, this is a pretty big one here being so close to one another. They have a tremendous fan base, a tremendous team, and it will certainly be a big challenge for us. ”
Daboll has been cagey about doing things such as making predictions or giving opponents bulletin board fodder for extra incentive. He’s been a steady hand and after a decade of chaos, he’s been a welcome presence.
