November 19, 2009
I feel like the bye week happened at a perfect time for us. It’s a great time to get everybody back on the field, get everybody healed up. It’s the latest in a season I’ve ever had a bye week and we’ve got a tough stretch ahead of us.
We haven't played our best football the past couple of weeks but that is history. And the best thing is we still control our own destiny. The NFL is made in late November and December, when all the teams are making their playoff push, getting ready to play their best to get into the postseason.
It was nice to get away from football, to sit around watching NFL games all day on Sunday, but now everybody is excited to be back and about the opportunity in front of us. What happened in the past is in the past, the only way to erase it is to take care of now, starting with the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
You hear the criticism, bits and pieces here and there, but I don’t read the newspapers and I don’t listen to the sports shows. I understand the fans are disappointed, but it’s even more disappointing for us as a team because we have high expectations. We feel it just as much as the most loyal Giants fans. We know we haven’t played our best football, but now we’re doing whatever we can to get back on course and play confident Giants football.
The bye week was a good time to recharge and regroup, now we’re back on the grind for the next seven weeks of the season. It’s going to take extra work from all of us. If you think you’ve worked hard, then work a little more. All of us are competitors and we’re pissed off about where we are right now. The only way to get back is to go back to the drawing board, use the bye week to evaluate yourself, what you have done well, what needs improvement, then make any negatives into a positive and make the positives even stronger.
We had a great practice today, guys had a lot of energy, flying around, having a lot of fun but with a business attitude. Everybody is spending extra time on the field and in the film room so we can leave it all out on the field on Sunday, so after the game no one can say they didn’t do absolutely everything they could to be prepared to play their best football. That’s how you build your confidence.
I stayed after practice and worked extra with Dave Tollefson to make sure I’m doing everything I can to be ready both physically and mentally. We were doing some extra pass-rush drills because the Falcons have a good group coming in. They have an array of different guys that they rotate, Abraham, Davis, Biermann, and Anderson. They’re not a huge D-line but they play physical and they play fast, they play with a lot of confidence, lots of twists and line stunts. They rush open side ends and tight end side ends, they slant the D-line while applying pressure with their linebackers, they try to change it up and keep you off-balance.
Tomorrow I’ll be hitting it hard again in practice, making sure there’s nothing else I can do to make sure I’m ready to leave it all out on the field on Sunday. I know every guy in this locker room is ready to sell out for every other guy.
Dave Diehl is an offensive lineman for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/davediehl66.
September 9, 2009
There’s no better way to start the season than with a home game against the Redskins. This is what we play the game for. This is what football is all about.
Don’t get me wrong, you have OTAs, mini-camp and the preseason, but all of that is to get you prepared for the regular season. You have to put yourself in the best position possible both physically and mentally heading into the season.
When it’s over, no one describes your season by how you did in training camp or preseason, it’s all about what you did in the regular season. It is what gives you an opportunity to get to the playoffs and to win the Super Bowl. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. You have to go out there each and every week for a 16-game stretch and do whatever you can to be in the best position to make a run at the Super Bowl.
That’s what we’re all playing for and it starts now.
It was awesome to go in yesterday on our day off and see so many guys in there, preparing themselves to play, breaking down Redskins film. It just goes to show how excited everybody is and how willing they are to put in the time, to make sure Sunday at 4 we’re ready to take on the Washington Redskins.
You always want to start fast and on a high note. What better way to start than a home game against the Redskins, not only our long-time rival but a division rival. All games in our division are important.
This is why everybody watches preseason games and follows the draft. It’s all in preparation for this weekend. THE NFL SEASON.
On any team, you have younger guys and the veteran leadership. For the rookies, nothing matches the speed and intensity of a regular season NFL game. They’ve gone through preseason and practices, but none of that accounts for what they are going to experience this weekend in a real game, so the older guys are going to do their best to make sure the younger guys are fully prepared. When the ball is snapped, it’s a 60 minute fist fight and you need to be the aggressor.
I’m excited and looking forward to seeing how this team handles itself and how it responds. It all starts this week with practice and preparation. I know the energy is going to be there, the team is fired up, we’re excited. Now you have to have crisp, clean practices and everybody has to be on the ball. Have our game plan down so when adjustments need to be made you are all over it. We have to spend extra time watching film so when we go out there on Sunday we’re able to adapt to anything the Redskins are going to do. They’re going to do something different with their defense that we haven’t seen. Whether its alignment, blitz, etc., and when they do we have to be able to adjust and move forward.
I’m not one for predictions, I’m not going to guarantee a certain number of wins or a Super Bowl or anything, I just know this team is going to play hard, play fast, play with a lot of energy, and play with confidence. We will sell out and do whatever it takes to win the football game.
Dave Diehl is an offensive lineman for the New York Giants. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com. Find him on Twitter @davediehl66.
Written By Dave Diehl December 18, 2008 Part of being in the NFL is that when you’re winning, you’re on the highest of highs, and when you lose a couple of games it’s like the lowest of lows. We lost two games in a row, but we still have confidence in ourselves and our team. Don’t get me wrong, we haven’t played our best football the last two games, but we’re turning the page now and calling this a single-game season. All that matters is what we do on Sunday, and we’ve prepared extremely hard, pushed each other and made sure we learned from our losses. People talk about it like we don’t care when we lose, we got complacent, but that is definitely not the case .We work extremely hard and when things don’t go right it hits you hard. The only way you can fix things is to get back up when you get knocked down and make sure it doesn’t happen again. I know every one of our guys will be there on Sunday, ready to sell out for the team against Carolina. This season is not over for us and we’re focused on the task at hand. We’re playing for high stakes, home field advantage and a first-round bye, which is crucial. It’s a huge advantage for the playoffs. Carolina is going to come in with a lot of intensity, because these are the best two teams in the NFC right now and they have the same amount at stake. This is the NFL in December, every game matters so you better make sure you’re playing your best football. The most important thing, something we didn’t do the last two games, it’s all about starting fast, setting the tempo and controlling the line of scrimmage. Once we do that we have to maintain our intensity on offense, control time of possession and convert third downs, then score TDs when we get in the green zone. Carolina comes in not only with a good D, but a good offense that controls the clock. It will be a huge factor, which team can control the clock. It’s going to be a complete 60-minute fight, the team that wins the physical battle, plays smart and avoid turnovers is going to win. For me personally I love the challenge of going up against a guy like Julius Peppers. He’s a Pro Bowl player, an excellent athlete, a real ballplayer. He plays hard and I have to go out there and play to my utmost potential with full confidence. I know it won’t be perfect, but when it’s not I just have to recharge my battery and look ahead, focus on the next play. In the NFL, the next play is always the most important one. Jon Beason also is a tremendous player, the leader of that defense, he lines up all the guys, communicates and points stuff out. He leads the team in tackles and is on the top three in the league, plus he’s fast and plays extremely hard. People have always doubted us, even when we won the Super Bowl. To change people’s perspectives you just have to keep winning. We’re at home with a lot to play for, and I have no doubt that every player on this team is going to play with confidence and sell out to help us win this football game. As an offensive line we didn’t play our best football the last week. Giving up sacks and not getting the run game successfully going against Dallas is not what our unit is about and we take that very personally. We have a lot of pride in our group and have taken it upon ourselves to make sure that never happens again. From this week forward, we are putting on and strapping up our helmets with determination and a single minded focus to go out there and get the job done. Period! You can’t make excuses in the NFL. All that matters are the results. Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His blog for playerpress.com runs at www.davediehl66.com.
There’s nothing like the feeling of getting ready for a new season and for your opening game.
And we are definitely ready. We had a great camp, we worked extremely hard and a lot of guys have stepped up and filled key roles. Coming off winning the Super Bowl we still have a lot to prove this season, so we just have to go out there and play each and every game as hard as we can, give it our all, lay it on the line each week. We’ve got a target on our back this season, everybody’s gunning for us, but we’re going to be ready for every shot that’s taken at us.
Lots of people talk about a “Super Bowl hangover,” but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Once you get that feeling of holding that trophy, you just want to do it again. No one here is complacent, no one is happy. The only time you can be satisfied is when you retire. Right now every team is 0-0 with a fresh new start.
This is a Giants team that if it gets knocked down is going to get back up even stronger.
Everyone is nervous for the first game, everyone is excited, but this is a great way to start the season, at home, a Thursday night game against the Redskins. They’re a division rival, a team we play twice a year in a tradition that’s been going on since before any of us started playing for the New York Giants. It’s going to be a fun game, a physical, smashmouth game where the last man standing will win.
Once you get that first hit out of the way, you remember what it’s like and you’re ready to roll.
One of the tough things about the year after you win a Super Bowl championship is the quick turnaround. We won the Super Bowl on Feb. 3 and we started our off-season training on March 21. But this is a team with a tough mental attitude, willing to work hard to get back to that pinnacle again. It’s hard to win games in the NFL, you’re not going to win every game, so the key is when you lose, you get knocked down, you have to learn something and move forward. You can’t let a loss linger, and the good thing about this team and the character of all of these guys, there are a lot of leaders who can step up and rally the team, pull it together and get things going in the right direction.
We have lost some players, Michael Strahan to retirement and Osi Umenyiora to injury. It’s always tough losing great players like that. But I can tell you that our defensive line is in good hands with Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka. Mathias moved back to the position he was drafted at, and he’s a hard-working guy, he’s tough, and even more important, he’s a team player. He will play any position you put him at and he’s going to go out there and give it all he’s got. Knowing the type of athlete and player he is, we all believe in him.
The same goes for Tuck replacing Strahan. Justin had a great season last year, but still had people telling him he wasn’t an every-down player. So he’s going out there with a chip on his shoulder. He’s replacing a Hall of Famer and he wants to go out there and prove the critics wrong.
Seeing the way Justin and Mathias do the little things, work hard during practice, work on technique and spend time in the weight room and in meetings watching tape, I know they’re going to do a great job.
This first game is real important. This is when you set the standard of what the season is going to be like. You want to start on a high note, get yourself rolling early in the season. Plus, we’re going against a division rival, a team we’re going to see again, a team we’ll have to beat to win the division.
We started out 0-2 last year and we all know how that season turned out, but that’s not how you want to start. You want to start fast.
Dave Diehl is the starting left tackle for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants, who open their season Thursday, Sept. 4 at home against the Washington Redskins. Dave’s blog for playerpress.com runs regularly at www.davediehl66.com.