EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- There's no greater remedy to a hurting football team than to win a game, even if the win comes at the expense of a struggling opponent such as was the case in the New York Giants' 31-24 victory over the Dolphins.
Besides snapping a three-game losing streak, the last two of which saw the Giants use up any remaining lifelines they might have had in their quest to win the NFC East, head coach Tom Coughlin is hoping that the euphoria of winning stays with his team during the upcoming short work week in which they will prepare to host the undefeated Panthers on Sunday.
"There's no doubt winning is the biggest factor and going on the field and doing it rather than taking about it," Coughlin said Tuesday via conference call.
To make sure his team would get the job done this week, Coughlin showed the players a highlight reel of plays that were highly graded by the coaches. His message to the players was that they've played well enough to win before so there was no reason why they couldn't do so again now that there is no room for error.
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"We wanted to come from that basis to show them that there were games throughout the year where we had come back, where we did finish, and where we did make the big plays when they had to be made," he explained.
The strategy worked as the Giants played with more confidence and a greater sense of urgency with the game on the line.
"I think from that standpoint any time you have that kind of confidence, there will be a certain measure of accomplishment," he said.
While the win itself was much welcomed by the players and coaches, the steps taken to achieve the victory weren't always pretty.
Some of the negatives include the Giants' inability to win the starting field position battle; their continued inability to convert at least 50 percent of their third-down attempts (they were five of 11 this week), and, most important, their inability to step on their opponent's jugular and put them away early and decisively, just to name a few.
Still, the win is a good start, but Coughlin knows that against a Panthers team that has done very little wrong this season, the Giants are going to have to crank up their preparation and effort to play a much better game in fundamentals such as tackling, route running -- all the little core fundamentals that they did just enough of against the Dolphins but which they need to do a lot more of against the Panthers.
"I think the question I'll have again for our players is, 'OK, we did this the other night. Do you realize how much we're going to have to improve over that as we prepare to compete against an undefeated team?'" Coughlin said.
The good news is that he and his staff won't have to start from scratch with the players, whom he plans to remind of their abilities and of his belief in their skills to get the job done.
"I think the groundwork will be laid, but there's a lot of things that will have to be done better," he said.
REPORT CARD VS. DOLPHINS
--PASSING OFFENSE: A-plus. Zero dropped passes and four touchdown passes (two caught by the amazing Odell Beckham Jr., who by the way finished with 166 yards on seven receptions); does it get much better than that for a passing offense? It sure does when the quarterback completes 87 percent of his passes, which resulted in Eli Manning finishing with a passer rating of 151.5. All of those factors plus the otherwise solid pass blocking made this week about as close to a perfect showing by the Giants' passing game in a winning effort as there's been all season long.
--RUSHING OFFENSE: C-plus. The coaching staff finally stayed primarily with one running back for most of the touches, that being Rashad Jennings, who carried a season-high 22 times for 81 yards (3.7 average). Jennings also picked up 47 of his yards after contact, and added 21 yards as a receiver out of the backfield. Otherwise, the rest of the running game was more of the same old, same old. Andre Williams' sophomore slump continued as he had another play for negative yards, but it was his lost fumble that sent him to the bench for the rest of the game. Shane Vereen managed zero yards on his one carry and Orleans Darkwa's touches continue to be limited because of his role on special teams.
--PASS DEFENSE: C. The Giants managed to get five hits and one sack against quarterback Ryan Tannehill, but they did so by doing a bit more blitzing with the safeties than they have in past games. The four-man line, even with a fresh-legged Jason Pierre-Paul, still isn't getting it done. On the back end, cornerback Prince Amukamara had another poor showing, allowing four out of five pass targets against him to be completed, including the big 47-yard touchdown catch by receiver Kenny Stills. With the stakes getting higher each week, the creativity of defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo will certainly be tested.
RUN DEFENSE: C. The Giants allowed 128 yards on 22 carries, the longest run being a 38-yard dash by Lamar Miller. The biggest problem with the run defense was in the tackling, where on Miller's 38-yard touchdown run, at least three Giants defenders missed him. The same held true on long runs of 12 yards by quarterback Ryan Tannehill and running back Jay Ajayi.
--SPECIAL TEAMS: C. After nailing 29 straight field-goal conversions, kicker Josh Brown has now had two games in a row where he's missed an attempt. Whether that's a result of having a new long snapper, Danny Aiken, is not known, but clearly Brown seems to have fallen into a mini-slump as far as his consistency that Coughlin is hoping he snaps out of moving forward. Not too much from either return unit as far as winning the field position battle; in fact, the Giants lost the starting field position battle this week as their kickoff coverage team got a little sloppy in covering Jarvis Landry on a 66-yard kickoff return.
--COACHING: B-minus. It wasn't always pretty, but the strategies on both sides of the ball got the job done. On offense, the Giants ran an up-tempo offense that was particularly effective late in the game in wearing out the Dolphins' defensive front. Defensively, Steve Spagnuolo ran several safety blitzes to inject some life into the Giants' pass rush. While the plan didn't necessarily work -- the Giants would end up getting burned on some long yardage plays -- give Spagnuolo credit for trying something to light a fire under the defense's backsides. Finally, kudos to head coach Tom Coughlin, who in the days leading up to the game reached deeply into his bag of tricks to treat his players to a highlight reel of good plays they made this season with the hopes of restoring their confidence after three straight losses. The tactic appeared to work as the Giants played about as complete of a game as they have this year since their Week 4 win at Buffalo.
