New York Giants defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson said his players responded the right way after he publicly questioned their effort earlier this season. They watched the tape, recognized they were not running to the ball, and corrected it without needing much more said.
Wilson described the group as proud and self-aware. He did not have to hammer the point once they saw it for themselves.
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“They responded in a great way. They responded the way I knew they would respond,” Wilson told reporters on Thursday. “Honestly, we talked about watching the tape and seeing ourselves not running to the ball. You know, they’re a proud bunch. I really didn’t have to say much. They knew that they had to come out and they had to run to the ball and play with toughness and physicality, and that’s what we did in the game.”
One sequence involving rookie linebacker Arvell Reese illustrated the standard Wilson wants. Reese missed a sack after jumping too early, then put his foot in the ground and chased the ball carrier down. Wilson said the staff shows those high-power plays every week alongside the make-it-right clips.
“Within that play, obviously he should have got a sack if he didn’t jump,” Wilson said. “But once he jumped and he put his foot in the ground and you saw the tenacity and the effort that he had to run to the ball, that exemplifies what a good, nasty defense should look like. That play within itself is what everybody should strive for in defense in terms of running to the ball with that type of energy and effort.”
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Wilson called Reese all football and all gas with no brakes, the same player the building saw at Ohio State. He noted the ups and downs Reese fought through to reach the NFL and said that same fight shows up on the field when he lines up.
Wilson also addressed the idea that coaches risk something by being that direct in public. He said the film does not lie, the comments were about behavior rather than any individual, and the players had already heard the same message in meetings since the first day. He framed the approach as a product of relationships rather than confrontation for its own sake.
“It’s not calling out a specific player. It’s calling out a behavior,” Wilson said. “It’s calling out what we’re not doing collectively. Because at the end of the day, it’s me as well. So, if I let it slip, shame on me. So, it’s about us upholding the standard that we set in that room that we want to exemplify on a daily basis when we go out and play.”
He added that too many coaches avoid hard conversations and that a tight-knit group allows a coach to identify issues without making it personal.
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“I think too many coaches these days are scared to have those hard conversations,” he said. “And it goes back to this. What is your relationship with the group? What is your relationship with the player, right? See, if you build a relationship and you have this bond and you have this tight-knit group, you can speak to them in a certain way and identify certain things without attacking them personally. It’s not a personal attack. It’s a behavioral attack.”
The response on the field, Wilson said, showed the message landed.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Giants’ Dennard Wilson: Too many coaches fear having tough conversations
