Post-Game Transcript: Head Coach Brian Daboll

NYG Postgame (vs. Ravens) Transcripts: Head Coach Brian Daboll

October 16, 2022

Daboll: Good, hard-fought win. 60-minute game. We made a few more plays than they did, particularly in the end and give credit to our players. They played for 60 minutes. It’s good to get a win.

Q: You talk about being prepared a lot. The way (running back) Saquon (Barkley) on that last drive didn’t go for the score, is that something you prepare for? Or is that something he took upon himself?
A: No. We prepare for it. We communicated it after the turnover, one first down. We didn’t need any more points. We just ended by kneeling on it, so (offensive coordinator Mike) Kafka and (Director of Football Data & Innovation) Ty (Siam) and (Offensive Assistant/Game Manager) Cade (Knox) do a good job with that.

Q: All week, you talked about (outside linebacker) Kayvon (Thibodeaux) affecting the pocket, affecting the pocket. I guess the last play, he comes up with the strip sack, the defense comes up with two huge turnovers at the end. Can you talk about the defense, Wink’s (defensive coordinator Wink Martindale) unit, and obviously Kayvon at the end?
A: Yeah. I thought they played the best when it counted the most. Obviously, we gave up some plays there to (Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark) Andrews and in the run game a little bit, tightened down up in the red zone, but when it counted the most, the players and Wink dialed up a couple of good schemes and the players executed well in the fourth quarter. That’s what we thought it would be – a fourth quarter game.

Q: Did Wink get a game ball?
A: He broke down the team. I gave the coordinators all game balls last game.

Q: What do you think overall of the grittiness of your club, especially today?
A: I’m just proud of the way they compete. We talked about trying to play fast, trying to play physical, being resilient and finishing. Throughout the game, I thought those showed up – obviously not perfect. There’s certainly a lot of things we can fix; that’s why we’ll be in tomorrow, to try to fix them. And I’m just proud of the way the guys competed.

Q: Why do you think that no matter what’s going on, you were losing the whole game. You weren’t doing much offensively, but your team was able to be resilient. What is it about them? Why do you think you guys are able to do that pretty consistently now?
A: It’s something we’ve preached since day one – since we’ve been here: coaches, people in the building. This league is hard. It’s not always going to be perfect. There will be a lot of people down on you. And you might be down on yourself, wish you could do better. But you keep on getting back up. You keep on swinging, keep on competing, regardless of the score or the situation of the game. And that’s not easy to do, right? That’s not easy to do when you’re down. If you sit on the bench and start bitching and complaining, that’s easy to do. It’s hard to stick with it and get ready to play the next series and not worry about if you just got beat on a pass or if you got sacked. You’ve got to flush it pretty quick. Dr. Lani (Lawrence) does a great job – our team psychologist – of talking to the team. And I think our guys, each week we get a little bit better. We know we’re a long way away. (It’s the) early part of the season. But we just try to compete and do the best job we can.

Q: They were up 10, and you guys obviously needed something. (Quarterback) Daniel (Jones) goes five for five on that last, pretty extensive drive, throwing to guys.
A: Fourth quarter?

Q: Yeah.
A: Again, right?

Q: What is it about him that his numbers are his numbers, but five for five and he comes right down the field?
A: I’m not really worried about that; you know that. I’m not worried about numbers. His job is to compete, to lead his football team down, particularly the offense, make good decisions with the football, take care of it, execute in the red zone. And this was another fourth quarter one for him. Again, when you’re a quarterback, you love to throw it 60 times a game. But we have to, each week, we have to play the way we think we have to play. Look, it was far from perfect. It really was. That’s a hell of a football team over there, but I appreciate the way he competes. And I think his level-headedness really helps him.

Q: On their first touchdown, it appeared that you only had 10 defenders –
A: We did. We had 10. Yeah, unacceptable.

Q: What happened?
A: We had 10. Unacceptable.

Q: An individual just forgetting?
A: I’m not going to get into it; that can’t happen. Put it on me. That’s my fault.

Q: They were obviously focused on Saquon all day, but it looked like there was that one drive where you can see you guys were really focused on getting him going, which he did.
A: Who, Saquon?

Q: Yeah, Saquon.
A: You’re always trying to get him going, and they know that, too. They got really good coaches, really good players, and it’s not always going to be pretty. The run game never is. But I thought Mike did a good job of kind of mixing and matching calls, made some timely calls and eventually he hit on a couple. I don’t think we hit on any big, big ones. But the line got moving forward a little bit, made some big plays there in the end. Again, good team win – everybody involved. But we got a lot of work to do.

Q: What is your understanding of when the play clock goes to zero, when the officials would call a delay of game? It looked like their second touchdown came after it hit zero.
A: You’d have to ask them. Sorry.

Q: But what did they explain to the coaches about it just in general?
A: I got it. I’m not going to get into it. It’s whatever they call, they call.

Q: What kind of tone does it set, or does it create an identify when guys play through things? Like (tackle) Andrew (Thomas), (center Jon) Feliciano, Saquon (all played through things). Does the rest of the team see that and follow that?
A: I think that would really be a good question for the guys. I know as a coach you respect that. Again, you don’t ever want to put anybody out there that can’t do it. The trainers do a good job of communicating, and those guys – we have tough guys. It’s a tough sport. So, credit to those guys for fighting through. Again, I don’t have any idea of what those things are other than they were good to go. So, they fought through it, and played well in the fourth quarter.

Q: You keep saying, ‘There’s things we need to work on a lot. It wasn’t perfect.’ What are the things you’re referring to?
A: I understand the question. There’s strategy each game of how you want to try to play some of the things you need to do, and we certainly could do better of that today. Specific – I don’t want to get into specifics. I hope you can respect that, but there’s a lot.

Q: At the start of the season, is this where you thought the team would be at this point? Or what were you imagining at this point?
A: I don’t go too far ahead. Sorry. I don’t get too far ahead; I just try to do what I can do to help the team the best I can. And I ask everybody to do the same thing in the organization, and collectively together, that’s where our focus needs to be is continuing to improve, owning things when they don’t go right and taking responsibility, competing for one another, playing for one another. Again, we’ve played six games, so it’s a long season left. There’s a lot of work to be done.

Q: We always hear about all coaches saying, ‘We got to play 60 minutes. We got to play 60 minutes.’ But your guys are playing for 60 minutes. That’s not so easy. How do you get them to buy into that week-in and week-out?
A: Well, you try to do that before this even happens back in training camp and OTAs and create situations offensively, defensively, the kicking game – what a great return, blocked well, by (running back) Gary (Brightwell) that gave us a little bit of life there in the early part of the game. You just try to make things as competitive and put them in situations where they got to compete. Again, what they do during the week – I can’t emphasize it enough – their attitudes, their commitment to getting better, being on time to everything, taking care of their bodies, that’s important. And that leads to – it doesn’t always lead to wins – but doing the right thing on a consistent basis is what we’re trying to establish as a program: Let’s get guys that want to do the right thing and want to compete and that play hard.

Q: You didn’t mind throwing (wide receiver) Wan’Dale (Robinson) in there. It wasn’t his debut, but it was sort of in some ways.
A: Pretty much.

Q: What did you think of him?
A: I’m glad he caught those couple balls when he had the opportunity to. I have to look at them – that touchdown, I was excited for him anytime you can get your first touchdown obviously along with a win. But I don’t know how many plays he played, but we managed him a little bit. Hopefully we’ll get some more out of him next week.

Q: Is that touchdown – that’s not, he’s in the slot, it looks like kind of rugged a little bit. Is that the play that you like for him?
A: No. I like a lot of plays for him. Again, when you have that many people out, the quarterback’s got to make a decision based on coverage, where to go, when to go there. And he did a good job.

Q: You won four games last year. What do you make of 5-1?
A: Go into work tomorrow and get better.