Brian Daboll deserves credit for pressing the right buttons at halftime of Sunday’s historic 31-28 Giants comeback win over the Arizona Cardinals.
Daniel Jones said the head coach’s message was “fiery” and “passionate,” like he always is, preaching “the urgency we needed.”
Daboll gave all the credit to his players and said it’s not about what he said; it’s about how Jones and the team responded on the field to a 60-0 season deficit after six quarters.
“I just said what I had to say,” Daboll said. “It’s really not about a halftime speech or a halftime adjustment. You do those things all the time. I think it’s about the will of the player. And when you haven’t scored a point in a game and a half and you come in at halftime, I’d say as a leader there is a delicate balance between focusing on the next play and maybe a little extra.”
“But again, all the credit goes to the players, the play callers, the assistant coaches,” Daboll said. “It was good to get this win. We made it hard, I’ll tell you that. We made it hard.”
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That “little extra,” Daboll said, was about stressing belief in his team’s ability to fight “with confidence and sternness.”
“Yeah. Just belief,” the second-year coach said. “But you could talk about it until you’re blue in the face, belief. It’s gotta happen. You have to see tangible results, too. I think we have some mentally tough players on our team and coaches. It’s not always easy to be mentally tough when you’re, whatever it is, 60-0 after a game and a half.”
“So there’s encouragement,” Daboll said of his urgency. “There is detail in what needs to get done. And I wouldn’t say you scream and yell, I don’t think that’s the answer. But you definitely place an emphasis on what needs to be done and how it needs to be done with confidence and sternness.”
