The Giants regular season starts on Sunday as well as the Ben McAdoo era. McAdoo was part of Tom Coughlin’s staff for two seasons and moved up to head coach.
“I’m excited,” McAdoo said. “Champing at the bit. Can’t wait for Sunday. It’s a long week.”
Everybody likes the image of the Joe Cool, never flustered, unflappable team, but there’s nothing wrong with some pregame jitters.
“If you don’t get a little anxious to go play and go coach, you probably have to find something else to do,” McAdoo said. “I think that’s normal, that’s healthy.”
While everyone is excited for the start of the season, it is only game one of 16. A loss does not mean it would be time to give up on the season. Actually, the Giants Super Bowl seasons of 1986 and 2007 began with losses in Dallas.
“It’s the biggest game we’ll play this week,” McAdoo said. “It’s one of 16, but we do understand that division games usually count as two when it’s all said and done. It’s an important game for us because it’s the one this week.”
The Giants haven’t won its opening game since beating the Panthers in 2010. The last few seasons have seen more losing than winning but that doesn’t mean that week one necessarily set a tone for the season or that there was any carryover from one week to the next.
“I think each week tells a new story,” McAdoo said. “We need to go out each week and be ready to play. We have one game this week, so we need to go play that game and go play it well.”
Jason Garrett’s first game as head coach of the Cowboys came in 2010 when the 1-7 Cowboys went into New Jersey and beat the 6-2 Giants. Garrett, a member of the 2000 Giants team that went to Super Bowl XXXV, has only coached against Tom Coughlin in these Giants-Cowboys meetings. Now he goes against McAdoo, a coach he has respect for.
“We expect their best,” Garrett said. “He has done an outstanding job since he has been there. He has certainly done a very good job with their offense, when he was their offensive coordinator and helping those guys be as productive as they have been, and he has a great reputation, not only as a guy, but as a coach.”