He was smart enough to get into Harvard. He was good enough to play at Alabama. Now he's a New York Giant. Throughout the season, rookie defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson will check in with Giants.com and provide an inside look at his journey of making it to the NFL. In this post, Dalvin breaks down the first half of his season as the Giants go on their bye week...

People ask you if your rookie season feels like it goes by quick or is it long, and it's really a little bit of both. On one hand, the first half pretty much flew by for the most part. It went by quicker than I thought it would. It doesn't really feel like seven games already, but at the same time, a lot has happened so far.

One thing I've learned about myself in this league is you've got to continue to push and keep getting better, even in this bye week. Just keep improving so we can come back the following week against the Rams and continue to play hard on defense. You learn just how difficult it is to win at the NFL level.

We learned that again last week, but one thing we were proud of was that long goal-line stand. We pride ourselves on that. At that point, it's a collection of will and technique. You have to go out there with the mindset that you're not going to be denied. You're going to do the denying. I love goal-line stands. It just gives your whole team momentum and things like that. It's just going out there and stopping them – that's what defense is about on the most fundamental level. To go out there for like 10 straight plays to do that, it was just amazing. In the huddle, we just kept going and saying, "They're not getting in. We're not giving them any points."

"Snacks" had some big plays down there. I'm super impressed by him. Pretty much every game there's a moment where I go, "Wow." He's one of those guys that's just a great football player. I continue to learn from him each day in practice and every rep beside him. He teaches me something new every day, and I appreciate it. He's like a big brother to me.

Avery Moss, who I roomed with in training camp, also had a big game. He gets better week in and week out. He just keeps improving. That's something we preach in the D-line room, and he continues to improve. Avery came in and was just balling last week. I'm excited for him in the second half of the season.

Now that we have some time away, I'm going to go back home to Georgia and visit some family. Alabama has their bye week as well, so I'm going to get away from football a little bit. But also I'll make sure I'm watching film and things like that and make sure I stay in shape, work out and do some cardio. And then we'll come back fresh and ready to get after it again.

Don't forget to follow the second-round pick on Twitter***@DalvinTomlinson ***