Coach Brian Daboll sits down in his office with Giants.com each Thursday morning for a conversation about the latest at 1925 Giants Drive. This week, the Giants will look for their second consecutive win with rookie Jaxson Dart at quarterback when they travel to New Orleans.

Q: You couldn't draw up the opening drive of Jaxson's first start much better. The defense forces a quick punt, and then you felt the energy of the stadium rise knowing Dart was about to take the field. What was going though your mind at that moment?

Daboll: "I didn't really make more of it than it is. He has played a lot of football. I thought we had a good plan for him and for our team. It was a good complementary sequence of football from our team – defense, the kicking game and getting the ball to the offense; Jaxson made the right decisions throughout that first drive. It was a good energy booster for our crowd, which you felt the home-field advantage. Our job is to try to give that feeling to the fans – that there's some excitement, there's some juice. Our players and our coaches feed off that."

Q: Including Cam Skattebo.

Daboll: "I just think it comes down to 11 guys doing their job. I know Skatt had a lead block on it, but the line did a good job. Jaxson ran it and set up his block the right way. Malik [Nabers] grabbed coverage on the play as Malik normally does. It was just a well-executed play by 11 guys. That's what we need. That's what we need to do."

Q: I was watching our behind-the-scenes “Sights & Sounds” video. You're often asked about your message to fans. Does what you said after the first touchdown pretty much sum it up?

Daboll: "Well, it was a good play. I was juiced up too. That's some emotion you get from a good play, a good finish in the red zone, which we haven't had. The emotion of this game – it's an emotional game. You feel it as a coach too. When you execute well, the crowd gets into it. That's home-field advantage. That's what we need to do."

Q: Jaxson converted some key third downs in that game. I want to go back to the second drive. He was backed up in his own end zone, it's his first start, might have some room ahead of him to run. But he signals to Darius Slayton in the middle of it and they complete it for 18 yards and a first down. What can you say about the poise there?

Daboll: "Jaxson is a good, young quarterback. There's going to be growing pains like there is with any young quarterback. But you've seen him, you've evaluated a lot of tape on a young player. I have confidence in what he can do. He'll be the first to tell you – like I know he did – that there are things that we have to do better, can do better. He's a good football player, and that's his job as a quarterback. Make those decisions, to make the right plays, to scramble when he needs to scramble, to signal to receivers. That's his job. His job isn't – he doesn't have to complete 90 percent, 500 yards. That doesn't matter to me. Make good decisions. Use your God-given ability, which he does. Got to do a better job of not going backwards on some things so we can stay on track, which we were on track much better this game than previous games. That goes a long way. And then don't overthink stuff. You've studied. You've prepared. You've played a lot of football. Bounce back from stuff that ain't good."

Q: Next on his checklist is his first road start. What are the challenges doing that in the Superdome? Granted he has played in the SEC.

Daboll: "You practice it. You practice the noise. The big thing is the communication from the signal-caller to Jaxson, Jaxson to the rest of the players, and making sure that we're doing a good job and that everybody is on the same page."

Q: How many times have you watched the Dexter Lawrence play?

Daboll: "We watched it on Monday and then we moved onto New Orleans. You don't sit here and watch stuff. You move on in this league real fast as you know."

Q: How sick was Brian Burns? When did you notice it?

Daboll: "I just went over to him on the bench one time and he looked pretty sick. I'm like, 'Damn, you feeling all right?' He's like, 'I'll be all right.' Then he goes out and has that sack, a huge play on third down. Burns is a guy that leaves it on the field – all on the field. His effort is tremendous. That and then obviously he wasn't feeling 100 percent. He just looked tired, but man, that guy is a competitor. He leaves it on the field. We're lucky to have him."

Q: That must rub off on Abdul Carter.

Daboll: "I'd say all these young guys that we have, have the right makeup. That was something we talked about in the draft process of bringing in tough young men. And whether it's Abdul or Skatt or Dart or Marcus Mbow or D.A. (Darius Alexander), there's a toughness element to these young players that I'm really pleased with. Again, there's a lot of mistakes that are being made, but competitive, competitive young guys that are helping us."

Q: Theo Johnson looks like he has a connection with Dart. He catches his first touchdown pass and they have that third down that they tweaked. How can the tight ends also help with moving forward without Malik? Those targets need to go somewhere.

Daboll: "You can only design plays to go to one person – you're either going to hand it to him or you're going to throw a screen. Every other play, the quarterback is going to have to make a good decision. You can put players in spots where you think the ball is going to go, and if you get the right look, the ball goes there. If not, the quarterback is going to have to make the right decision and everybody is going to have to do a good job – all five eligible receivers, whatever personnel groups we decide to use. But there are certain plays you put in, whether it's Theo in the eye of the storm or Slayton or Wan'Dale [Robinson], whoever it may be, but you can't guarantee they're going to get the ball based on what the defense is doing too. So, it's Jaxson's responsibility to get it to the right guy."

Q: Opponents have the second-lowest average starting field position in the NFL against you. How big were special teams on Sunday? Those plays often get overlooked with everything coming out of that game. Jamie Gillan booted a 69-yarder with his heels six inches away from the back of the end zone late in the third and Dane Belton and Nic Jones make the tackle.

Daboll: "I'd say I've been very pleased with our special teams, led by our coaches who do a great job in that area. And the players have really – they understand how important it is for our football team to play well in every area of special teams. It starts ultimately with the specialists. Make sure the snap is good. The kickers, Jamie has been really a good weapon for us. Graham [Gano] unfortunately got hurt and Jude [McAtamney] did a good job coming back. Then the returners, They haven't been kicking it to Gunner [Olszewski] on kickoff, and Motor (Devin Singletary) and Tae (Deonte Banks) have done a good job of fielding the kicks and getting the positive yards and getting us in good field position. Then we need to continue to create turnovers that give us good field position, like we did last week. Those are game-changing plays. I think our special teams units take a lot of pride in it. It's very important to our football team, and we're going to have a big challenge this week with these returners that New Orleans has."

Q: How did you get to Tae returning kicks for the first time in a game?

Daboll: "Something we've been working on for a while with him. I just think that he's a very gifted athlete. He's fast. He's big. He's strong. Again, our special teams coaches have been working on him with technique on the catches and the ball security and all those types of things and felt comfortable with him doing it this game. And he was close. He was close on that first one. So, he's just another guy that we can have do it. And those are potentially game-changing plays. Tae is a rare athlete in terms of speed and size and strength. I thought it was a good opportunity for him to get the ball in his hands."

Q: What do you want to see in the jump from the first start to the second for Dart?

Daboll: "It's not all about Jaxson. It's about our football team. Jaxson has a responsibility just like the right guard has a responsibility, just like the receiver, just like the outside linebacker, a safety, a nickel. Just continue to make the right decisions at the quarterback position and help our team score points. Ultimately, go out there and do his job well enough to give us a chance to win a football game. That's what we preach with all our guys, and that's what we're trying to accomplish this week. It's obviously a week-to-week league, as everybody knows, and we're playing a team at their place. Their first two home games came down to last-minute drives, some last-second drives. They played Buffalo extremely well. I thought they did a good job offensively of keeping it balanced of being under center or Pistol most of the time and using some Jet-Cat motion and running outside with [Alvin] Kamara and then putting it inside with 5 (Kendre Miller) and then trying some shot plays down the field. [Spencer] Rattler makes good decisions. Their defense is a very sound defense, and they have explosive returners. They're sitting there with their record, and their record could easily be completely different for a couple plays. That's the NFL."

Q: You mentioned Rattler making good decisions. He has the best touchdown-to-interception ratio (5-to-1) of any winless quarterback through four games since the 1970 merger. You talked the other day about your relationship.

Daboll: "I recruited him in high school when I was at Alabama. I went out to his high school and he was one of the top recruits in the country. He's athletic. He sees the field. When he plays in rhythm and gets the ball out, he's accurate. When they do call downfield plays for him, if nothing is developing, he's got good feel in the pocket and knows how to keep the chains moving, use his legs, which in today's NFL, most of the really, really good ones do that. It creates second and third opportunities for your offense. He's got two good receivers that are around him. He's got a good tight end. He's got two good running backs. He's got an offensive line made up of a bunch of first-rounders. We'll have to go out there and play well."