Brian Daboll: Giants have to ‘own’ Sunday’s performance, then move on

New York Giants fans are waiting eagerly for information on the status of Andrew Thomas’s injured hamstring. Unfortunately, Giants coach Brian Daboll said on Monday that he won’t have information until Wednesday when the Giants resume practice, since the star left tackle was still undergoing testing.

Backup tackle Matt Peart was also undergoing testing on Monday for an undisclosed injury. Placekicker Graham Gano, who was cleated in the kicking leg while chasing the ball after Sunday’s blocked field goal, was also being examined. Daboll did not sound like he expected the Giants to need to bring in another kicker.

Here are more takeaways from Daboll’s somber video call with the media Monday afternoon:

On personnel evaluations

Obviously, this topic would specifically refer to the right side of the offense where guard Mark Glowinski and tackle Evan Neal were disastrous, giving up 17 total pressures between the two of them, per Pro Football Focus.

Daboll said the Giants try to have conversation about personnel every week so that “it’s a consistent them” of evaluation.

“We evaluate the tape, I’d say, with a critical eye starting with us as a staff first and the players and then if – not to go back into last year, but you sit down as a coaching staff during the week,” Daboll said. “Obviously, you take into account what happened the previous game and you have difficult discussions if you need to have them and then try to make the best decision you can for the team based off of – you do look at performance in training camp, no question about it, but you also are real with performance in the game, so I’d say it’s probably a little bit of both and at the end of the day you’ve got to make the decision you think is going to help your team.”

As for Glowinski, the Giants would have options. Josh Ezeudu is one. Shane Lemieux or Marcus McKethan would be others. Again, though, it seems unlikely that the Giants would pull Glowinski, a veteran guard, from the lineup after one game.

Lack of a pass rush

Asked about the Giants’ anemic pass rush, which managed only three hits and no sacks on Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott, Daboll deflected to a generic statement about the entire team.

“I’d say every area after a game like last night every area you have to draw our attention to,” Daboll said. “That’s what we’ve gotta do as a coaching staff, that’s what we’ve gotta do as players. We’ve got to improve I’d say in a number of areas.”

What now?

“You take it for what it’s worth. It was a poor performance. You learn from the things that you can learn and then you’ve really got to get focused on the next week,” Daboll said. “Whether it was a win or a loss it really has no effect on the next week.

“Your job is to be honest, to show them [players] some of the things we can do better as a team, whether it’s the staff, whether it’s players, and then to get on to next week.

“It’s a humbling league. One week doesn’t have much effect on the next week.”

Daboll said there is no running from how badly the Giants played.

“We didn’t perform well, so you own it,” he said. “You can’t let it linger too long. You go through the tape. It won’t be a fun tape to watch.

“You can’t run from it. You can’t hide from it. You own it, and then you move on.”

Quote of the day

— Brian Daboll on how much he slept after Sunday night’s loss.

‘It’s one game’

Because it was Dallas, a team the Giants have to beat at least occasionally to scale the NFC East mountain, and because it was so lopsided it feels like much more than just one loss. In some ways, it was. Daboll, though, had to play they ‘we have 16 weeks left’ card.

“We’re all in this together. We’ve worked hard. Obviously, the results were not good,” Daboll said. “You keep your eye on the prize, you keep on grinding, you keep on working.

“It’s one game here.”