Giants Need This X-factor to Step Up vs. 49ers

The New York Giants need this part of their operation to step up if they're to have success against the 49ers.

The NFL schedule makers might have thrown the New York Giants a bone in scheduling back-to-back road games on the West Coast, which eliminated a roundtrip cross-country flight, but the order in which those games were scheduled could have been better.

The Giants, coming off a Sunday game against the rebuilding Arizona CArdinals, now have to head to Santa Clara for a game on Thursday night against the San Francisco 49ers, a much more competitive and stabilized team that made it to the NFC Championship last year.

A road game on a short work week is challenging enough, but when the team can't partake in its usual routine to include practices, it's up to the coaching to be the X-factor.

That's exactly the position in which the Giants currently find themselves. Head coach Brian Daboll has worked his players inside of Arizona State's practice bubble instead of in the 100+-degree heat, the bubble probably not as spacious as what the Giants are used to having at their Quest Diagnostics Training Center headquarters in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

And because of the quick turnaround, Daboll hasn't been able to hold anything other than walkthroughs, which are usually a step or two down from the tempo of a regular practice.

"It’s really mental because it is such a short week," Daboll said when asked to describe how the walkthroughs are structured. 

"Then we go to offense and defense and spend quite a bit of time on going through our game plan and some of the looks that we’ll see, albeit a slowed down tempo pace, but it’s really a mental week of practice to get ready for a Thursday night game."

With such a heavier-than-usual emphasis on the mental part of the preparation process, the onus lies more on the coaching staff to make sure that everyone is on the same page regarding their assignments, that all needs to be accomplished in a short period that, at least this week, will also include a nearly two-hour plane ride on top of everything else. 

"You know when you’re playing, and you plan accordingly throughout the offseason, towards the end of the offseason, through training camp, and you put things in that you know you’re probably going to use in a short timeframe," Daboll said of trying to overcome the scheduling challenge.

"It’s not like you’re adding 1,000 new plays--you don’t do that to the players. You want them to play fast and make sure they know what to do. But certainly, there’s always a game plan element to it."

That element also includes ensuring the players get the proper treatment and rest after a Sunday game. 

"There hasn’t been a lot of sleep, but that’s how it goes on these types of games," Daboll said. "Make sure you can put together something that those guys can go out there and execute, know what to do, play fast with, and then for them to take care of their bodies and do what they need to do to get ready to play in a short time frame."

And hope for the best possible outcome in a situation where the odds are heavily stacked against you.

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