Why Brian Daboll isn't Panicking About "Lopsided" Practices

Giants Head Coach Brian Daboll isn't panicking over the lopsided showing by the team's offense in practice. Here's why.

When it comes to training camp practices, on any given play, the offense can look good and the defense bad, or vice versa.

And to the casual observer, the New York Giants offense hasn't looked consistently sharp of late, while the defense has looked like it's in mid-season form.

That's raised some questions and concerns about the Giants' offense, and if the reason why it's looked so inconsistent is that the defense has taken a no holds barred approach in its practice habits as directed by defensive coordinator Wink Martindale or if the unit is just that far behind.

"You always want to practice as good as you can," said head coach Brian Daboll. "On the other hand, I said it was a good practice. I think the defense got a lot of ball disruption plays, knocked the ball out quite a bit, and had a couple of picks. So, that’s why you practice."

Yes, but at some point, it's also fair to wonder if one side is so far ahead of the other, is the competition a fair one?

That's certainly a question that's been floating around Giants training camp, so much so that no one would blame Daboll if he's considered approaching Martindale to have him dial things back a bit.

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Daboll, however, isn't about to do that.

"I think it’s good for an offense to deal with that. However many plays in a row, it’s still good. It makes you think," Daboll said.

"I do think you want to do that at times where you say, ‘Hey, give me two or three so every play isn’t mental gymnastics of figuring out different things.’ But I think it’s good to apply as much pressure because you’re going to deal with it at some point."

The mental gymnastics Martindale has put the offense through can only help the unit improve its communication and toughen it up further, especially when the regular-season rolls around and the Giants are at the mercy of the opposing defensive coordinator.

"Whether it’s 20 plays in a row, you never know about that, but it’s good for an offense to have to work through communication. And it’s really good to sit back after the practice and go through it and talk about some things that are issues at times," Daboll said.

That said, Daboll was asked about results and at what point he might start becoming concerned if he hasn't already.

"That’s why we practice. We’re all about the process, so if you have a bad day, you regroup, you look at it, you talk about it," he said.

"Obviously, you want to translate good things in practice to games. We’re evaluating players right now. We’re working through a lot of different schemes. That’s not much different than the last twenty-two years I’ve been around. But we want to perform well when it counts the most, which is on game day."

Blue Notes

Daboll confirmed that defensive line coach Andre Patterson, who has been away from the team while dealing with a medical issue, returned. While the team hit the practice field, Patterson stayed indoors, with assistant defensive line coach Bryan Cox continuing to run drills in his place.  

Injuries forced the Giants to run practice with only two offensive line groups instead of three. The starting unit consisted of left tackle Andrew Thomas, left guard Max Garcia, center Ben Bredeson, right guard Mark Glowinski, and right tackle Evan Neal. The second group included left tackle Roy Mbaeteka, left guard Devery Hamilton, center Garrett McGhin, right guard Eric Smith, and right tackle Will Holden. 

Daboll said that the starters would play Sunday against the Bengals, but added that no decision had been made regarding how long the starters would play. 

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