John Harbaugh has learned to be a little more at peace in close games and not ride the roller coaster of emotions.

That's good because there have been plenty in the first half of his inaugural season at the Giants' helm.

"[It's] more try to have joy, like the players said, try to have joy even in the real tense moments," the head coach said in his postgame press conference in Houston, where the Giants won 27-21 in overtime. "I would think maybe at my age now I'm starting to figure that part of it out just a little bit."

The Giants head into their bye week in first place of the NFC East with a 4-2-1 record. They will have a chance to take total control coming out of it when they open the second half with back-to-back games against Philadelphia and Washington.

"It's a massive energy shot in the arm," Harbaugh said. "It's a reward. Now, you've got to make something of it. It doesn't mean anything if you don't build on it, right? But it means something, but it doesn't mean we're going to win a championship yet. It means we have an opportunity, though. We have an opportunity to get ready for the next two games starting with Philadelphia, and then a quick turnaround, so we'll be thinking about two games as a coaching staff over the bye week. The two most important games of the season will be coming up after we come back from the bye, which will set the direction for the rest of the season really. But we're going to be in this thing until the end now. This was a pivotal game. This was a really high-pressure game for our team. We didn't talk about that, but they all knew how important this game was, and they responded accordingly."

Here is everything you need to know from Harbaugh's postgame presser:

📰 Harbaugh opened by saying, "First of all, I just want to humbly say, just personally, very grateful to my Lord, high rock, protector and stronghold, Lord God in Heaven. And our guys, man, that was a players' win in every way, blocking, tackling, special teams, covering kicks, pass game, operating, getting stops when we needed stops, fighting back from adversity. But just playing one play at a time, as well as you can, regardless of the last play with no thought for the next play, as hard as you can."

📰 Outside linebacker Abdul Carter had a message for the team at halftime: "No matter what, empty the tank. No matter what, come back in here with nothing left." And that's what they did'.

📰 Harbaugh credited the work that the players have put in – lifting, running, practicing, everything – for their strong performances in the fourth quarter and "fifth" quarter, which has been needed twice in the past three weeks. "Our guys have done that. They've been the stronger team at the end of pretty much every game so far this year. Really happy with them, and I think the players deserve all the credit for this great victory against a really good team."

📰 Whether it was running the ball or stopping the run, the story of the day was everyone responding to being challenged. "I think that's exactly the story. To me, that's the point. It tells you who they are. You might have thought before the game, we're going to find out about our guys. We're going to find out about who they are, and we did, and you saw it. They did, they took the bull by the horns, and they got the job done."

📰 J.J. McCarthy had a nearly seamless first start with the Giants. "I felt the exact same way. I really did. To me, I saw exactly what you saw with that. That was what it was. There were no procedural penalties. We had no issues with the clock running down. We had no formation issues. All the checks were made really well. I thought he did a great job. He's not a guy that's never played before, so he's young, but he's played. And he showed it. He showed it. He made throws. I'm sure he didn't play perfect, but he played a heck of a football game, and he deserves a lot of credit."

📰 On the range of emotions in the game: "It's a range. You know, it's a range. You've got to try to kind of just stay in the moment. That's the other thing our guys talked about when they spoke. They talked about playing with joy, and there's a fierce joy in football. That's what football is. It's not happy joy; it's a fierce joy to compete and to find a way to win games like this because it takes you emptying the tank and it takes everything you've got, and it takes you fighting through those types of circumstances that you're talking about. To me that's a great point. To have them do that and just keep pounding the next play -- what we always say and they believe is the next play could be the play. It could be the play. So, play it like it's the play. That's what those guys did. Cam Skattebo did it."

📰 The offensive line deserves "a hell of a lot of credit. There weren't easy yards in there. "But at the end they were easier."

📰 On when he realized the Giants had the right mental makeup: "Maybe it started with Jaxson Dart (getting hurt), then it went to the next, the next, the next, to Tremaine Edmunds this week. Tremaine, too, he was trying to get back, trying to find a way to basically not listen to the doctors and continue to play. But then he's here on the trip with us. Those other guys will be on the trip as soon as they're allowed to be after the surgery. I don't know, I just think it's an ongoing type of a thing. That's how you build -- it's shared experiences. It's fighting through all these things together that draws people close together, and that's how a team is built."

📰 McCarthy has "scars" and is better because of them. "He's been wounded. He's been broken. He's been battered. But you heal stronger, and you become better because of it. So he should be grateful. Okay, I won a National Championship, got a high pick for the Minnesota Vikings, was the guy after they let the veteran quarterback go to Seattle, fought my way through but it ended up not working out for me, got benched, got ridiculed, got traded. Got traded, good. Good on every single one of those counts because it's made me stronger. It's made me who I am if I'm of the character to understand that. That's how life works. That's why I love football as a metaphor for life, for kids watching. That's a lesson for everybody. Failure is not final."

📰 Cornerback Deonte Banks "was all over it" today. "I probably should have given him a game ball. Maybe he'll get defensive player of the game."

📰 Linebacker Micah McFadden set the tone as he replaced Edmunds and made his first start since suffering a season-ending injury in the 2025 opener.  "The first down tackle when they ran that sweep play and he shows up out of nowhere and tackles it for a one-yard loss, that set the tone. That's really what got them off the field and gave us a chance."

📰 On the state of the running back room: "I'll tell you what, I can't say enough about 'Motor' (Devin Singletary), and that's on me. That's on me. We were looking for the formula, and Devin wasn't -- he was the odd man out for a number of weeks. Not because of anything he did or didn't do, he just was the odd man out, and that's exactly what I told him. He asked me, 'What can I do?' I said, 'There's nothing you can do, you're doing everything you can do, and your time will come.' It was going to come. And look where it came, right there, and he came through."

📰 Carter "took over the game" with his pass rush and did a "great job" against the run, too. "He's that kind of a player. I do believe that. He's in his second year now, high pick. He's always believed he can be that kind of player. You see it starting to happen right now. It's been happening."