Brian Daboll sits down in his office with Giants.com for a weekly conversation about the latest at 1925 Giants Drive. We pick up with the head coach coming off Thursday night's win over the Eagles, which is ancient history in the world of football. The next challenge will be facing the 4-2 Denver Broncos and their vaunted defense on the road this Sunday.

Q: Out of everything you did well against the Eagles, where does getting the ball back with 6:50 left in the game and not letting the opponent touch it again rank for a head coach?

Daboll: "Last week feels like a month ago. It's always good to finish a game in a four-minute drive. That was a good drive for us. The offensive line deserves a lot of credit for that. You appreciate it's difficult to run the ball in this league as it is, but it's more difficult when they know you have to run it."

Q: How far does that go in building that tough identity?

Daboll: "We want to be a tough team. Controlling the line of scrimmage, that's where it starts. Each week, that's a challenge."

Q: One of the big stories of the last three weeks has been the fast starts. What is yours and Mike Kafka's philosophy on scripted starts?

Daboll: "You go through a week, you practice for three days and you have a bunch of meetings. You try to do what you think you can do in the beginning part of the game, but ultimately it falls on the players executing and making plays. It takes all 11 guys to be on the same page. Mike and the staff do a good job of trying to put together things that we think will be effective. There's got to be a comfort level. You have to practice it so that you're dialed into the details. But ultimately it comes down to execution. Give the players a lot credit for that."

Q: How did you approach this extended time off? Was it any different than a normal break after a Thursday game considering you have the latest possible bye this season?

Daboll: "It was obviously good to get a win. We came in and started on Denver the next day as a coaching staff. Players got a couple days off. Ready to go on Monday and then it turns into a normal week. So, always on Thursdays you've got a little bit more time to go back and look at a few different things and get a little bit of a jumpstart on next week's opponent, which in this case, we need it. They're really good."

Q: You've quoted Bill Parcells in terms of Jaxson Dart: "Let's not give him a gold jacket just yet." How do you keep an even keel with him? He's a quarterback in New York. I'm sure there's a lot being thrown at him.

Daboll: "Keeping the main thing the main thing is the most important. You treat every week with a sense of urgency and do the things you need to do to try to be successful on gameday. Again, there are highs, there are lows – there is to every season. There are good plays, plays you want improvement from, good coaching, coaching you need improvement from, and you can't ride a roller coaster in this league."

Q: Another Parcells line was needing to know when to put your arm around a player. Does that apply to someone like Jalin Hyatt? He had his first catches of the season last Thursday and drew a key penalty in the end zone.

Daboll: "I just think that every player is different. Every player responds to teaching, coaching, motivation in different ways. It's your job to learn each individual player. I think our assistant coaches do a really good job with that."

Q: You said Cor'Dale Flott owed you an interception and he got it. What's the backstory there?

Daboll: "Yeah, we were talking about him going down [to New Orleans] and getting one down there. Unfortunately, we didn't. I said, 'You missed out last week; you owe me one this week.'"

Q: Dane Belton leads the league in special teams tackles and forced the fumble on defense last week. What has he brought to this team over the years?

Daboll: "I think he's really improved his tackling this year. He's a personal protector, too, on the punt team. It's like playing quarterback in a sense with all the different looks nowadays that you get. And I think he has improved his fundamentals. It's what you want out of your young players that you have in your program – steadily improve and he's done a nice job of that for us. He's made some opportunities for himself defensively when he's played, but he's been a mainstay for us in the kicking game."

Q: The run defense has improved the last two weeks, allowing under 90 yards in each game. How has Kayvon Thibodeaux impacted the game there?

Daboll: "Run defense is all 11. Kayvon has been an unselfish player. He's playing extremely hard every game, and I think guys feed off that."

Q: I've noticed Brian Burns will pop his head into huddles other than the defense. How does he compare to other leaders you've been around in your career?

Daboll: "He's his own guy. I think everybody leads in different ways. For our team, he's been very good for us since OTAs. He's been very consistent with his work ethic. But he's also been consistent just with his passion and his energy and trying to bring people along with him, whether that's during training camp and standing over with me watching the offense, whether that's getting into the special teams huddle before a kickoff, whether that's playing on special teams at times for us. He's playing at a high level on the field, and he does things at a high level off the field for us."

Q: Austin Schlottmann has been getting reps at center with John Michael Schmitz sidelined. Dart got a lot of reps with him in the offseason. How valuable is that if he needs to play?

Daboll: "That's why you've got guys on your team to be there. We trust him if he has to play for us. We trust that he knows what to do and he can do it at the level that he needs to do it at, or else he wouldn't be here. He has had some reps [with Dart]. There's some familiarity obviously with the snap point, the cadence. That's always helpful. It will be loud."

Q: Denver's defense is No. 1 in the red zone and on third down…

Daboll: "We're about to do that right now. We just watched it."

Q: What makes them so effective there?

Daboll: "They're good situationally. They tackle well. They've got a good scheme. They've got a lot of good players. That's why they're ranked where they're ranked in almost all these defensive categories. Good players, good scheme. I'd say great players. You've got to do a good job of staying on track. It's not going to be clean."

Q: What's the key against Bo Nix?

Daboll: "They run an offense that's very conducive to his skillset. They mix personnel. They can tempo if they need to, underneath, play-action shot, boot, get him on the perimeter. They can go in shotgun and run the RPO game. You have to do a good job with the screens, double moves, play-action shots. They've got a wide variety of offense. Obviously, Coach [Sean] Payton has done this a long time. He's an exceptional coach. I think Bo fits perfectly in what he does and what he does with him. Very successful last year for a rookie quarterback and 4-2 this year."