Giants are showing major improvement in one facet of their game — toughness
Lions quarterback Hendon Hooker is sacked by Giants defensive tackle Casey Rogers during the third quarter of an NFL game on Thursday in East Rutherford, N.J. Credit: AP/Pamela Smith
There were plenty of promising stats that Brian Daboll could point to coming out of Thursday night’s 14-3 preseason win over the Lions to validate the work that the organization has put into making sure this 2024 season bears little to no resemblance to last year’s.
The rushing yards, the defensive stops, the penalties — all of them hinted at measurable improvement. The final score itself was just another of those calculable changes.
But there is something far less tangible than those digits that the franchise has been striving toward since it began digesting the disappointment that befell them a season ago.
The Giants wanted to get tougher.
“It is something I think we all could have been better with,” Daboll said, reflecting on 2023.
It’s very early, but it looks as if they indeed may have made some strides.
That they demonstrated this trait against a team that turned itself into a Super Bowl contender based on the same principle makes this week even more encouraging.
Never mind those silly fights during the joint practices with the Lions that created some fun highlights and story lines, including a flash of fire from quarterback Daniel Jones, who started one of the scrums in defense of a teammate. Those were entertaining, yes, but shoving opponents and throwing down on Sundays come September is a surefire way to find yourself marching backward 15 yards at a time.
No, what the Giants wanted was a physicality within the rules of the game, one that dominates opponents at the line of scrimmage no matter who has the ball.
So they went about changing things. They drafted and signed players who they thought would bring that trait. They instilled more discipline and work into their training camp practices after last year’s somewhat lazy stroll through August, which clearly left them ill-prepared for the start of the regular season. They harped on the hard.
The idea: Institute that mindset in all the preparation and the football will follow.
“I think we have a lot of changes,” Daboll said. “Each year is different. Different players at different spots. We have players that have been here. We have different coaches. I would say we’ve put a high premium on that.”
It was a week in which the payoffs from those decisions were on display.
Daboll has set that tone himself. In a team meeting before the first practice against the Lions, running back Devin Singletary said the coach “brought the juice” and exhorted his players not to allow themselves to be pushed around.
That characteristic continued into Thursday’s game.
Toughness is hard to quantify. Anybody who sets foot on an NFL field, even in a preseason game, has some degree of it. There were times when it clearly manifested itself in the action, though.
Daboll pointed to the offensive and defensive lines as “some good examples” of it. He said he saw it in the kicking game. He pointed to a defensive stop in the first quarter in which rookie safety Tyler Nubin came crashing into the backfield and knocked backward a guard who outweighed him by nearly 100 pounds, blowing up a running play. And he singled out Isaiah Hodgins’ block on the goal line when Eric Gray scored his second touchdown of the game on a 1-yard run.
All of those plays undoubtedly will become teaching points for the Giants this week.
“Being mentally tough, being physically tough, I think you’ve got to train that,” Daboll said. “You do that in training camp. It’s also the type of individuals you bring in. I think [special teams coordinator] Michael Ghobrial does a great job with that. I think Shane [Bowen, the defensive coordinator] does a great job with that, the new coaches we brought in. We’re a work in progress, but we’re going to try to be physical.”
These next two weeks will provide more opportunities to be that way. The Giants won’t have a dual practice with the Texans, their next preseason opponent, but they are expected to play more of their starters in Saturday’s game in Houston. That will give many of the players who are returning from last year a chance to demonstrate how much grittier and dogged they have gotten.
Then, after they return home, they’ll face what should be one of their biggest challenges in this regard in a joint practice with the Jets before facing them in the preseason finale. Given all the emotions and pent-up frustrations that are sure to be bubbling on both sides during that workout and preseason game, the events figure to provide some of the most intense play of the summer.
“We’ve got a long way to go, but the style in which I expect us to play is a physical brand of football,’’ Daboll said. “Is it always perfect? No, but the effort, the attention to detail, the concentration, the focus on the sideline, the communication from the coaches, the chemistry together, that’s what you’re trying to build. We’re not there yet, but we’re certainly trying to build it.”
And when the regular season arrives, we’ll see how tough these Giants actually are.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
