Head Coach Brian Daboll

Q: Can you talk a little bit about the special teams play? It looks like it's been really good this season and I don't think we've talked a whole lot about it.

DABOLL: Yeah, they've been very impactful for us, the special teams units, really in every area, punt, punt return, kickoff, kickoff return, field goal, field goal block. I think our coaches, (special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial) Ghobi, (assistant special teams coach) Cam (Achord), and (assistant special teams coach) Stephen Thomas, have really done a good job with these guys, and these guys have bought into how important it is for our football team. They're playing with high energy, high effort, and they've done a nice job for us.

Q: We've talked a lot about (running back Cam) Skattebo and (quarterback Jaxson) Dart's ability and their edge. You know that saying, 'They don't know what they don't know?' I'm wondering if there's a level of naivete or innocence with those two that has rubbed off on a locker room of a lot of good veteran players, but they've been through a lot of losses that these two kids haven't and don't really care about?

DABOLL: I don't know if I would use that word. I would just say that they're very competitive individuals who have a lot of pride, toughness and belief in themselves, and I think that's important for any team when you have players like that. I know they're two rookies. We have a number of other rookies I feel are in a similar situation relative to how they compete and what they do to prepare and how they go out and play. Those two guys, they care about their teammates, they prepare very diligently, and I trust them a lot out on the field.

Q: What did you think of your play on both sides of the line of scrimmage? Assuming you thought it was pretty good like I did, how significant is that to do against that team? Because the Eagles and Cowboys specifically have kind of dominated the Giants on the line of scrimmage on both sides for a long time. So to have that performance, offensive line, defensive line against that team, that's their identity.

DABOLL: I would say we're focused on our identity of playing a physical brand of football, and it starts up front on both lines of scrimmage. I thought the DB's forced, the receivers blocked, but it does start up front. To be able to run the ball like that and make some little adjustments here. They get a couple runs on us early in the game, but that's the way we want to play. We want to play physical. We want to try to control the line of scrimmage. It's a very important part of the game, and we need to continue to do that.

Q: Have you heard from the league about the sideline scene with Jaxson in the tent?

DABOLL: I haven't, but I'll say this. Like I said last night, I went in, didn't actually go in, just stuck my head in to see how our quarterback was doing. Just asked him how you're doing. In no way would I want a player to come back out there that wasn't ready to play. I think I have great respect for that process. I know (president and chief executive officer, board director John K. Mara) John is on the competition committee relative to health and safety. That's very important to him. We've spoken about that. I was wondering if it took 10 minutes, if it takes an hour, if it takes two minutes. That's really where I was with asking the question that I asked when I was on the sideline to make a decision on the game. Health and safety is important to us, it's important to me, and that's what I'll say with that.

Q: Is there any explicit rule you know about coaches not being allowed in the tent? Have you ever heard that?

DABOLL: I'm not going to get into that. I do have respect for the process. I peeked in for a couple seconds to see how a player that's important to us, important to me, how he was doing. Two second question, 'How you doing, bud?' Then relative to the questions I had for our team physician, was more how long is it going to be, and however long it's going to be is how long it's going to be relative to making a game time decision. That's important. Health and safety is important. I know it's important to John Mara, and we'll abide by all those rules.

Q: A lot of attention on that cornerback rotation. What made you just stick with (Cor'Dale) Flott last night?

DABOLL: Part of it was our game plan of what we were going to do. Still have confidence in (Deonte Banks) Tae but just going into the game, really at the start of the week, that's the plan that we did have. It could change next week based on what we're doing or how we're doing it. Flott did a really good job for us. Made a huge play. So, that was leading up to the week.

Q: Getting back to Cam and Dart a little bit. Every year you've been on a lot of teams, I'm sure, where rookies contribute and they add to the offense and they add to the productivity. How rare is it for rookies to come in and sort of become the identity of a team like these two seem to have?

DABOLL: Well, like I said last night, this is a collective team win. Everybody contributed. I know there's been a lot made because he is your starting quarterback and Cam plays with a certain edge and a style. But this was a team win. They're part of it. Obviously the quarterback touches the ball on every play and he's done a nice job since he's been in there. Cam has executed his role, but there are a lot of other people that contributed to the outcome of this game. (Outside linebacker Brian) Burns had, I mean a lot of guys played well. I respect the question. I have a lot of faith in those two young guys, I think that's well documented. (Linebacker) Abdul (Carter), young guys, (defensive lineman Darius Alexander) DA. But I want to focus more on our football team and I know that's how they would want it too. Do their job, lunch pail mentality, improve on the things that they can improve on. But they play with an edge and they play with a style that we want our team to play with.

Q: Brian Burns, you've obviously been really high on him. You've been high on what he's brought since training camp. After those two sacks but more importantly how he got those two sacks on third down, what are you seeing from him as far as his leadership setting a tone on the field, not just in practice and his walk and his talk?

DABOLL: He's really shown that since he's come back in the off-season program and taken a step to me in terms of his leadership, his example, his practice habits, his effort, his hustle, things that he can control that really take no talent and then you add his talent. He's got very good talent. I think that people look up to him, how he does things besides the talent. He's in the kickoff huddle almost every time encouraging those guys. When you have a guy like Burns or (defensive tackle) Roy (Robertson-Harris) who's in there, I think that shows that they're really good teammates and understand that it takes a lot of people to be successful in a game. I think Brian is a true definition of what it means to be a leader. He does all the right things and he's talented. When you have your talented players and some of your better players do things that help the team not just with their talent but with their leadership and how they go about their business, I think that sets a very good example for the rest of the team, including the young guys. They get to see someone like that that does have talent, that's been in this league, that's been productive but is going out there and practicing the way he practices and running to the ball the way he runs to the ball and making plays in critical moments. We could use all that as much as we can.

Q: You talked a lot about the short week and the preparation and not having full practices and just walk-throughs and guys just trying to... It's cramming a lot into several days' work and then you see the wrinkles that came out last night that you showed us a lot for the first time on both sides of the ball. I'm curious what do you attribute that to? I know you mentioned about your staff and the long hours in the office but to have the confidence to be able to not only put that in the game plan really for some of the first time and then to trust the players to execute, how do you describe that? What do you attribute that to as far as being able to not only put it in but execute it at a high level?

DABOLL: I have confidence in the guys on our football team and confidence in our staff and when we started, I'd say a long plane trip back from New Orleans, we were really on to this week. Again, I credit the leadership from the coordinators to the position coaches to put together what we needed to do for that particular game. I think you balance that with, it's short so you don't want to add too much, but we have enough in each area that we can add some things and then we did a little bit of different meeting times and extra walk-throughs. I thought we needed it, and they were dialed in on those. They were dialed in on them. We gave more time to each area, special teams, defense, offense so they had a little bit more time to go through that. I thought the guys were dialed in at the walk throughs. We got a lot of reps. Even though they were walk-throughs we got a lot of reps in the three kinds of practices that we did have, and the guys were dialed in with them. If we walk-through some things that were new that just took three or four times to get it done, maybe we scrapped that. Or if we thought it was going to be good, we walked through it a few more times to make sure that we felt comfortable calling it and I thought the coordinators did a good job of calling the game, of being prepared, and then most importantly having their players prepared as did the position coaches. Again, there was a lot of time spent here. A lot of work put into it, both from the assistant coaches and the players. That's why I'm very happy for both of those groups, the coaches and the players, because I saw the work they put into it, the extra meetings the players had, the coaches, the communication that goes into it, and it was good to see that get the outcome that we so desired.

Q: As a head coach, you have to deal with a lot. You've got to deal with picking guys up and picking the team up after losses when everyone's down, adversity. What about now? What about when guys are feeling good, there's some prosperity, there's some success, keeping it in reason, but everyone felt great about what happened last night. Dealing with that and having your team handle success and prosperity and excitement, is that also a challenge moving forward?

DABOLL: Again, I have a lot of confidence in our guys, players and the coaches. We understand this is a one-week league. There are things that come each week where you say "Oh man." You've got to do a good job of staying consistent when they come in the building. Here are the things that went well, here are the things that we need to get fixed or it's going to cost us. I think the players are learning that as we go, particularly our young guys. I think they have a level head and they're all about ball. We know that one game has no reflection on the next game. If you go out there and turn a ball over five times, you're not going to have much success regardless of the other things that happen. If you go play a clean game, you give yourself a chance that doesn't guarantee it and then you have to make the extra plays that you need to make in those games to give yourself a chance. You have to be able to get an interception when they're driving down after a play. You have to execute in the red zone. You have to stay committed to the run game on both sides of the ball, affecting the line of scrimmage in a positive way. You have to do those things, and you know this and everybody knows this, you have to do those things that give you a chance to win and then you have to make the extra play. I'd say losing sucks, winning is a lot better, but again it doesn't have any bearing on what you have to do to get ready to play the next week. You have to prepare the right way. You have to go out there and you have to execute and do a good job of coaching and all those type of things. My focus is going to be to get us ready to go for next week and learn from the things that we can learn from here over the last couple games and do everything we can do to put ourselves in the best possible position next Sunday.

Q: I'm just curious. It's obvious the energy that (quarterback Jaxson) Dart has brought to your room and to the stadium obviously since he's had the two stadium starts. You've always been very attached before you got here to (Bills quarterback) Josh (Allen) up in Buffalo and I'm just curious. I'm not asking in any way physically the way they play or anything like that. I'm not looking for comparisons that way. I'm just curious about the whole vibe in Buffalo when Josh came around. If there are any similarities at all just with the energy that he brought to that place in relation to what Jaxson's brought here.

DABOLL: I appreciate that question. What I don't want to do is put anybody into a box. This person's like this person. I understand the question completely. I think Jaxson is in a different situation. He's his own guy. I obviously have a tremendous amount of respect for Josh Allen and grateful for the years that I've had an opportunity to work for him. Now I'm grateful for the opportunities I have to work with Jaxson. This guy's all football. He's very level headed but he's a fiery competitor, which I appreciate. He's humble. He's also very humble. He knows that there's plenty of things that we need to work on to continue to get better and that each week it's going to get more difficult based on the more tape we have out there the more they're going to do. We know there's ups and downs. I've said it. I know it's a broken record, but I think he understands all those things. I think the thing that his teammates appreciate about him is he is humble. He does work hard. He does listen to the older veterans on the team, but he is his own personality, and I don't think he's afraid to show that. That's what I appreciate about him. Long road ahead. A lot of work to be done but no one I'd rather do it with than him.

Q: I know when guys get tested for a concussion, they have to do it again in the morning. Jaxson is alright today?

DABOLL: Yeah, I haven't...I'm going to go meet with everybody. I know he's been in early watching tape, so we'll go through that. We'll go through the rest of that procedure and see where we're at after these next few days.

Q: Brian Burns, what do you think of him? He said he called the players on the defensive meeting, and he felt it in his heart that he wanted to get some things off his chest and get the details right.

DABOLL: Those guys work extremely hard, the players. There's a lot of times where players are just meeting on their own and I think that's important to develop that communication that you need to have. Again, with Burns I just say he's been a very good leader for us. I know I answered the question earlier with it. Got a lot of respect for him and what he's done this year for us and we're going to need to continue to get that from him.