Brian Daboll keeping Giants' 4-1 record in perspective
Giants head coach Brian Daboll interacts on the sidelines during a game against the Green Bay Packers at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on October 9, 2022 in London,. Credit: Getty Images/Stu Forster
Brian Daboll was fired up, to put it mildly, as he left the field in London after his Giants upset the Packers, 27-22, on Sunday.
A fist was pumped. Arms were raised. A naughty word was uttered in celebration.
Twenty-five hours and 3,500 miles later, the first-year coach all but put his index fingers in his ears, closed his eyes and started humming any time a reporter dared reference the job he is doing or the hot start his team is off to.
When one adventurous fellow noted that some already are calling Daboll the NFL Coach of the Year, Daboll credited his players, his staff and his trainers, then added this:
“You know, we’ve only played five games. So this is a very humbling league. It can get you quick. So focus on the next game.”
Any coach would have said something similar, but this is a new stage for Daboll, a chatty, gregarious sort in real life who is doing his best to keep things in perspective and under control now that the cameras are on him at least four days a week.
Naturally, 4-1 beats the heck out of 1-4, but this is no time to start doing a victory lap.
How will he keep the team from getting full of itself?
“I just think we stay consistent with how we approach things during the week,” he said. “Whether you have a losing record, a winning record, I don’t think you can focus on your record.
“You have to focus on what you need to do to improve throughout the week and for the team that you’re playing against and be as consistent as you can with that.”
Asked about a perception that the Giants are the league’s worst 4-1 team, the coach said, “I don’t focus on any of that stuff . . . Our job is to go out there and take a look and correct the things we need to correct each week.”
You get the idea. Daboll was not biting on what reporters were feeding him.
One thing he has going for him in keeping players focused is the NFC East standings. What was supposed to be one of the league’s weakest divisions instead has three teams that are 4-1 or better.
The Giants’ results speak for themselves, and the players are willing to speak for Daboll’s role in that even if the coach himself is not.
After Sunday’s game, Dexter Lawrence was asked how much credit Daboll and his staff deserve for the turnaround.
“I think he brought a different attitude,” Lawrence said. “He let the players kind of lead things and he let the players take control of some things and he takes care of us. He’s just got all of us feeling like it’s one. It’s a unit. It’s a family. It’s a good credit to him.’’
Saquon Barkley said what has changed this season is “obviously just a standard, the culture, the coaches. But to be completely honest, what I believe has changed is we are finding ways to win games . . . That’s just all because of the process.
“All because of the way that we come to work. All because of the way that we have got guys that love to be coached the way our coaches coach. Everybody from all the way up to the top of the building to training staff to being in the lunchroom, equipment guys, everybody. We’ve got a really good thing going in the facility and we’ve just got to keep building on it.”
Notes & quotes: Daboll offered no updates on injured players, including CB Adoree’ Jackson . . . The Giants signed WR Robert Foster, 28, who was with the team in the offseason, to the practice squad. He had 32 receptions for 642 yards and three touchdowns with the Bills and Commanders from 2018-20.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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