Brian Daboll and the Giants aren’t satisfied with simply making the playoffs. They want what awaits one team at the end.
“Our goal will never be just to make the playoffs,” Daboll said after the team’s 38-10 victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. “That will never be our sole goal.”
“When you make the playoffs, it’s not like you’ve won the Super Bowl,” Saquon Barkley added. You give yourself the opportunity to compete for a Super Bowl. So it’s just one more step forward. We just have to keep working.”
Daboll was not taking his team’s attention away from the task at hand.
He reminded them that they still had a regular-season game in Philadelphia the following weekend, and his postgame message was mostly to celebrate responsibly.
“I told him, ‘Congratulations, let’s be a pro, let’s be smart tonight,'” Daboll said. “Let’s not undo everything we’ve worked for. January is the busiest month of the year. On the field, you did the right thing. Let us do the right thing away from the field.”
But it’s important to understand that the Giants aren’t content with being the NFC’s sixth seed. They are dissatisfied. They’re not finished yet.
They’re no longer playing the underdog. They want to win everything.
And they’re focusing on that goal “immediately,” according to Pro Bowl defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence.
“For me? “In an instant,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy this for a little while. But doing it? That’s all it takes. You’re in the tournament once you’ve been accepted. There is only one thing that one team can win at the end of the tournament. That will be the ultimate goal. I believe it will be a good challenge for us, and I believe we will be prepared.”
Xavier McKinney, a free safety who started Sunday after missing seven games with a broken left hand, said the Giants’ expectations have always been higher than those on the outside. And they will remain so.
“We knew we could do it,” McKinney said. “The season hasn’t ended yet. We still have another game [against the Eagles] to play, and we’ll work hard to get the next one as well. But it doesn’t end with the playoffs.
“We have one ultimate goal, and everyone knows what that is, and we’re working hard to achieve it,” the safety added. “Anything can happen in the playoffs, and we’re in it right now. So it’ll be entertaining.”
Left tackle Andrew Thomas believes the Giants can make a splash now that they’re in. The signs point to a rematch with the Minnesota Vikings, whom they nearly defeated on Christmas Eve.
“It’s anybody’s game once you get to the playoffs,” Thomas said. “Your record is no longer relevant. It’s just a matter of who wins that day. “Win and you’re out.”
The Giants (9-6) haven’t been particularly hot down the stretch. They are also 0-5 against the current NFC playoff field this season. They’ll have a chance against anyone if Daniel Jones continues to play like he did on Sunday.
“He’s a heck of a quarterback, a heck of a player,” Barkley said of Jones. “Everyone wanted to be a big critic of him and say this and that, but he gave us the opportunity to play playoff football, and he locked it in today. When we needed him the most, he came up big.”
This is a young team. This will be invaluable experience for GM Joe Schoen’s locker room building blocks.
But they’re not satisfied. They claim that this is only the beginning.
“We made the playoffs,” said Daboll. “I’m hoping there’s a long way to go here.”
Nobody expected them to get this far. Nobody could tell the Giants on Sunday that they couldn’t prove everyone wrong again in January.
