EAST RUTHERFORD — The Giants’ comeback tour — for however long the dream of sneaking into the playoffs lasts — has made one point clear for the future of the franchise.
Brian Daboll needs to repair whatever beef he may have with Wink Martindale.
Sure, it’s understandable that two coaches would get competitive with each other during practice since they specialize in opposite sides of the football. But for it to escalate to the level that FOX’s Jay Glazer reported two weeks ago — that their tension is trending toward a mutual parting of ways by the end of the season — is more than just surprising.
It would be a completely illogical move for this organization.
Daboll, the second-year head coach, can’t afford to let Martindale out of the building — not after the 60-year-old veteran’s defense was smothering again in the Giants’ 24-22 win Monday night at MetLife Stadium against the Packers.
“We feel like we’re in heaven,” cornerback Adoree’ Jackson said of playing for Martindale. “We appreciate him, we love the things that he does. We don’t, I don’t want to say look too far ahead, but you never know what may happen in this league. They always say the league is going to be different every year, but at the same time you’ve got to enjoy that moment and live it up to the best of your abilities. So we’re all just going to keep playing for each other, keep having fun with Wink. Obviously we want him here to be able to keep building, keep growing.”
Think about this: Green Bay (6-7) came into this primetime game with three straight wins including an upset over the Chiefs to move to No. 7 in the NFC playoff race. And they didn’t turn the ball over once in those games.
Yet the Giants (5-8) had three takeaways Monday — a fumble recovery plus an interception on defense, along with a fumble recovery on a Packers punt return — to up their total to 14 in the last four games.
The Giants have an absurd +9 turnover margin during their three-game winning streak. When you dominate that battle, you have a great chance of consistently coming out on top in the NFL. And the Giants can mostly thank their defense for that as their farfetched postseason hopes remain alive.
Don’t look now, but this team is only one game behind Green Bay and four other 6-7 teams for the last playoff spot. They’ll play two of those teams — the Saints and Rams — in the next three weeks.
“That’s the goal for us,” Jackson said. “Right now, we’re just trying to take it one game at time, you know what I mean? Not getting too far ahead. We know this is an any given Sunday league. Everybody doubted us to lose this game, they doubted us to lose a lot of games, but for us just to take it one game at a time … you never know what may happen.”
In another game where Tommy DeVito and the Giants’ offense made timely plays but frequently sputtered, the defense kept answering the call when the team needed it most.
When New York’s special teams muffed a punt and the Packers recovered at the Giants’ 14-yard line, the defense held Green Bay to a field goal to keep the Giants ahead, 14-13, with 7:31 left in the third quarter. The defense also forced a 45-yard field goal attempt that the Packers missed with 10:47 remaining in the fourth quarter after a third-down sack by Azeez Ojulari and Dexter Lawrence. And the defense again maintained the lead when cornerback Deonte Banks broke up a pass into the end zone before the Packers again kicked a field goal to make it 21-16 with 5:30 remaining.
The Packers took a 22-21 lead with 1:33 left after Saquon Barkley’s third career lost fumble put Green Bay’s offense at New York’s 36-yard line. That was the Packers’ first touchdown since the first quarter, but it was bound to happen eventually with the amount of short fields that the Giants’ defense was forced to handle.
Yet even on Green Bay’s last touchdown, the defense snuffed out a rushing attempt on the two-point conversion, which paved the way for the Giants to kick the winning field goal as time expired.
“If this was Madden (the video game), I would play Madden just how Wink called the game,” outside linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux said. “His play call, his execution, I trust it to the fullest and I’m always happy with it.”
Thibodeaux, another key piece of the Giants’ future, continued his sensational sophomore season with eight tackles. He also had a forced fumble of quarterback Jordan Love and a pass breakup — both on third downs in the first half — plus a combined sack with Micah McFadden in the second half to raise his impressive sack total to 11.5.
“I’ve been putting the work in,” Thibodeaux said. “Sometimes it’s either two things: It’s not your time yet or you’re not putting enough work in. For me, it’s my time and I’m grateful for it.”
Jackson said he appreciates that Martindale “just lets us play ball and have fun” while asking for input and feedback from his players when designing his aggressive schemes.
“He asks us what do we want to do, what do we see out there, how do we feel like playing, and I think that’s helped us because everybody’s skillset is different,” Jackson said. “You can have an old school coach — I’m going to call him old school because he’s been around and gotten to a Super Bowl (with the Ravens in 2012) and he did different things — but I feel like he understands the game and has been around a lot of great players, so he knows how to coach.”
As Daboll looks to keep building the Giants back to their Super Bowl glory days, he would be foolish not to retain Martindale as part of that equation.
Source: Berkshire mont