Brian Daboll sits down in his office with Giants.com each week for a conversation about the latest at 1925 Giants Drive. This week, the head coach talks about Sunday's road matchup with the Cowboys, who are also looking for their first win of the season after falling to a divisional rival in the opener.

Q: There's six degrees of separation for you with the Cowboys' coaching staff but also Russell Wilson. Brian Schottenheimer was his OC for a few years in Seattle and you worked with him with the Jets. Then [Cowboys defensive passing game coordinator] Andre Curtis spent seven seasons practicing against Wilson.

This week, Schottenheimer said, "I'm not fooled for one second that [Wilson] is not working on certain things that he knows I know, and that Andre knows."

It's the first year of the new staff in Dallas, but does it feel like a chess match against a familiar foe?

Daboll: I'd say between Brian and I, I don't know if there are many staffs in this league where we don't know other people or we don't know a player or have a player. It all comes down to the preparation and how you play. But I have a lot of respect for Schottie and his family. I've known him for a long time, as I have Flus (Cowboys defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus). Schottie is a good football coach, a good friend. He's earned his opportunity, and it will be a tough game.

Q: What do you remember from your time together with the Jets? (After winning three Super Bowls in his first stint with the Patriots, Daboll became the Jets' quarterbacks coach in 2007. Schottenheimer was their offensive coordinator from 2006 to 20011.)

Daboll: Lots. We were there late hours. When I first got to work with Brian, I was a receiver coach and I went to the Jets and was able to work with the quarterbacks. Brian was a guy that had been a quarterback, coached quarterbacks for a long time. I learned a lot from Schottie. We had a really good relationship inside the building, outside the building. He is a very good communicator, a very good leader, and he's very good with the quarterbacks. I was grateful to learn some new things that were different from where I was and the position that I coached. We have a good friendship to this day.

Q: You said the "hallmark" of an Eberflus defense is takeaways. Is that scheme or mindset?

Daboll: Flus, again, is another very good football coach. He plays a lot of zone defense but gives you different looks with it. I'd say he has a variety of options, whether it's pressure packages or looks up front that cause issues. But just being around Matt, the years I was around Matt (Daboll was the Browns' offensive coordinator when Eberflus coached their linebackers in 2009 and 2010), he's big on fundamentals. His defenses are fast to the football. They run their butt to the football. Their effort and their speed to the football usually creates some turnovers for the defense. But he has a variety of things. It depends on how he wants to play each game, but I'd say the fundamental aspect of his defense is how fast they run to the ball, the speed that they play with throughout the down. They're always attacking the ball.

Q: Last but not least, [Cowboys special teams coordinator] Nick Sorensen played for you guys in Cleveland. I had to triple check because you're only slightly older than him, but you had already been coaching in the NFL for almost a decade.

Daboll: Smart player and he chose the coaching path. Instinctive, smart player, was a special teams guy. They had a couple defensive packages in there for him. But they're three guys that I have relationships with and have a lot of respect for.

Q: On the player side, both teams are down a Micah. First yours. What does McFadden's injury mean for the defense and who steps up?

Daboll: Micah's been a good player for us. Darius [Muasau] played for us last year. We have confidence as a coaching staff in Darius, and Darius is going to need to be ready to go.

Q: Then about Parsons, it has been only game since he was traded, but what did you see from the Cowboys' defense in that respect?

Daboll: I think they played good team defense. Again, first game of the year, it was kind of back and forth there in the first half. Then they did a really good job in the second half of preventing points. They played sound. They played fundamental. They did well, I'd say, particularly in the second half after it settled down. I think Coach Eberflus made some good adjustments. Players executed. We'll have to do a good job in all areas.

Q: Three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark came over from Green Bay as part of that trade. Dallas averaged allowing 2.8 yards per carry with him on the field in Week 1 and 6.6 yards when he was on the sideline. What makes him productive?

Daboll: He's just a good player. He's a good technician, good fundamentals, has good physical talent. He's been a good player for a long time.

Q: Abdul Carter made his NFL debut. He partially tipped a punt after breaking through a few times before. Did you sense that coming?

Daboll: He had a couple that were close. That's something for that particular game we thought we could use him there. He did a good job with it.

Q: When the Giants became a likely landing spot for Abdul and then when you actually drafted him, everyone chalked it up as a good problem to have with so many edge rushers. But is it a legitimate issue to figure out how you're going to get everyone on the field?

Daboll: They all played over 40 snaps in the game, so I think you're going to have a rotation for guys to keep them fresh. And that's what we'll continue to do.

Q: This week, you detailed Jaxson Dart's plan throughout the week and treating show team reps like game reps and then mixing him in once in a while on the first team. Then he stays after with players and goes through the entire practice script. You meet with him and go over the plays. But what about on gameday while he's backing up Russ?

Daboll: He's getting the calls, watching the play. If something happens, he needs to be ready to play.

Q: Another rookie, Cam Skattebo got the "Angry Run" award from NFL Network this week. He came in, first play makes a block to spring a big Malik Nabers' completion. On the next play, he fights for yards on a catch-and-run and you could see how he energized the team in that moment. Is he a sparkplug?

Daboll: He's a rookie and I love his personality, how he practices. He loves the game of football. You see it when he got his protection block or the run down the side when he caught that ball. We'll keep working with him and he'll keep getting opportunities.

Q: It wasn't his first NFL game, but what did you think of Paulson Adebo's Giants debut while matched up against an elite receiver?

Daboll: I thought he did a good job. That's why we signed him. There's a lot of good receivers that we play throughout the year. How we deploy the secondary is a week-to-week decision-making process for our staff. But he did a nice job. He traveled last game. I thought he played well.

Q: You have another one this week in CeeDee Lamb. What makes him special?

Daboll: Another really talented player who was talented in college and came into the league and has been talented for a long time. He can play any position you need him to play – on the perimeter, they use him in the backfield at times, he's got good run after catch, he's instinctive, he runs routes well. He's a complete receiver and a hard cover.

Q: This is a little in the weeds, but this will be the Giants' first game at AT&T Stadium for a noon local time kickoff on a Sunday. That stadium has a reputation for its glare. Is that addressed?

Daboll: Each game you do a deep dive into where you're playing, what time you're playing, conditions that could come up to make the best decisions you need to make – the beginning part of the game and then throughout the game.

Q: The kickoff return rate around the NFL in Week 1 (75.6 percent) more than doubled the rate from the 2024 opening slate of games (33.3 percent). Did everyone around the league anticipate that the rule change would affect things so dramatically?

Daboll: Yeah, you take a look at those throughout the first week to see what some other people did. You play this team (the Cowboys) and you kick the ball in the end zone or kick it out of bounds and [Brandon] Aubrey has got a chance to hit a field goal basically with one first down. And then you've got to kick it to [KaVontae] Turpin, which we weren't doing last year on kickoffs. He's a dynamic returner, a dynamic returner.

Q: Is it fully turning into an offensive play? You had Wan'Dale Robinson back there in Washington.

Daboll: You see some guys back there – [Washington wide receiver] Deebo [Samuel] and we used Wan'Dale. Again, it is an offensive play and you're trying to gain as many yards as you can. There's less space than there was in the past, but there's a lot of good people in this league that do stuff well with the ball in their hand.

Q: Lastly on Wan'Dale, he leads the NFL with catches on third down since the start of last season. What makes him effective in those situations? He makes some tough catches there and takes the hits.

Daboll: Tough. I think Wan'Dale is an instinctive [player]. He primarily plays in the slot for us, but he's got very good instincts inside there. He's quick and strong. Even though he's a shorter guy, he's got the strength to separate, quickness to separate in those short spaces. He's done a good job for us.