Head Coach Brian Daboll

Q: What did you see when you went back and looked at your offense, and specifically your quarterback?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I'd say there were some good things, but there were certainly a lot of things we can improve on. We had some missed opportunities within there, I'd say, throughout the first and second halves. So again, the detail, cleaning up some stuff, I'd say not just with the quarterback, but with everybody. We're going to have to do that.

Q: Specifically, when you look at (quarterback) Daniel (Jones), is there the one thing that you looked at and said, 'We need his timing better, we need his accuracy better, we need him to get the ball out quicker'?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I'd just say for all of us, we can all do a better job.

Q: And do you plan on sticking with Daniel at this point, because he's clearly your starter at this point?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yes.

Q: There's a lot of breakdown, a lot of stories for any quarterback, when an incomplete pass, is it the rush, is it the receiver, is it the route? Were there several throws in the game where there was just either a footwork or just a mechanics issue where the ball did not go where it needed to go?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I'd say decisions for the most part, people we were looking at, where we were throwing, were good. Obviously, there were some, whether it was an inaccuracy because of a base or maybe there was pressure. There's a variety of reasons for that. But it takes all 11. We've got to clean it all up.

Q: And do you have to revisit at all anything? You did a lot of things this summer and spring to get your team more ready for the opener to have different results from last year. Do you kind of look back and think, 'do I have to get guys preseason snaps?' Why was the offense seemingly so not prepared to play in an NFL game yesterday?

BRIAN DABOLL: I'd say this, you look at everything all the time. And we all got to do a better job.

Q: (Wide receiver) Jalin Hyatt left the locker room very quickly after the game. Were you satisfied with the opportunities or not that he had yesterday?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, he's our third/fourth receiver. So, you play with (wide receiver Malik) Nabers and (wide receiver) Wan'Dale (Robinson) is in the slot. And (wide receiver Darius) Slayton played the majority of the snaps ahead of Hyatt. We have certain plays and rolls for Jalin. And that could change week to week, but this week that's what it was.

Q: I haven't gotten yet the percentage of playing time sheet that we get after these games. But (outside linebacker Kayvon) Thibodeaux was credited with, I believe, a quarterback hurry as his only stat line. Where would you be on that sort of a finish for the first game of the season?

BRIAN DABOLL: Based on how the game went, I think we can all do a better job. So, we're all accountable to it. We make no excuses. And we'll watch this one here in 10 minutes and correct the things we've got to get corrected and move on to Washington.

Q: A couple of personnel things that seemed a lot different than what you guys showed us all summer. And obviously I know there's a week and a half or so of practice we haven't seen. But I was wondering if you could shed some light on (Jalin) Hyatt. But (inside linebacker) Darius (Muasau) playing over, I assume, a healthy (inside linebacker) Micah McFadden because he wasn't on the injury report. (cornerback) Cor'Dale (Flott) in the slot after not taking a single snap all of camp.

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, Micah would have been on a or was on a pitch count. And if Darius was playing well, we would just play Darius unless we needed to play Micah in that case, which, again pitch count, whether that's 15, 20 plays, whatever it may be. But if Darius was playing and playing well, we were going to let that go.

Q: Next one's (Cor'Dale) Flott.

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, Flott. Just getting ready to go here for the first game, we thought that that was the best thing for us. Now, is that going to stay the same? Probably not, to be honest with you. Flott will probably play outside more. But for this week, that's what we thought was best.

Q: And then (safety/inside linebacker Isaiah) Simmons was the third one.

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, based on – so, (safety Tyler) Nubin was starting safety. And our money position, we went with (safety Dane) Belton.

Q: And then the follow-up on Daniel (Jones) would be, obviously you guys were up front with him all offseason about your draft plans, your quarterback interviews. (Senior Vice President and General Manager) Joe (Schoen) has talked about that a million times. Do you have any thought that maybe his psyche? We talk so much about sports psychology now, that his confidence was rattled or that his psyche was rattled, that maybe you guys don't have full confidence in him anymore and that manifested on the field?

BRIAN DABOLL: I thought we had a good week. Good week of preparation. And again, it's on all 11 (players). It's on the coaches. It's on me. So, we'll work hard to fix that and come up with something better than we did, against Washington.

Q: Why'd you lean so heavily on big personnel offensively yesterday?

BRIAN DABOLL: We were expecting a heavy dose of pressure, too. But, it gives you a little bit more flexibility with the run, potentially settles defenses down. And then you're marrying run action pass with some of your runs, I'd say. But one of the reasons was to see if we can settle things down. But, they settled it down on their own.

Q: And as far as (quarterback) DJ (Daniel Jones), how do you think he saw things pre-snap yesterday? It seemed like it was the one time there was an unblocked rusher. He just didn't seem to see him. I'm trying to think of other plays like that off the top of my head. But, pre-snap, what was your assessment of how he saw things?

BRIAN DABOLL: They disguised some. That was one of the one of the deals that they were doing. I'd say that that particular pressure you were talking about, we got to do a better job of communication and making sure everybody's lined up on the same page. That wasn't him necessarily not seeing that one. But look, nothing was good enough. So, make no excuses. Got to work to get better.

Q: What did you think of the pass rush as a whole and the (outside linebacker) Kayvon (Thibodeaux)-(outside linebacker) Brian (Burns) tandem? And I know we saw (outside linebacker) Azeez (Ojulari) out there a little bit at times, too, together.

BRIAN DABOLL: I think some of the games were good, the stunts and the games we used. I'd say the pressure was really good inside with (defensive lineman) Dexter (Lawrence) when he was lined up in there. Again, they played the game. They played it well. They were playing in favorable situations. They get up, we get down. The game's controlled a little bit. So, we got to do a better job of playing complementary football. Offense, defense, kicking game to make sure that we can get into more of those situations.

Q: Just a quick follow-up, what did you think of the defensive game calling that (Defensive Coordinator) Shane (Bowen) did yesterday? It was his first game action.

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, Shane (Bowen) was prepared. I thought he did a good job.

Q: You said (quarterback) Daniel (Jones) is still your starter. Are you guys talking about or considering bringing another quarterback in as a competition or as a different option if Daniel (Jones) ends up not being the starter at some point?

BRIAN DABOLL: Nope.

Q: Are you going to give any more reps or change the reps in practice for (quarterback) Drew (Lock) or (quarterback) Tommy (DeVito)?

BRIAN DABOLL: Nope.

Q: What did ownership tell you coming out of yesterday's game?

BRIAN DABOLL: Ownership conversations that I have are private. We didn't play well. We didn't coach well. I said that after the game. We've got to do a better job.

Q: Last one, injury updates. (Cornerback) Nick McCloud, is that going to be long-term? I heard you say (cornerback Cor'Dale) Flott is going to play more outside…

BRIAN DABOLL: I'd say more day-to-day. Maybe week-to-week, but I think more day-to-day. I'll have more info on him. (Wide receiver) Gunner (Olszewski), he's going to be out for weeks. (Wide receiver) Darius Slayton is in concussion protocol. (Inside linebacker) Carter Coughlin, he'll be out for months. That's what I've got so far.

Q: (Quarterback) Drew Lock, if he had to go in a game right now, could he play at his normal level?

BRIAN DABOLL: He could.

Q: What's your message to your fans who left frustrated yesterday?

BRIAN DABOLL: I understand it. Our job is to produce, and we didn't get the job done.

Q: What's the challenge of turning this around quickly?

BRIAN DABOLL: Well, it's the first game of the year. It's a long NFL season. Make the corrections you need to make. We'll meet here in a few minutes. There was some good, there was some not-so-good. Make the corrections, be consistent, and get ready for a good week of preparation against Washington.

Q: Do you think the game was an aberration? A game not indicative of your personnel and talent?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, I'd just say give credit to Minnesota. They did a good job. There were some things that we did well. Third down was better than it's been. Explosive plays, I thought we did a good job on #18 (wide receiver Justin Jefferson) minus the one play, obviously, that went for 44 (yards). (We) didn't score any points. It's hard to win a game when you don't do that offensively. Have to do a good job there. Had some good plays on special teams. But, again, give them credit. They did a good job, and we didn't do good enough.

Q: What did you think of your offensive line play on Sunday? (Tackle) Andrew Thomas, after the game, didn't sound real happy with it. And a follow-up to that on (quarterback) Daniel (Jones). Did you feel like Daniel (Jones) created some of his own problems in the pocket yesterday?

BRIAN DABOLL: I'd just say, offensively, defensively, kicking game-wise, none of it was where we needed it to be. There's definitely certain things we're going to work on improving, and that's what we're going to try to do.

Q: Quick follow-up on (wide receiver) Gunner (Olszewski). There's nothing you can do about a pre-game injury, but did you guys believe after all the weeks that he was out with the groin, did you believe he was fully healthy entering the game yesterday?

BRIAN DABOLL: Yeah, that's why he was out there.

Q: With (wide receiver) Gunner (Olszewski) out, is (wide receiver Darius) Slayton still your punt returner?

BRIAN DABOLL: Well, we have a couple guys. We're actually doing a workout… They're doing a workout right now as we speak. We'll make a decision on that after this workout.

Q: One of the things I went back and looked at the play-by-play, and you guys put yourselves in a lot of second and third and long. How do you change that?

BRIAN DABOLL: Be productive on first down. Be able to run the ball, complete passes, stay on track and not have penalties. But playing in that obvious pass situation, good things usually don't happen when you do that. So, you've got to stay two-dimensional. Play good on early downs, which helps on not having long downs. Seven of 13 on third (down) and one to nine (yards), and one out of seven on third (down) and 10-plus (yards), with numerous second and longs. So, obviously not a good enough job.

Safety Jason Pinnock

Q: You were playing with some rookies out there, obviously. (Safety) Tyler (Nubin) alongside you for every snap and a little bit of (cornerback) Dru Phillips. How do you think those guys dealt with their first NFL game?

JASON PINNOCK: I think they played really well, really well. Dru Phillips, he was very productive for us when he was on the field. Nubin was a communicator, facilitator, everything we asked of him.

Q: Could you tell they were playing in their first game? Any little hiccups there along the way?

JASON PINNOCK: Not really, honestly. I actually was just talking to Nub. Just proud of him. But it's not about doing it one time. It's about consistently doing it. So, just on him about that.

Q: And did you watch the Packers game the other day?

JASON PINNOCK: No, I did not.

Q: You heard your former teammate (Packers Safety Xavier McKinney) came up with an interception early in the game?

JASON PINNOCK: Oh yes, I did. I've seen that. A good pick.

Q: You reach out to him at all?

JASON PINNOCK: No, I didn't. I didn't speak to him.

Q: Red zone defense – obviously, that's one of the calling cards of (Defensive Coordinator Shane) Bowen, and I'm sure it wants to be. I'm sure you guys want to make it your calling card. They scored two in the red zone. The third one I think was from the 21-yard line. How do you guys do a better job there of holding them to field goals or tightening up?

JASON PINNOCK: It really comes down to fundamentals, truthfully. Being in a gap, using your hands, getting off blocks. No panic in that sense. We understand where he was. That's where we want to end up when it's all said and done.

Q: How important is settling that number two cornerback for the chemistry of the secondary? It's a communication-based defense and it looks like from series to series, you guys had a different guy out there. Do you guys need to pick a guy to be able to settle things down to fill that role?

JASON PINNOCK: That's not my say. I'm here to play ball and play with the pieces I'm given. But again, we had an injury so there goes your continuity right there. I wouldn't blame it on a rotational thing. We've got different personnel packages. Guys do certain things and certain personnels that we like, and we prefer. Again, that's kind of out of my pay.

Q: You were here obviously last year, the year before. A new season kind of feels like a clean slate, but you guys didn't necessarily get a clean slate from the fans. How do you react to their frustrations?

JASON PINNOCK: I'm a realist. We've got to give them something to cheer about. You don't come to spend your hard-earned money and come to watch that. We've got to give them something to cheer about.

Q: How much did the outing yesterday and the way it turned out catch you off guard? You guys don't practice through a really hard training camp to have that be the first impression for this team. What is your take on how that happened yesterday?

JASON PINNOCK: Me personally my biggest thing with Week 1, it's exactly what you just kind of alluded to, the highs of training on your own, coming back with the guys, for us specifically, a new system, OTAs, training camp. And you're on this big roller coaster and you get to the top and it's Week 1. It's not like the roller coaster is over. It's one week. I mean obviously, yes, we'd like to win. Home opener, at home, new jerseys, feeling good. Of course, that's the goal. But no panic. Just urgency.

Q: Does it help at all that it's a division opponent awaiting you at the end of this week and it is on the road?

JASON PINNOCK: For sure. If you're a guy and you're out there, which I don't think it's any of us, and your urgency is not there, well it's got to be this week. It kind of forces that hand. So, for sure.

Q: My interpretation is that the locker room was a pretty down locker room. I know it's Week 1, a lot of times you can just kind of brush it off. What do you sort of attribute that to?

JASON PINNOCK: It's to the expectation of the group. Obviously, you don't just brush off a loss like that. I think I hate losing more than I like winning. But it's just down because you know how hard you worked all off-season. Like I just stated, all off-season, all OTAs, all training camp, things are coming together. A lot of rooks popping off, doing good things for us. So, the expectation. Just the disappointment in that. But ready to get to it for this division (game).

Q: You mentioned the fans before. I'm wondering what you say, 'Okay, this isn't going to be like last year. This isn't an extension…' What do you have in your mind today? What would you say to them that, 'it's not going to be like that, we're going to turn it around.' What makes you feel that way?

JASON PINNOCK: I know it might be a little corny or whatever but it's just I know how hard these guys work in the room. I know how hard we work, day to day. I know how hard we work from meetings to walkthroughs and making it come to life. This league, it comes down to one, two, three plays. And it's a huge momentum shift, whatever the case may be. Just keep riding with us, and we're going to turn this thing around.

Guard Jon Runyan

Q: How did you think the (offensive) line held up yesterday? What did you like about your group? What did you see maybe that can be improved a bit?

JON RUNYAN: There's a lot to like from what we put out there our first game But, definitely a lot more that we could do better. I think we did a decent job in pass protection. A big part for us, with us being such a veteran offensive line, is being able to establish the run game early so the guys back there and the coaching staff feels more comfortable in being able to call those run plays early on in the game where we can get moving and you know start stacking plays and putting our offense into a groove. For whatever reason I don't think we were able to establish our run game early and got into the more drop back part of the game. A lot to like from where we were. We're by no means a finished product, we still have a lot to go. That's why we're here. It's a Monday and building towards next week now.

Q: I don't mean this to sound like a little league question, but I'm just wondering in the course of the game did you or any of the linemen try to say to (quarterback) Daniel (Jones) a little bit? Give him a, 'We can do this," during the game or would that not happen?

JON RUNYAN: You try to do that with everybody you have. Daniel (Jones), as well, going to all areas on the benches, giving fist bumps and trying to keep everybody in the game. Going into halftime I felt like we put ourselves in good positions to get down the field, but it just was not working for us in that moment. Going into the locker room trying to regroup I felt like we had a good game plan coming out of halftime and I felt like we were able to move the ball downfield, but it was just getting to that point in the game where it was now or never and we were trying to have a couple third along conversions, couple fourth along conversion inside the red zone and trying to do as much as we can to get touchdowns and put points on the board, but sometimes it just doesn't work out in your favor. We'll get those things corrected and everybody here is rallying around Daniel (Jones). We've been seeing him this whole offseason. He's been here this whole time. He's been working really hard. He's in all the meetings with (Offensive Passing Game Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach) Shea (Tierney) with Coach Dabs (Brian Daboll). He's in there, he's grinding. He's in the weight room and he's going get this thing right. I know it and I think we all trust and believe that he will.

Q: Obviously, it was the kind of game that nobody was happy with. How important does that make this game coming up?

JON RUNYAN: Yeah. In the NFL pretty much every game is important, especially when you're going to go play a division opponent like we're about to in the (Washington) Commanders. These games really count double. Going in there, you play these guys twice a year. Going on the road, against a good Commanders team, in a kind of hostile environment early on the season after we kind of have some bad taste in our mouth from the performance we put out there against the Vikings, this game is going to be critical. I think it's going to be more critical for our confidence as a team and be able to build that and let everybody know that we are a good team. I think we're able to prove that in training camp. We had some great training camp practices and some great scrimmages, as well. I think that the preseason games were also really inspiring, as well. It's just going to take time to build this thing and build the confidence of this team, going down there to Washington.

Q: The other question I had is how important is it to stay out of second and third and long situations? Because that seemed to put you in the hole yesterday.

JON RUNYAN: Definitely. There's really no offense that's going to work if you can't get any yards on first down and you're sitting in second and long. The playbook shrinks to really, really small and you don't have many options. Once you're in second and long, defense knows It's either going to be A or B. Then once you get in a third and long, defense knows that it's going to be a pass. So, being able to be efficient on first down and you know stacking plays and moving the ball downfield and stacking drives and stringing them back-to-back and playing complimentary football across the board in all three phases works in that as well. That's something (in the) first game of the season wish we could have done better on. I know everybody's going to be working really hard to improve that.

Q: You mentioned earlier about playing this week in a kind of a hostile environment. Your first Giants game was, in some ways, kind of in a hostile environment. From the very first series when you guys are had the ball you heard from the fans. You come from Green Bay. Lambeau Field, I think was more supportive of the home team usually by and large. What did you take out of that from yesterday?

JON RUNYAN: I think the fans are doing what they do. They're fans. They're fanatical. They love this team, and they want to see they want to see this team succeed. I think they really do deep down believe in this team. We got to give them something that they want to cheer for and that's on us. They take time out of their day to come here and watch us and they want to be enjoying it. We're taking that away from them and we got to give them something they want to cheer for if we don't want them out there booing us. At the end of the day, that's what it is. We just got to be better.

Q: You played home games in Lambeau. The atmosphere was a little different, right? I mean not that you never heard boos, but probably not on the first series. Was that a, 'Welcome to New York,' thing for you there?

JON RUNYAN: I mean I've been on previous teams, and I've been booed off the field before. I guess it's part of the game and I've seen it from all perspectives. Being a visiting team at another team's field, it happens Fans are just really passionate when it comes to this. They love their teams, especially being here in New York. Just being around everyone, everybody loves the Giants, and they want to see them succeed and I want the Giants to succeed. Everybody in this building wants the Giants to do well. It hurts but we can use that and go forward and build together and, in the end, give the fans something they can cheer about.

Q: Before you were here, you've probably seen it on film, one thing that worked really well for this offense and for (quarterback) Daniel (Jones) was designed quarterback runs whether they're RPOs or just the ones where he snaps the ball and rolls out and it's a designed run. Why do you think that those didn't work? Did it feel like the Vikings were playing for those like almost expecting those?

JON RUNYAN: I don't necessarily think the Vikings were expecting those. They could have been. I think we called not even a handful of a direct quarterback runs. I think we had a chance to score on one down inside the 10-yard line and just one miss block here and it kind of changes everything. I feel like we had another third down we didn't get. A couple mental errors on that play and I think it would've hit big. Just one guy out of position throws the whole play off. I think Daniel (Jones) also had some great plays holding the ball back there and doesn't see anything downfield and he's able to scramble for a critical first down early on the game and got out of the pocket, again, in the third or fourth quarter and gained some positive yards. So, I mean he's a threat with his feet being able to create plays on the outside and we got to make him feel comfortable being in that pocket, delivering that ball because that's what that's what really matters in this offense.

Q: He is playing with three new starters up front. Does it take a quarterback in and offensive line a while to feel each other out in a game circumstance? I'm asking you this because obviously you played with (Green Bay Packers and New York Jets quarterback) Aaron Rodgers and then last year you played with a new quarterback. So, did it take (Green Bay Packers quarterback) Jordan (Love) a while and do you expect it to take Daniel (Jones) a while? It seemed like he was abandoning clean pockets quickly, which he's had to do in the past when he had other offensive lines that didn't hold up.

JON RUNYAN: Definitely. From my experience last year playing in Green Bay, we started out not really how we wanted. We were 2-5, 2-6 and kind of same thing. New line, new quarterback and everybody's still trying to feel each other out in the game situations. I think at times we held up really good in protection about outside of that there was some other times where there's a lot of leakage in there and had a couple quarterback hits. I had one maybe two and I know some other guys had them and we take ownership for that up front. We got to be better because, like I said, we're a veteran offensive line. We are going to be the heartbeat of this team and to go forward we got to keep #8 (quarterback Daniel Jones) back there clean and comfortable in that pockets so we can deliver that ball and open up holes for whoever's running it as well.