Postgame Press Conference: John Harbaugh on first win as Giants' head coach

John Harbaugh (0:00)

A heck of a win, I'm really proud of our players and everybody in the organization. But first of all, I just want to, we talked to our guys about just being humble and about putting, giving credit where credit is due. And, you know, faith is a big component of what we do, however guys define that. And for me, it's our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and our faith and our Creator. And start with that, hearts in the right place. And I think that kind of epitomizes a little bit about the way the guys played.

It was a team effort.

It was a hard fought game, I guess, an opponent in an unbelievable environment. This crowd, I'm telling you, man, the parking lot, the parking lot was off the chain driving in here. It was packed. I'm talking like four and a half hours before the guy get here early now. You know, I'm thinking it's going to be easy to get in here and it wasn't. Then the stadium was just absolutely electric from beginning to end. The sideline was electric before the game. I mean, the whole thing was just quite an environment. It was really great to be a part of it and to see our guys step up in that environment, to handle all that and to focus on the football, okay? It wasn't perfect. There's a lot of things that we can do a lot better, but it was a winning effort. And when they had to make the plays, they made those plays and that's what ended up winning the game. Seeing them finish the way we did on offense was tremendous. So with that, what questions you have?

SPEAKER_2 (1:17)

John, you think that a part of a lot of wins in your career, but taking everything in the first time with New York under the lights against Cowboys, where does this one rank for you and how much does this one mean?

John Harbaugh (1:27)

You know, it's funny, it's number one. It's number one because it's the one right now.

And my dad always says that. He goes, he always says, he'll say this in the car on the way home. He'll say, he'll say, John, you've never had a better win than that. He says it every time. And I'm gonna tell you, I think this time it might be true. But this was really special because these guys, these players, these guys who have have belief from the beginning, who don't bat an eye, who just try to do the right thing every single day, who try to be on point. And even when they're not on point, they're willing to bounce back and make it right. All right? Maybe there's a mistake, maybe there's a start, but we come back to the next play and we find a way to make a play and erase the mistake and make it right and make it better.

Buying into that kind of a mindset just in practice, then seeing it happen in the game, that's what as a coach you feel so good about.

SPEAKER_3 (2:18)

John, at the end of the first half, you had the start pounty. It's third and nine, and I know I'm thinking maybe you kind of take the foot off the gas, maybe settle for a field goal. What did you see from your quarterback in that spot and your team to go down there and punch one in?

John Harbaugh (2:35)

Well, I thought we had a really good game plan. I'll give Matt a lot of credit and all the coaches a lot of credit. The coaching staff, the office of the coaching staff really works really well together. I know we've talked about that. And they had a lot of good plays in that we felt were plays that could be difference making plays in the game. Got to have it type plays. And that was one of those calls.

The first touchdown run was one of those calls too, that you try to just create plays that are going to make a difference for you. So they did a great job with that. And then seeing the quarterback execute the way he did. And he had a lot on his plate too. And we can get better in and out of the huddle, to the line, calling the plays, all those kind of things, operation. But I thought Jackson did a great job of managing that because there was a lot for him to manage. And then making the plays, I mean, he made some throws, man. I mean, some of the throws like to likely on the sideline, some of those throws were just pinpoint accurate type throws.