According to the Elias Sports Bureau, from 2000, when Daboll made his NFL coaching debut with New England, through 2023, 200 teams started 0-2. Only 19 of them (9.5%) made the playoffs. In 2020, the NFL added a seventh playoff team in each conference. In the four seasons since, the percentage of 0-2 teams making the playoffs has declined to 6.3 (two of 32).
This is the ninth time a team Daboll coached for has started 0-2 (or worse). Only one of those teams rallied to make the playoffs; the 2001 New England Patriots, with whom he won the first of his five Super Bowl rings.
Today, the fact impresses Daboll not at all.
“That was a long time ago, 2001,” he said. “(That team was) 1-3. So again, that’s 2001 or 2020, none of that really matters. What matters is doing the things we need to do internally to fix some of the things that we’re having issues with. Again, there’s been some improvement. There was improvement in the red zone defense from Week 1 to Week 2. There was improvement, I’d say, in almost every area offensively and we need to continue to build off those things and then fix the things that that aren’t up to standard.”
One of the first orders of business is selecting a kicker for the game in Cleveland. Graham Gano suffered a hamstring injury on the opening kickoff yesterday. When punter Jamie Gillan missed on the first extra point attempt, Daboll elected not to try another PAT or a field goal, a situation that is untenable going forward. And Gano’s return is not imminent.
“We’ll see where he’s at and I would assume it’s going to be a few weeks here,” Daboll said.
The Giants have Jude McAtamney on their practice squad, but he has never kicked in an NFL game. The team also held a kickers tryout.
“We’ll work guys out and Jude has been with us, so we’ll make a decision off of the workout,” Daboll said. “Based on how they do in the workout and then Jude.”
As he turns his team’s attention to the Browns, Daboll looks to build on what the Giants did well yesterday and correct the parts of their performance that were less satisfactory.
The Giants played much better than they did in their season-opening loss to Minnesota, with some notable exceptions. One, of course, was the kicking game. The defense gave up 215 rushing yards, including 133 by Brian Robinson, Jr., Washington converted 50% of its third down opportunities (7-14) and its only fourth down try, and never punted.
“Usually (when)…
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