Gregg Giannotti is still confident that the New York Giants will march into Minnesota on Sunday and beat the Vikings on Super Wild Card Weekend.
But what about the Giants themselves?
“I think you’d have to ask them, because every week is a new week in the NFL,” head coach Brian Daboll said Sunday when asked if he thinks the Giants’ close Week 16 loss gives them confidence. “We have obviously division games, played teams twice, and usually in the playoffs you're playing good teams. You probably get a crack at them twice, too. We need our best week of preparation."
Okay, so how about Daboll?
"I just know I have to do a great job of doing my job. Coaches have to do a great job of preparing. Like I said, each week is a different week,” Daboll said. “This week will be a different week than it was the last time we played them. Just like Washington was different. Just like the Philly game and Dallas. They're all different. We'll just control the things we can control which is our preparation and practice. We'll figure out when we're going to play I'm assuming after this game tonight."
Not many thought the Giants would be in the position they’re in right now – even Gio said the Giants would win four or five games – but they always believed, and here they are.
“We did enough to get to the postseason. In terms of the evaluation of all that, that will be another time and place. You want to win every game, but I was proud of the way our guys competed today,” Daboll said. “Unfortunately, you come up short. The results weren't there but all the process and the preparation, like it's been all year, has been good. We are going to be at our best this week."
For many Giants, this is their first taste of the postseason, but Daboll has been to the postseason in eight of his last nine NFL seasons…but like everything else, he thinks this time is a new experience, and all that past experience will be is just that: past.
“They’re all a little bit different, you know? The first one was 21 years ago and the last one was an unbelievable game last year at Kansas City. And all in between there's about 30 of them,” he said. “Each experience is different. I think you can definitely learn, absolutely. You can learn things just like you do in the regular season, but how it goes for that particular game that you are getting ready to play, it really doesn't have much bearing at all. You have to play well, you have to coach well. It's a one game season, that's what it's at."
As he noted, the first time Daboll was part of a Super Bowl in New England, "the quarterback there didn't have any playoff experience" - and Tom Brady turned out okay, which is one of the reasons Daboll believes playoff experience is "overrated."
"I think really what you make out of it is the experience probably is overrated, to be honest with you. It's how you prepare, how you practice, and ultimately how you play the game and coach the game on whatever day it is," Daboll said. "I've been around a lot of different teams that had varying levels of experience, and I think really what matters is taking advantage of your opportunities when they come and playing a good football game, coaching a good football game."
One thing he can count on: he will get the Giants ready to play to the best of their ability.
"Look, we try to do the best job we can every time we play. The results aren't always what we want, but how we competed, how we prepared, I give those guys in our locker room a lot of credit,” Daboll said. “They work extremely hard. They are smart, tough, and dependable, and we’ll go home, get in the training room, get in the meeting rooms, and have our best week of preparation. The most important thing is playing and coaching well, and I think the focus has to be where it's always at: this particular week. We're guaranteed one more week, that's it."
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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