When asked what the best way to get over Sunday’s disappointing loss to the Lions was, Giants running back Saquon Barkley’s response was simple: “By playing on Thursday.”
Short weeks are never fun for any team, but this one will be doubly tough for the Giants: it’s a division road game against an opponent who whipped the NFC co-leaders on the road on Sunday, and it’s coming off a tough loss to a sub-.500 team.
But to a man, the Giants are ready to get going on Dallas Week, take two.
“I think we're all already anxious to get this taste out of our mouths and come back and play a much better football game,” said Daniel Jones.
“I think we have a resilient team. Injuries definitely hurt, but we have to have a quick mindset. We're on to another challenge, a division game so we can't dwell on this one too much,” added Andrew Thomas.
Head coach Brian Daboll said this week will be like any other for the Giants, regardless of the outcome Sunday or the quick turnaround, so routine is going to be key for Big Blue.
“We have our routine that we're going to do: go home, look at the tape tonight as coaches, and then get ready to go play Dallas. That’s all you can do,” Daboll said. “You have to move on really quickly, so we’re going to do a bunch of walkthroughs, but otherwise, we’re going to do the same thing we go every week: correct things and move on.”
That, he says, will hopefully help the Giants on their shortest week of the year.
“We have to put this one in the rear view pretty quickly,” Daboll said. “I've been part of Thanksgiving games, or obviously Thursday games for a while out there; that's what you got to do: put it to bed and get ready to play Dallas.”
Injuries may compromise the Giants, as they lost corners Adoree’ Jackson and Fabian Moreau and receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, among others, on Sunday, but Daboll will check in with trainers and go from there, because again, that’s all they can do, with “no excuses” – especially after watching the Cowboys cruise to an easy win over Minnesota.
“You tell the guys to take care of their bodies, we got a quick turnaround and you have to forget about this game. You can do that with this Thursday game,” Dexter Lawrence said. “. You like to have quick turnarounds and let this game go. You get to make up for it on Thursday.”
“You never want to see anybody go down, but that's the nature of the NFL. There's injuries every game. You feel bad for the guys that do go out, but you got to get ready to play.”
Thursday will be a pivotal test, though, because it starts a stretch of four straight divisional games for the Giants, as they get the Cowboys and then sandwich a home game with Philly between dates with the Commanders – four straight against teams over .500, and four games that could decide any potential division title hopes the 7-3 (0-1) Giants face.
It of course would’ve been better if they entered Thursday 8-2 and still ahead of Dallas in the standings, but, you have to take what the schedule gives.
“We’re disappointed because of the loss, but to be completely honest, we really don't pay attention to or care about (standings),” Barkley said. “The only thing we can focus on is one day at a time. Like if we had that mindset, we'll drive ourselves insane. At the end of the day, we’re 7-3 going into Thanksgiving game against Dallas with a chance to get things back on track, and we've got to execute and take advantage of that opportunity.”
“We're not getting too high, too low with anything. If we win, it's like okay we won, what can we correct? I think that's our mindset right now. We're going to go in tomorrow, probably do a quick recap, but it's on to Dallas,” added Julian Love. “We can't dwell on this game. We didn’t hit our goals (Sunday), and that's the story of our season – the games that we've won, we've hit those goals. We won those battles. The games we lost, we haven't. We're not taking it for anything bigger than it was. Inside the building, we have a pretty locked-in mindset and we're not focused on the standings, for sure.”
That may change depending on the Giants’ record over the next four games, with 7-7 just as possible heading into Christmas Eve in Minnesota just as feasible as 10-4 or even 11-3, but this kind of stretch is what separates the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.
“I feel like throughout this first however many games we've learned a lot about who we are and now it's time to bunker down and really get after it,” said Love. “This is a crucial stretch, not only because we're playing division games, but this is when football is important in general. That playoff mindset comes into play now in terms of how we approach each game. We got to treat it really as such because, yeah, we have division opponents, but November, December football is where teams are really tested and made.”
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