NOVEMBER 4, 2024 BRIAN DABOLL PRESS CONFERENCE…
New York Giants Head Coach Brian Daboll addressed the media on Monday to discuss his team’s 27-22 loss to the Washington Commanders (VIDEO):
Q: To start with the two-point conversions, I understand the math. I know why teams do it. I understand the down 14 logic. But two-point conversions are way down this year. Teams are converting like 32 percent. I know you do a lot of analytics; any idea why two-point conversion success is way down this year compared to like a 10-year sample? And your actual play calls on those, do you need to come up with something different because you guys are 0 for 6?
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah. A lot of our two-point plays are this play or that play. They did a good job of defending them. Again, I think that you evaluate the league, relative to defenses you see or schemes that people are using. And then you go into it each week deciding ‘if we’re in this situation, do we want to go for it or do we want to kick it?’ Certainly, with some of the two-point plays that we’ve had and not executing, that weighs into it; felt good about those. And that’s not to say it could change. Certainly, haven’t been successful on those as we’d like to be. It’s something that we talk about, I’d say often, with the analytics group that we have here. Like there’s a wide variety of things that we talk about. Situations, down, up, that was something that we were going to do this game and didn’t go on it.
Q: And then quarterback wise, I know a tale of two halves for (quarterback) Daniel (Jones). So, I’ll start with moving forward, is he still your starting quarterback this week?
BRIAN DABOLL: He is.
Q: Nothing changes reps wise?
BRIAN DABOLL: Nothing changes.
Q: What did you think of his second half? It seemed like obviously the circumstances dictated it. And was that why he was a much more aggressive player in the second half? Or did something change play caller, play wise?
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, we had three series in the first half. So, we were a third and two. We ran a little boot naked, and they did a good job defending it. We drove down on the second series and the turnover on the screen that we had. We had a real long drive, I think 17 or 16, something like that. So, I felt comfortable with the way we were playing against this team, minimizing some of the pass rush that they had the week before, creating some issues for the (Chicago) Bears in that regard. I thought we were controlling the game, maybe not the score, but being able to move the ball, control the line of scrimmage. And then in the second half, obviously the one drive we had was more of a two-minute drive, but some long drives there too. Went three and out, hit that third and eight when we threw it to (tight end) Theo (Johnson) there. But he was doing what he was supposed to do. He was accurate with the ball. He was 20 of 26, whatever it may be, and had an opportunity to even have some more completions in there. So again, it was a few things, a few plays that we’d like to have back. Obviously that turnover was huge, but he did his job.
Q: Something more on Daniel. I mean I know it’s not a win, it’s not a W, but do you feel that he had a winning performance yesterday?
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I thought he did a nice job. The week before I thought he did a lot of good things. Again, when you lose, it doesn’t feel like any of that. But he made a lot of good plays for us. He had the batted ball, we had (wide receiver) Malik (Nabes) behind it. A couple other balls that were kind of right off the tips of a couple of guys here. But I think he executed the offense well and gave us an opportunity.
Q: You’re one of the youngest teams in the league. You have a bunch of rookies playing. Do you have to as a head coach have your antenna up even more so with these young guys who you feel are going to be your core players now and in the future that ‘okay, we’re losing here, and their head space is in the right place’. Sometimes veterans understand it, sometimes rookies don’t.
BRIAN DABOLL: That’s a good question. Yeah, we continue to have our rookie meetings, and the coaches continue to emphasize the things that we need to do to be in the right mindset, practice with the right habits, prepare with the right habits and ultimately go out there. And again, there’s going to be some things that happen throughout a game, particularly for young guys that you’re going to have to go ahead and coach up. And we need to do that. We need to continue to do that. They’ve had some good spots here in the last few weeks of improving. And then there’s things that happened with any young player that you got to continue to correct and make sure that they’re in the right head space. I like our rookie class. I think they are mature. They work really hard. And we’re just trying to keep cleaning it up.
Q: Would you say that with (safety) Tyler Nubin and with (cornerback) Dru Phillips, that they fall in that category? Some good things and then some not so good.
BRIAN DABOLL: It’s probably for everybody. Again, they have the right mindset. They have the right DNA that we look for. And again, you’ve got to correct some of the things that happened throughout a game and be able to move on to the next play. But have confidence in those young guys, we’ve got to keep help developing them and keep growing them as the season goes on. When there’s good stuff happening and when there’s stuff that needs to be improved.
Q: Guys in the concussion protocol, (wide receiver) Ihmir (Smith-Marsette) and (wide receiver) Darius (Slayton), are both?
BRIAN DABOLL: I know Darius (Slayton) is in the concussion protocol. And Ihmir (Smith-Marsette), I think he checked out okay. So, it’s really Darius (Slayton).
Q: Is he (Darius Slayton) going to be able to be cleared before you travel on Thursday because of the wonky week this week?
BRIAN DABOLL: I think it’ll be the normal procedure that all the guys went through, the same one that (running back Tyrone) Tracy went through or (wide receiver) Malik (Nabers), so…
Q: I guess what I’m asking is, can he travel without being cleared?
BRIAN DABOLL: He can travel.
Q: What does this week represent in terms of challenges of scheduling and getting everybody focused in a very strange week?
BRIAN DABOLL: We did it a few years back. We’ll have a meeting here in about 10 minutes and it’ll last about a half an hour to go through all the logistics of the trip, the travel, procedures and everything that needs to be done. Then we’ll get on to correcting the tape and get our game plan ready to go. We’ll practice Wednesday, practice Thursday, leave Thursday night, sleep on the airplane and get there Friday, kind of like we did when we were in London. So, a lot to get done here in a short amount of time.
Q: You said on the two-point plays, they can be ‘this or that’ plays. What do you mean by that?
BRIAN DABOLL: Check-with-me plays. If they give us one look, we get to the other look. I’d say a lot of teams do that with their looks. Give Washington credit, they did a nice job.
Q: With the second one in particular, would that be one you would have liked to check out of?
BRIAN DABOLL: I would just say that the guys are trying to do everything they can do to make it right, and Washington did a nice job and give Washington credit.
Q: With guys on IR, (outside linebacker) Kayvon (Thibodeaux) is eligible to come off this week, (kicker) Graham (Gano) has been eligible. Do you have a sense on either one of those guys being possible for this week?
BRIAN DABOLL: Graham (Gano), I think, has a chance. Kayvon (Thibodeaux), I don’t think does. I still have to meet with our medical guys, but I think Graham (Gano) is getting close. How close he is right now, I think we’ll know here in the next couple days.
Q: What about (punter) Jamie Gillan while we’re on that?
BRIAN DABOLL: I think that he’s progressed well. We’ll see here tomorrow or Wednesday where he’s at.
Q: So, you think he has a chance?
BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I think he has a chance.
Q: At 2-and-7, what is your approach? Obviously the trade deadline is tomorrow and I’m sure you have input on that as well, so how do you look at that?
BRIAN DABOLL: Really our focus, my focus, is on doing what we can do to get a win here and do everything we can do. I know (Senior Vice President and General Manager) Joe (Schoen) is upstairs and evaluating and things like that, but my focus is on our team and who we have right now and trying to help them improve and try to get the results we’re looking for.
Q: Based off that, how do you balance looking at things long-term, whether like you just said, ‘Okay, I’m worried about this week.’…
BRIAN DABOLL: Mine is this week. That’s what I focus on. That’s what we all need to focus on in terms of the coaches and the players. Put everything we got into it, like we normally do, and do as good as we can do to try to get the results that we’re all hoping for. And that’s where our mindset is.
Q: Do you see it getting better? Like where? Where do you see that you are making strides?
BRIAN DABOLL: I think this past game I thought we did a good job on third and fourth down, offensively, of keeping the chains moving. We were pretty efficient throughout the day. But we got that call down there in the end zone that that got us. We missed a couple of two points. So, we left some points on the board. Defensively, we’re communicating well. We still got to keep on working on this run game and give them credit, they had some good schemes in the run game with the quarterback reads and the different pulls and things like that. So again, there’s four or five plays each game the last couple of weeks, that you never know when those are going to be. Those are the ones that we got to make sure we’re making.
Q: Several of your players spoke out after the game about being frustrated. Do you appreciate their passion? Do you understand their frustration? And do you welcome their comments?
BRIAN DABOLL: When you’re not getting the results you want, that’s fine. I would hope everybody is. We put a lot into this. Spend a lot of time in the building, work very hard at practice, try to iron out all the details and that’s what you want out of competitors. So, that’s what we’ll continue to do. I don’t think anybody should be happy. But I understand, from everybody, the level of commitment that these guys put into it. Not just the players, the coaches as well. So, that’s what we’ll continue to do. Give it everything we got each and every week. Preparation wise, practice wise, and then ultimately game day wise. There’s again a few plays here and there that we got to either make them or we don’t make them, and those are huge contributing plays to the results that you’re looking for. I’m in charge of all that. That’s what I’m going to work to do. I look forward to getting ready to go this week.
WHAT’S UP NEXT…
The players are off Tuesday when there is no media availability to the team. The Giants return to practice on Wednesday.