Post-Game Transcript: Head Coach Ben McAdoo

Head Coach Ben McAdoo

Postgame vs. Dallas, December 11, 2016

Tough, gritty, hard-nosed win. Encouraging out there in December in the elements. Can't say enough about the defense and the effort they played with. Special teams and field position was excellent, pinning them down deep. The offense hung in there, kept pounding, had a bunch of rush attempts, which was encouraging, and found a way to outscore them in the second half.

Q: What is it about the sight of Dallas that inspires the Giants so much?

A: Again, it was just a tough, hard-nosed win in December, in the elements. Ball was tough to handle today for both teams, just encouraging.

Q: What does it say about your team that you can win a game like this?

A: This is how you need to win them in December. It's not going to always be pretty, it's going to be in the elements. You stick together, stick with each other and keep believing.

Q: At some point, did you realize it was going to be a one touchdown game?

A: No, I mean you just keep trying to hammer away this time of the year. You want to keep stacking runs on top of runs, keep pounding the rock. I thought we had a chance to have couple out, one that was called back, want to take a look at the tape and see what happened there with the holding call. Again, you play good defense, special teams was solid, giving us field position, and offense kept running the ball. We’ve got to throw it a little bit better than we did tonight.

Q: What did you think about how Janoris Jenkins played?

A: Janoris, he was all over the field. That was a great play at the end of the ball game, getting his hand on the ball, having that thing come out. But he was all over the field tonight, like a lot of guys on defense.

Q: What can you say about how Romeo Okwara did?

A: He was obviously inspired. Played at a high level, played with a great motor; encouraging to see.

Q: How have you guys found success in two games against Dak Prescott, when so many other teams haven't found that success?

A: Again, you come in, you have a game plan each and every week, you go through the game plan and you put it to the test, the players execute it. Coach Spagnuolo put a great plan together, the players executed the plan, didn't blink, didn't hesitate. There were a couple runs there that they had come out but again, we didn't blink, we didn't flinch, we just kept playing our game.

Q: You have two wins over Dallas, what do you think that says to the rest of the league?

A: I'm not sure what it's saying to the rest of the league, it's about the men in our locker room.

Q: Did you have a communications issue in the second half and how did that affect things?

A: Yeah, there were a couple of times where we were having a hard time getting the call into the quarterback but we adjusted.

Q: On the final offensive drive, was there any thought to go for on the 4th-and-3?

A: We were talking about a couple of different things there.

Q: How did you think Eli Manning played tonight?

A: We'll have to go back and take a look at the tape.

Q: What does two wins over Dallas say to the guys in the locker room?

A: I just think when you take a look at the game tonight, I thought we came out, we had a good plan; defense and special teams executed at a high level. Offense, we stuck with the run, had a chance to accumulate some runs and it's encouraging to get out of here with a win.

Q: Big picture, how important was this win?

A: I think this was probably our best week of preparation since I've been here. I think we put the pads on, on Thursday, for about 60 percent of the practice, a little bit more than half; it was a very physical practice, we got our pads underneath us. I think that played a big role in the outcome tonight.

Q: You knew during the week that the team was ready more than most weeks?

A: I told them last night I felt it was our best week of preparation.

Q: Offensively, overall, how do you think it went?

A: I like the rush attempts and we need to keep pounding the ball, we need to keep stacking the rush attempts. We had some opportunities to execute better. Had some opportunities to call the game a little bit better and we'll look at it, we'll learn from it and we'll get better from here.

Q: So you feel that this was a step forward tonight for the offense?

A: Yes. In the elements, it was a slushy field, slick ball - the ball was hard, the ball was cold - we need to handle it a little bit better than we did obviously. To be able to stack the rush attempts on top of each other and find a way to win the game, 10-0, in the second-half was encouraging.

Q: On special teams.

A: Special teams was big for us tonight. We pinned them down a couple different times. There were some thoughts, some discussions on going for it on fourth down, but (Brad) Wing was really nailing it and they protected him and covered well.

Q: What did you see different from Ereck Flowers in the first half versus the second half?

A: We just settled down, got our fundamentals back and stayed the course.

Q: Did you talk to Flowers at half time? He had a rough first half.

A: The first half is the first half, no one needs to blink, nobody needs to flinch, we need to play the full game. We talked about this thing coming down to the fourth quarter like we knew it would and it did.

Q: How did Kennard do?

A: I thought DK was flying around, making plays. Had a nice batted ball in the last drive, it was encouraging to see.

Q: How much did you notice what happened around the league today in the other games?

A: I don't pay attention.

Q: Do you think your guys do?

A: You'd have to ask them.

Q: What happened with the footballs against Pittsburgh?

A: I don't really know anything about it. I just know that they said that they felt a little… I don't know, the PSI's were a little low, so they checked them, and they just let me know they checked them.

Q: At any point in the game, did you go and check it out?

A: I left my pump at home.

Q: Someone obviously went and checked them.

A: No, I don't check them.