The Giants will mind their P’s, not their Q’s.
Sitting at 6-2 and headed into a bye week, the “P” word — playoffs — still gets ignored whenever head coach Brian Daboll or a player is asked about the big picture. But there is a new “Q” word — quarter — approved for evaluating success.
“For me — and I know Coach Dabes does this as well — you put the season into quarters,” safety Julian Love said. “The first quarter we were 3-1. The second quarter we were 3-1. Really, if you keep on that path, things look good for you. But you’ve got to keep it segmented. You can’t think about this whole second half.”
The Giants would be 12-4 headed into the final week of the regular season using duplicate quarterly math. That sounds a little greedy considering that, with nine games remaining, they already have matched their high for wins in a season over the last five years despite Sunday’s 27-13 loss to the Seahawks.
“It’s been fun to win, it’s been fun to play well and pull out some of these games down the stretch,” quarterback Daniel Jones said. “We appreciate the position we’re in. We’re enjoying that, but there’s a lot of work to do. I don’t think anyone is satisfied with where we are. We understand there’s a lot still out there for us if we want to be the team that we think we’re capable of being.”
From 2017-21, the unofficial halfway point offered the bleakness of three 1-7 starts and two 2-6 starts. So, the overnight turnaround feels even bigger than a four- or five-game differential.
“It definitely can’t be overstated,” Love said.
Players are off the rest of the week and free to travel, and coaches will take a long weekend. The Giants requested not to have the traditional post-London trip bye week to be set up this way.
“At this point during the season, I think everyone’s tired, coaching-wise. Everybody’s sore, playing-wise,” Daboll said. “It’s just the nature of this league, and you just keep on pushing through. I think you need to try to take advantage of a little bit of downtime to recuperate, to get some rest and to come back fresh.”
After logging four defensive snaps combined in the last three games, rookie inside linebacker Micah McFadden played 27 of a possible 64 against the Seahawks. Jaylon Smith played 54. All at the expense of starter Tae Crowder (22).
McFadden, who had his first career sack among four tackles, is on the rise because of “continual improvement,” according to Daboll.
“He’s done the right thing on and off the field,” Daboll added. “We use a lot of packages on defense and shuffle a lot of guys in and out, and that was something that we were going to do this week — give him some chances. He made the most of them.”
WR Richie James is in the concussion protocol and DL Nick Williams (biceps) could miss games after the bye, after they were injured Sunday. Daboll said it is “probably too early right now” to know which previously injured players could be back Nov. 6 against the Texans but he is “hopeful” for WR Kenny Golladay.