Here’s a new one.
Not really.
After coming back from their bye week, the Giants held a players-only meeting Monday to set the stage for the final six games. Such theatrics are generally reserved for teams that are abject disasters, or full of guys who feel compelled to put on a show, but the Giants look at it differently.
After a group of U.S. Air Force pilots visited them last fall, they had a “debriefing,” and Monday’s was more in the style of last year’s, which led into the Super Bowl run.
“It was us just going over some things that we’d like to see changed,” defensive captain Justin Tuck said, via Jenny Vrentas of the Newark Star Ledger. “It’s something that we did last year, and we’re hoping to build on a little bit. All players just going in, and being able to clear the air about what we feel can make this team better, that’s all.”
While Tuck and quarterback Eli Manning generally take the lead, the floor was open to anyone who had anything to say.
Tackle Sean Locklear called it a “a focus thing” — which is the same thing Tuck said they lacked in losses to the Steelers and Bengals before the bye.
But Tuck said he didn’t think the team lacked confidence.
“I think everybody on this team feels that we can be the best team in the league when we’re playing our style of football,” Tuck said. “It’s just unfortunate that we haven’t played our style of football the last couple of weeks. We have to find a way to get back to playing that, because it’s going to be needed leading up to these next weeks.
“But confidence, no, I think we’ve always been very confident. Sometimes maybe too confident — borderline cocky a little bit.”
The Giants have a difficult closing stretch of games. Of their six remaining opponents, the Eagles are the only one out of playoff contention, and they’ve beaten the Giants eight of the last nine. The Giants also play the Packers, Redskins, Saints, Falcons and Ravens.
That should be enough to get a team’s attention, meeting or no meeting.