Coach Daboll Weekly Q&A

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Dabs' Digest: 'Create some positive energy & emotion'

Sep 20, 2023 at 12:54 PM

Michael Eisen

Giants.com Senior Writer/Editor

TEMPE, Ariz. - Dabs' Digest, Giants.com's weekly conversation with head coach Brian Daboll:

Q: You play the 49ers Thursday night in San Francisco. What are the biggest challenges for a coaching staff on a short week like this?

Daboll: "Well, I'd say everybody goes through it during the year. You know when you're playing. You prepare for the team you're playing in the offseason when you get the schedule, so that you're a little bit ahead of the game, and then you do some of it during training camp. There's only so many hours in a day. Right after the Arizona game, we came back to the hotel and we met for quite a while on Sunday night and then got up early and met on Monday. You have to make sure that you don't overdo the gameplan while still giving the players a chance to be successful with the things you need to do for the game, and then you try to create a normal week the best you can. Obviously, there's not a lot of physical activity going on. The guys are still sore. It's a short week. So, it's really a mental week of preparation and then you give them the massages, the treatments, all the rehab stuff that they need to do. You kind of full blast that for the few days that you do have to get ready to go out there and play a game.

"In this case, you get accustomed to the time change, being out here for a few days. Everybody goes through it, and you do the best you can, you prepare the best way you possibly can. Again, it's not just these three days of preparation, it's months before that when you're doing things trying to get ready for that week. So, it's not the first time you look at the team you're playing in those three days. We've done a lot of work. We continue to do a lot of work here these next couple of days, but we put a schedule together that I think works well for us."

Q: Is there no time to review the game you just played?

Daboll: "I think it's always important to watch the game. As soon as the game was over, we have portable laptops and I actually watched a lot of it just sitting outside the stadium in Arizona and watched it all the way back to the hotel, got to the hotel, finished watching at the hotel, talked to each of the units - offense, defensive and the kicking game - go through things, big picture things that we can do better. Talk to the players or certain players of the things that they can improve on and what we need to do better. I think it's always important to self-assess. So you kind of watch that, put that to bed Sunday evening and then get right into some of the work for the San Francisco game. So, there's a lot of things going on. When I was a position coach, you get a head start, late Friday, Saturday and before you play the Arizona game, just so you have stuff ready and prepared."

Q: You said at halftime of the Arizona game, you were down 60-0 on the season. Are you thinking all you need is just one play, one spark and we can get this thing going?

Daboll: "That's a challenge when things aren't going great, how to bring people together and create urgency and focus when it's not going well. The best thing you can do, and each person can do, is just do their job. It's good to get out there and get the first drive (of the second half) and create some positive energy and emotion and then it is always going to fall back to doing your job and executing. That's what this game is about. We have to do better early on in games."

Q: Daniel (Jones) literally had one of the best second halves any quarterback has ever had. I don't think you were asked specifically about that, but the way he took the team on his shoulders was pretty impressive.

Daboll: "He's a pretty consistent person, as we know. I thought he played the position at a high level. He wasn't getting too down on himself after a rough start. I would say not just the quarterback really, the whole team didn't play well. That starts with me. So, he was consistent, he was focused, and he did his job well and made some really good plays throughout that game. He made some in the first half, too, but he made quite a bit of them in that second half."

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