Oshane Ximines of the New York Giants celebrates a defensive...

Oshane Ximines of the New York Giants celebrates a defensive play against the Baltimore Ravens at MetLife on Sunday, Oct 16, 2022. Credit: Mike Stobe

The Giants know what the NFC East standings look like as well as you do, but they will not talk about them publicly and are doing what they can to ignore them privately.

Asked how much the team’s 5-1 record is a topic of internal discussion, receiver Darius Slayton said on Monday, “Not much, to be honest with you.”

But won’t the standings become more of a focus as the season wears on?

“No, I don’t think it will, mostly because we have experience of ignoring our record for bad reasons,” he said with a chuckle. “So that experience is probably going to pay off if we continue this trend and later on in the season.

“You know, just ignore it and keep playing good ball and the results take care of themselves.”

Slayton, in his fourth year with the Giants, has experienced 4-12, 6-10 and 4-13 seasons.

So is it better to ignore a bad record or a good record? “Much better to ignore a good one,” he said, smiling. “I can attest.”

When linebacker Oshane Ximines was asked about the standings — in which the Giants trail the unbeaten Eagles by a game — he said he could recite them. But he did not actually do so.

That is the approach coach Brian Daboll wants. It’s one week at a time, always. “It’s a humbling league,” Daboll said. “You’re one week from falling off a cliff, really.”

Notes & quotes: RB Saquon Barkley on Sunday left his second game in a row with an apparent shoulder injury and returned to score the winning touchdown for the second game in a row. “He’s a tough customer,” Daboll said .  .  . The Giants have allowed only two rushing touchdowns — one by the Ravens’ Kenyan Drake on Sunday and one by the Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott. But they have not allowed a rushing TD at full strength. On both scores, they mistakenly had only 10 defenders on the field.

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