Joe Judge challenged the Giants to come out and show who was willing to fight in the second half of Sunday’s loss to the Rams, and said after the game he was pleased with what he saw on the whole.
However, with the rhetoric that the Giants practice well but don’t execute on Sundays, it’s likely some changes are going to be have to made going forward if, as Judge said, “it’s up to the guys in that room and no one is going to save us.”
Right now, the play callers on both sides of the ball are safe, but there may be some intimation from the head coach that personnel groups could get shaken up.
“In any game you challenge guys to see how they respond to the situation you’re in, and I saw a lot of positive responses,” Judge said Monday, “but I think the biggest thing is we have to do everything better. On the whole I saw things done the right way, and the things I didn’t like will get fully addressed to the team as a whole and independently. We’re going to play the most productive players, who play the right way and the way we want to play effort-wise for 60 minutes.”
Judge is always focused on “watching the tape” and “making the corrections,” to the point many feel it’s a robotic response. But, in his eyes, it’s not about emotion, it’s about action.
“The emotion is irrelevant. Going forward it’s about the action and corrections you’re going to make,” Judge said. “I’ve said this week of practice will determine a lot of that, seeing how they execute and compete.”
To a man, the team also agreed, pledging to look at themselves in the mirror to start that process.
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“For me, personally, I just need to get my hands on the ball more and be more consistent,” cornerback Adoree Jackson said. “I feel like when opportunities and plays come my way, I have to make the most of them.”
And, to a man, they also echoed Judge’s mantra that it’s not about the results, but the process of getting to them. Just ask Nate Solder, who but went from a New England franchise that went 88-24 and won two Super Bowls (and two more AFC Titles) in his seven seasons there to a Giants franchise that is 16-38 in his three-plus seasons here.
Solder opted out of last season, so he wasn’t part of that campaign on the field, but he’s lived through it all, and he understands both sides: learning how to win, and actually doing it.
“I think even though you don’t always win, you can build, get the right people in place and start to mature,” Solder said. “Some of those results (good practices) aren’t immediate, you’re building foundations. Those are calluses built over long periods of time of working hard and getting guys comfortable. We have to continue to have great practices and those fruits will show up as we push forward.”
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He’s also learned a lot about how to lose, and now, has to learn to overcome that, too.
“One of the things losing teaches you is resiliency, so the guys who are going to improve here are the resilient ones. That’s the core you can build on for the future,” Solder said. “I don’t think that just because you’ve won a lot it means it’s going to be difficult to regroup. What’s important is that with the group of guys we have now, we continue to push forward.”
And as they do, the beat goes on.
“We’ve seen a lot of positives as a unit,” said Judge, “but we have to get a lot of stuff corrected, so our focus is pushing through to Carolina.”
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