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Coach Daboll Weekly Q&A

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Dabs' Digest: Maintaining focus in playoff hunt

BRIAN-DABOLL-VERIZON

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Dabs' Digest, Giants.com's weekly conversation with head coach Brian Daboll:

Q: Did you watch football and/or work on Christmas Day?

Daboll: "I did both. I watched the kids open up their gifts. I watched some football, played with the kids and then I did some work."

Q: You have an extra day this week. You brought the players in Tuesday. How did you use the extra day?

Daboll: "Tuesday, we did a walkthrough, so we installed our first and second down stuff. Got an extra day on that. Wednesday was, obviously, a full practice – kind of a continuation of Tuesday. (We got) a head start on third down, red zone. So, you're just a little bit ahead having that extra day."

Q: At this time of year, are you more cognizant of not taxing the players physically?

Daboll: "Absolutely. I think that's one of the things I learned at Buffalo – how (head coach) Sean (McDermott) did it. As the season went on a little bit later, he did a good job of taking care of the players, I'd say, physically and mentally. So, we try to adapt some of the stuff that I learned there to what we're doing here."

Q: Are you determined to get through this week without publicly saying the word "playoff"?

Daboll: "Yeah, I just try to practice consistency. We're playing the Colts. That's who we're playing. We're not playing anybody else. It's not a playoff game. It's a regular season game. Does everybody understand the results are what we want them to be? I'm sure they do. But there's no use wasting time concentrating on that when you have to focus on your opponent, your game plan, all the things you need to do each week."

Q: There's two schools of thought at this time of year when the games take on more importance. As a coach, you can talk about that. Or you can do basically what you've decided to do, which is just treat it as a normal game. Is that what people you have been with throughout your career have done?

Daboll: "Yeah, I've watched different coaches do it. Again, what we say in our meetings is what we say in our meetings. I think the most important thing, again, is to maintain focus on the things that you can control. So, whether that's Week 2, Week 5, postseason, there's a lot of things to think about in this league. And if you don't think about the main thing, I don't think that's the right way to do it."

Q: (Former Giants head coach) Bill Parcells always used to say, "In the NFL, you worry about this week, this week and next week, next week because you don't know what could happen next week."

Daboll: "I agree 100 percent with Coach Parcells."

View photos of head coach Brian Daboll's time with the New York Giants.