SEPTEMBER 15, 2025 BRIAN DABOLL PRESS CONFERENCE…
New York Giants Head Coach Brian Daboll addressed the media on Monday (VIDEO):
Q: How are you health wise coming out of yesterday? How’s (guard Jon) Runyan?
DABOLL: Yeah, there’s a number of people getting looked at, so I’ll have that more for you guys on Wednesday.
Q: What was the thought process on the defensive plan for that pass that set up the game tying field goal? When you kind of look back at it, what do you wish you guys did differently?
DABOLL: Well, I’d say we had a number of opportunities throughout the game in every area to close that game out. There are things to get better at, there’s obviously some good things. But credit to those guys, they hit that 64-yarder, which we knew was in his range there. They had that big play to the middle route right there. We’d like to be a little bit tighter, but there’s a number of plays that came up throughout the game that if you have one different play there or here, it’s going to make a difference in a game like that.
Q: Still on that play going to (Dallas Cowboys’ tight end Jake) Ferguson. I think you had a four-man rush. You knew they probably only needed 18 or 20 yards. Any thought to putting more pressure on (Cowboys’ quarterback) Dak (Prescott) there?
DABOLL: Again, there’s a number of plays, like I said, throughout a game. It’s not ever going to come down to just one play. So, obviously, they hit the 64-yarder. Made a number of plays in overtime to be able to close it out. And at the end of the day, just didn’t do it collectively.
Q: Could the coverage have also been tighter? He seemed to get a free release off the line. I know there’s a lot of plays that in fact-
DABOLL: Yeah, there’s a lot of plays.
Q: But this is the one I’m focusing on, so- just as far as everything you want to learn from every situation, I’m sure, with you and your players. What is the learning moment from that play right there? Game situation, they need 20 yards to kick a long field goal. What maybe could you do to prevent that more than you did yesterday?
DAOLL: Yeah, look, again, it’s never going to come down to one play. I know that’s the one play that you’re talking about. But collectively, we’ve have to be better.
Q: You obviously have a lot of accomplished and decorated players on that defense. How important is it, just in general, in a game like yesterday’s to have one of those guys just come up and be a stopper, be a closer, and make a play to seal that win on any of the opportunities when you had to lead there?
DABOLL: Yeah, I’d say, again, it all goes back to the team. Not one player, not one side, it goes back to the team. We collectively had opportunities and fell short as a collective unit.
Q: I want to flip sides of the ball to the offense. It’s obviously been two very Jekyll and Hyde offensive performances, very different outcomes offensively. What gives you confidence that that, or close to that, is more of what you guys are going to be going forward in terms of output than you were in week one, and that’s not the real you guys?
DABOLL: Well, every week’s different. You try to be as consistent as you can. Put together a plan that you think gives the guys a chance to go out there and perform at a high level but give credit to the guys. We talked about one-on-one catches and plays down the field, and both at the quarterback, receiver, but it also takes the line to protect for them, had a number of those. So, we had a good week. Again, there’s plays we left out there in all three phases, but it was a productive day moving the ball and scoring points.
Q: Respectfully, I understand that every game’s different, but the best offenses in this league, or even top ten offenses in this league, pretty much are good week in, week out, regardless of the opponent. So are there tenets of that game plan that you see are, this is who we want to be going forward, regardless of the opponent? Things you expect that showed up yesterday and didn’t show up week one that you expect will show up with this current cast, regardless of the opponent, that say the way other good offenses have their tenets?
DABOLL: I’ve been in this league for a while with different teams that have scored a lot of points, and every week is a different week. You have to perform, you have to make those plays when they come your way, and our guys did for the most part. You have to be productive on third down, we have to be more productive in the red zone and take advantage of those opportunities we get down there. That all plays into scoring points and making explosives.
Q: Is there anything going forward that says this is how aggressive we want to be, or was that specific to that Cowboys game plan?
DABOLL: You’re trying to create explosives as an offensive unit each week. Now, how you get played, personnel matchups, a lot of those things are dictated on a week-to-week basis in our league. So, no question you want to try to create explosive plays, you want to play well in the red zone, you want to take care of the football, you want to control the line of scrimmage, you want to make good decisions. Those are staples that I think any good offense has.
Q: You mentioned the red zone. These first two games, obviously you guys have had trouble finishing when you guys get in the red zone with touchdowns. What do you see has been a common thread through these two games where it hasn’t worked for you guys?
DABOLL: I’d say a number of things. We went back and looked at a couple things, not just this game this morning. We have to do a good job of putting the right plan together. We have to do a good job of executing, usually the things that you need to do each and every week. Particularly when the area of the field gets tighter, the spacing is less, the force is more, we have to continue to work in that area on both sides of the ball.
Q: On the defensive side, you mentioned being more consistent. I guess from these two games where you give up 21 points to giving up 40 points. I know every game is its own entity, but just what do you see that needs to be more consistent? Or do you see elements that can help you guys be more consistent on that side of the ball?
DABOLL: It goes all the way around. Tackling, communication, eliminating big plays, which the last couple weeks we haven’t given up big, big plays. But performing down in the red zone and taking care of the ball are two things that we’ll continue to emphasize and work on improving.
Q: In terms of, obviously, the defensive plays and the plays that they made offensively at the end of the regulation and in overtime, when you go back and assess it, when you’re breaking down the film, is it a fine line between player execution, strategy? Did we do what we wanted to do schematically? Because it’s always, it seems to be a push and pull, a give and take, the idea of where the blame falls. I know the responsibility falls on everyone, but how do you kind of look at that and say, ‘You know what, okay, we know this was this, and we know this, maybe we shouldn’t have attacked it that way.’ I mean, I know it sounds simplistic and that’s coaching, but I’m just curious from that perspective, how do you assess yesterday?
DABOLL: Well, overall, not good enough. We didn’t get a win. So, look, there’s always certain decisions that you go back and re-evaluate. There’s always certain techniques or things that could show up on the player side of it, but again, it’s a collective deal between scheme, decisions, the playing, everybody’s involved in it. It’s not just this person or this side or that side, that’s just not the way it works as a football team. So there’s plenty of opportunities that we had that we made some of them but didn’t make enough to go ahead and win the game.
Q: On the other side of the ball, after watching the film, how did you think (offensive lineman) Marcus Mbow played out given the circumstances?
DABOLL: I thought he did a lot of good things for his first real performance out there. Certainly, things we can clean up. But he’s been a young professional that’s worked at his craft, and that’s his job is to make sure he’s ready to go if need be.
Q: What’s your message to your players on how to turn the page quickly and not dwell on the disappointment of the Dallas game?
DABOLL: Yeah, I think we get into the meeting rooms and, I don’t know, we watched a 62-play tape today from the game. Some things that were what we wanted them to be, some things that we had to learn from, corrections in all three phases, four phases, coaching, special teams, offense, defense. Then you go back, and you watch the tape, they’re watching it right now, offense and defensively. The kicking game, we’ll watch it after that, and you get ready to go and move on to Kansas City.
Q: You were emotional after the game, a lot of your players were emotional. Do you appreciate the fact that they feel that way after a hard-fought game, and is that the most emotional you’ve been after a Giants game?
DABOLL: You’re emotional every week, you put a lot into this each and every week. And I always feel for the players, they laid it on the line, played a lot of snaps. (Safety Tyler) Nubin played over 100 snaps in the kicking game and defense. And these are games that come down to a play here or a play there. We invested a lot into it during the week, invested a lot into it emotionally, physically on the sideline throughout the game, four quarters plus. And it’s tough when you come up short, so I acknowledge their efforts. Then you get in here, you sit down, you take a look at the things we did well, what we didn’t do so well, what we have to fix and then move on.
Q: What did you see from (quarterback) Jaxson (Dart) yesterday when you put him in for those three plays? I guess after watching the tape, how he performed, and then what conversations did you have with him post-game, or after watching the film?
DABOLL: He only had a few plays. Helped us in the run game, handing it off to 44 (running back Cam Skattebo), making a good decision. Pulled the one and slipped, got a three-yard loss. Then made another good decision on handing the ball off on a second and short, and got a first down. Had two good plays and slipped on the other one.
Q: How does that help a rookie’s development? Going in there when he’s not playing and not starting.
DABOLL: Look, he’s got a job to do on a certain number of plays, and we expect him to do it. So, whether that’s runs, whether that’s passes. We thought, talking on the sideline, we could gain a little bit of an advantage relative to him in the game with a couple of the plays we had, so we put him in.
Q: I just wanted to clear something up. (Running back) Tyrone Tracy’s role yesterday, a little different, obviously, than in the past. Did that have anything to do with any kind of team discipline for the comments he made last week about the play calling, or no?
DABOLL: No. Tracy had a number of kickoff returns that I thought, there were a couple of close ones. So you give him a break off of there. Thought Skat was running good. Again, that could be a week-to-week deal. But we thought we could get the ball in his hands a few more times. They weren’t kicking it to (wide receiver) Gunner (Olszewski), they were kicking it to Tracy and he had some good kickoff returns for us.
THE PLAYERS SPEAK…
Transcripts and video clips of the media sessions with the following players are available in The Corner Forum and on YouTube/Giants.com:
WHAT’S UP NEXT…
The players are off on Tuesday and there is no media availability to the team. The players return to practice on Wednesday.