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Presser Points: Brian Daboll updates injuries, previews Wild Card Round

It's officially playoff week.

The sixth-seeded Giants (9-7-1) will face the third-seeded Vikings (13-4) at U.S. Bank Stadium on Super Wild Card Weekend. Kickoff is set for 4:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 15. It will be a matchup of first-year head coaches in Brian Daboll and Kevin O'Connell, whose teams just met on Christmas Eve.

Daboll addressed the New York media on Monday to kick off the week and provide some injury updates. Here is everything you need to know:

🔹 Cornerback Adoree' Jackson (knee), outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari (ankle), and defensive lineman Leonard Williams (neck), none of whom played in the regular-season finale in Philadelphia, will do "stuff" at practice this week. How much remains to be seen.

🔹 Acquired less than two weeks ago, inside linebacker and former first-round pick Jarrad Davis started in his Giants debut on Sunday and had 10 tackles (six solo), including a half-sack. "I thought he played well for only being here a short time, Daboll said. "Understood what we asked him to do. I thought he made a lot of good plays out there. We'll continue to put him in there and see how he develops for us. But I thought he did a good job for us."

🔹 The Giants' unheralded receiving corps has embodied Daboll's mantra of "smart, tough, dependable" and hasn't held the offense back down the stretch. "They know what we expect out of them. They don't really make a lot of mental errors. They know exactly what to do. They've made plays when the ball has come their way. I think the quarterback (Daniel Jones) has a lot of trust in them. He has a good feel for their body language and how they run routes. And I think they do a good job of working on that with him. And I'm including Daniel (Bellinger) even though he had that span where he got hit in the eye and was off some. But dependable group that works really hard. And (they're) selfless, which is important. They don't really care how many they get, just as long as they're helping to contribute to our success."

🔹 Wide receiver Kenny Golladay caught his first touchdown in 26 games with the Giants and first since Oct. 4, 2020, for Detroit. Cameras caught Daboll sitting with the veteran on the bench following the score. On Monday, Daboll was asked if it's important to show "humanity" in his coaching approach. "Absolutely. I think getting to know the guys, I have a wide variety of emotions I think I show. This one was more. I just was proud of the young man. He made a great play. I asked him if he thought we'd have cheesesteaks after, when we got out on the buses. But no. I respect all of our players. Every player has a different journey. Every player goes through different things, and he's certainly a guy that I respect a lot."

🔹 Daboll, who won five Super Bowls with the Patriots and a national title at Alabama, said playoff experience is overrated. "The first year that I was part of a Super Bowl, the quarterback didn't have any playoff experience there at New England. Some of the guys did. Some didn't. We had some experience at Buffalo; we lost. I think really what you make out of it is the experience is probably overrated to be honest with you. It's how you prepare, how you practice and ultimately how you play the game and coach the game on whatever day it is."

🔹 Daboll said past failures help him. "They don't help when you're in the middle of them, but you certainly learn a lot from things that didn't go as well. I certainly have. I've had plenty of them, and I know I'll have plenty more. But you learn a lot from the failures, absolutely."

🔹 When it comes to win-or-go-home games, Daboll said everyone needs to contribute. "I can't tell you who it's going to be or not going to be –a rookie, a 10-year veteran, a four-year guy. You got about, call it 65, 70 plays on both sides of the ball and then in the kicking game. You've got to have your best stuff, and you've got to play your best."

🔹 The rookies are a big part of what the Giants are doing, but Daboll doesn't view them as rookies anymore because it's "almost like they've been through two college seasons with the preseason."

🔹 Given that the Giants and Vikings just saw each other a few weeks ago, Daboll said they will approach it like when they faced the Commanders twice in three games. "I know Minnesota's certainly looking at our game. We're looking at our game. There's only so much tape to watch. There's only a couple games after our game. So, you start with what you think, just like any other game, what you think will be successful for you, and try to eliminate some of the things they do really well, which there's a lot of them. So, we'll have our work cut out for us. But our preparation of how we go about game planning, practicing, all those things, will be very consistent for our players. That's what I think you need to do this time of year. I think everybody understands the stakes of these games. The process is really more important to me."

🔹 Daboll said he and general manager Joe Schoen are building a foundation "on our consistency, our approach, our work ethic, how we do things on and off the field, all those types of things. Again, like I say every week, I can live with the results. I don't like them; I can live with them if we're doing the right stuff. I think we have a bunch of people in our building that try to do the right things on and off the field in every department."

🔹 Asked about the breakout campaign by defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence, Daboll said different people build teams in different ways, but he believes it's important to be "strong up the middle."

🔹 Like they do before all road games, the Giants will pump up the artificial noise in practice this week. He said U.S. Bank Stadium is "certainly one of the best venues we've played in. Loud, their fans are great. So, certainly have to practice that."

🔹 Daboll said Sunday's game in Buffalo looked like "an electric atmosphere" and the opening kickoff return for a touchdown was a "very surreal moment."

View rare photos of the Giants' history playing on Wild Card Weekend in the NFL Playoffs.

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