New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll has had a trying season. His team is 5-11 and probably would be closer to .500 if a few things broke their way this year.
But that’s not how the cookie has crumbled.
Last year, Daboll’s first as Giants head coach, the team won a slew of squeakers and snuck into the playoffs. This year, a lot of those squeakers went the other way.
In his media session on Monday, Daboll was still unpacking Sunday’s one-point loss to the Los Angeles Rams and steered clear about any future plans.
The Giants opened the season with a very conservative approach on offense under quarterback Daniel Jones. With Jones out for the year, backups Tyrod Taylor and Tommy DeVito have been taking more shots downfield.
“Hey, big plays help,” Daboll said when it was suggested that he was trying to ‘push the ball downfield’ more as the season has gone on.
“I’ll just talk about last game because it’s the one we just played. I thought that Tyrod saw some things relative to things opening up and let it go and made the right decisions. Every game is different but he’s done that the last couple of games for us, which in turn helps. You skip some third downs and usually, it gives you points. Had one taken back on a penalty but those are always helpful to get into the endzone.”
Daboll still has the confidence of the organization and the locker room. His team has not quit on him despite a mountain of obstacles and disappointing moments.
“First, you have to understand, they’re professionals,” Daboll explained. “So, everybody has a job to do in this league. You try to do it as good as you can do it, try to prepare, take a lot of pride in your work, put a lot of time into it. They put a lot of time into their body, into their studying, they study in groups. This is a group of guys that have worked really hard.
“We haven’t got the results that we want, but the competitive stamina, we certainly talk about competing and finishing and being good teammates. Those are all important characteristics for our program. Again, not the results that we’ve wanted this season, but try to finish strong on a good note against a good team that we just played last week. But certainly you talk about competition and resiliency and toughness and finish, accountability, all those types of things.”
Expect the Giants to give the Philadelphia Eagles everything they’ve got this Sunday in the season finale.
