Giants Coach Ben McAdoo discussed his offseason goals and motivation for 2017:
Everyone has a spring to-do list. Ben McAdoo's is just longer than most.
The Giants' head coach kept adding items to it during his first campaign as head coach, and once the season concluded, the time came to start crossing things off. He and his staff are still going.
"We kept a running list of things if we had to do them again we'd do better," McAdoo told a group of reporters at the NFL Annual Meeting in Phoenix. "In the offseason alone, there were over 100 things. And we're not talking scheme here, not talking offense, defense, special teams. We're just talking as a program, things that can get better."
And that was after an 11-win season that resulted in the team's first postseason appearance since 2011.
McAdoo, however, has used the phrase "loser's mentality" during his tenure when it comes to people expecting achievements in any area to carry over to the following season. The team's biggest challenge, McAdoo said, will be handling that success, which included boasting the franchise's highest win total since 2008, the best home record (7-1) in the history of MetLife Stadium, the No. 2 scoring defense, and a sweep of the top-seeded Cowboys in the regular season.
For motivation, the team does not need to look any further than its last time out: a 38-13 loss at Green Bay in the first round of the playoffs. The Giants, who were the first team to beat the Packers at Lambeau Field twice in the postseason in 2007 and 2011, could not repeat history. They allowed more points than they had all season and scored fewer than 20 points for the 10th time.
"That last game needs to drive us a little bit," McAdoo said. "It can't be everything, but it needs to be a big part of it. The more things you have to play for, the better you're going to play. Hopefully that drives us."
McAdoo added, "My biggest concern is that we can't be too big to do the little things that are going to make a difference like we did last year leading up to the season. The fundamentals, we need to go back to work there and take care of the little things."
If they take care of the little things, big goals can be achieved. And McAdoo does not shy away from talking about the biggest one of them all.
"There's only one goal in this game," he said. "It's to put the trophy in the case, the ring on the finger, banner on the wall, picture on the team meeting room wall. I mean, that's it. We want to win it. That's why we're in it. That's it. There's nothing else. That's why we work the way we work."
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