Head Coach Brian Daboll
Brian, what do you think the key was to this win?
"Just a normal NFL game. Competitive. Showed a lot of resiliency on the road, particularly how the game started. This is the third anniversary of my grandmother's death, which is today, the 22nd. She raised me and I was kind of giving her the business after the first two plays – like what do you have in store for me? But the guys competed, I was proud of the way they competed. That's a good football team. Defensively they are a good football team and I thought we got into a rhythm and made some plays early in the game. Stalled out a few in the second half, but at the end of the day, made a play there at the end to seal it. Mota??? did a great job. There are a lot of ebbs and flows to the game, some fumbles. A fumble again coming out in the second half, a fumble we have to take care of, but a lot of resiliency from the guys in uniform in the room. Proud of those guys."
Can you speak to WR Malik Nabers and what he was accomplishing in the first half?
"I'd say the biggest play Malik made – we had a little throwback to (WR) Theo (Johnson), which we had – I think, big play possibility backed up and (QB) Daniel's (Jones) arm got hit. So it's up in the air, and for him to make that play in that situation, you know, risk-reward call. I think we were getting man-to-man and he scoots out the back there and I thought, 'this might go.' For him to have the awareness to knock the ball down, that play says more to me about Malik that some of the other things. Everyone can see the touchdowns, but the unselfish play, the smart play he made was a huge play in the game. Huge."
How do you make sure that after those first 11 seconds, the team doesn't sink its head?
"That's what we talk about since OTA's. We talk about resilience and commitment to one another, teamwork and discipline, attitude. There are going to be ebbs and flows to every game, there's ebbs and flows to every season. That's something we preach internally. You know, our guys have internal confidence, but it's good to get the result. The process has been right, I believe in our process and I've said that before. So their commitment to one-another, their next-play mentality – the things we preach for a long time. They have it come to fruition. Everyone wants to see the results and this is a results business. I believe in what we do and how we do things. That showed I think in terms of being on the road, it's cranking there, a touchdown right after the fumble, just to stay locked in and committed to the next-play mentality doesn't always turn out your way and today it did. I give our guys a lot of credit."
What did you see from QB Daniel Jones?
"Another good week. He's had two good weeks in a row. I don't know, another hundred-plus quarterback rating, two touchdowns, no interceptions, handled the noise well. Did a great job of not turning the football over. Executing, I think we were 100% but took the knee at the end. He was locked in and he's been that way. We're going to need it from him this week – a short week. A lot of work to do."
What was your vantage point of that pass to Malik on the sideline right before the touchdown?
"It was one hell of a catch. I'm going to go back and watch it on tape. I saw it and said, 'Oh', but then he came down with it. Again, when you have a guy like that, it doesn't really matter the matchup. Throw the ball up to him and trust he's going to get it. It takes a lot of trust between and a quarterback and a receiver to be able to do that. Particularly with the leverage of the defender, how is he playing? You always talk to the receiver – it's your ball or it's nobody's ball. That's how you develop trust. My seven-year old made a play like that the other day, so working on that. Again, he's a good football player. You've all seen it. Still a lot to work on and I've said this numerous times, glad we have him."
You talk a lot about process. How important was it for the guys to see that the benefit is the results?
"That's the key, right? We like to have a good process, which leads to good results. That's the ideal box. Sometimes you have a good process that leads to bad results, but still a box you want to be in although the results are not good. Then you can have bad processes and bad results, which is what we don't want to do. So the commitment to one another, how we do things, or bad process but good results which is a slippery slope too. Again, the way our guys work, their commitment, their practice habits, their study habits, it's not always going to lead to a win. You'd love for it to, but I know every week they go in and give everything the've got. In the classroom, work hard on the practice field. The coaches are together, there is chemistry, they work their tails off, unfortunately sometimes you don't get the results you want. It's good to get the results for this – it's one game and a lot to clean up on. We have a short week to do it against a great team."
Can you talk about your decision to go for it early on 4th down?
"I liked the play we had. A jet sweep to (Giants WR) Malik (Nabers) and put it in his hands. Carried some momentum, confidence in the players. We've been doing it in practice. When you get to a point where you feel that, those decisions really aren't too difficult to make."
The pass rush was particularly effective - is that what you imagined when you put this together?
"Yeah, it was great. I don't know if we had eight sacks or something like that. It was pressure too. I think again when you look at it, how is the game being played? So their team is down 21-7 you get to a certain point where there's more passes or things like that, so that helps too. It's not just the pass rush, it's how you play the game complementary style. We can get up 21-3 and that's a whole different game. Conversely when you get down, it's hard, so there's going to be more pressure on a quarterback. That's the hardest thing to do is protect the quarterback when you know they have to throw it. So I thought so far one of our better games of complimentary football."
There was a real shift in approach with the way you blitzed in this game. It was about 50% of the dropbacks brought more than four rushers. What went into that?
"I didn't have my calculator. Again, game plan. Each week we go into the staff on Monday and Tuesday – we think this is what needs to be done. Played a little bit more man than we probably have in the past couple games. It can change each week - that's what I like about (Giants DC) Shane (Bowen) and the defensive staff and the offensive staff, and (Giants Special Teams Coordinator Michael Ghobrial) Goby, to be honest with you.. They exhaust all their resources, they spend a lot of time together, they work late, they're committed to one another, and then they come up with a plan that we think is best for our football team. Sometimes you have to adjust to that, it's not working the best. Sometimes it's working good
and that's why you spend all those hours there at work. But again it's one game, and it certainly beats the alternative of the result that we've had the first 2 weeks. We have a lot of work to do, but I'm proud of the players and the coaches."
Did they players indicate to you or to the defensive coordinators that they wanted to be more aggressive?
"No, look, Shane does a great job. Goby, (Giants OC Mike Kafka) Kaf, we all work together and we come up with a plan. The players have been great. Do you take players' input on certain things, sure. There's days I'm asking what do you like. But that's what makes the teams I've been a part of, when you can have that type of communication, that's being a team."
As a play caller, in the first half did you feel that you had the right plan to attack Browns DC Jim Schwartz's defense?
"I mean I felt I had the right plan all game, but we didn't score in the second half. That's how you have to feel as a play caller. That's why you spend all that time putting it in. They did a good job of spinning it. They got into much more man type stuff. They were spinning it early on and doing things. We were screening and we were doing a lot of different things too. It comes down ultimately to the execution of it, but we were in a little bit of a rhythm. The quarterback was seeing things good. We were changing up styles of play. The running game, we were throwing enough in there, but he's a really good defensive coordinator. They did a really good job in the second half. We thought we missed some opportunities and ultimately when you don't score, you look at yourself and say what could I have done a little bit differently. Turnovers – huge on both sides. I thought collectively we did enough. There's still stuff to clean up – there's a call here or there like you hit that play to (Giants TE) Theo (Johnson) – that's a huge one that's split seconds away. But you have to be willing to do that particularly when you get up. I don't think you can close up. You have to be able to throw the ball down field and mix things up when they're playing a certain style."
There were three possessions from the defense when they were put back on the field with the Browns having the chance to go down the field and either tie or score and they stood on their head all three times. What does that say about the staff and the players out there?
"I would just say again you can talk about resiliency until you're blue in the face. When you're in the midst of it as a leader, you have to stand up and you have to own it, and you have to keep things as positive as you can, and look onto the next game and the next play. Those guys buy in. We have a good group of young men. You have to put everything you've got into it. You can see how close the game was today. We got off to a fast start and it was still nip and tuck all the way to the end. That's usually the way these games are. But it's one game. Again, I'm happy for the players. I'm happy for the coaches. The amount of effort and time they spent in it, but certainly a lot of things we can clean up."
