The New York Giants took the 3-D approach in their return to division and playoff contention this season: Dan, discipline and defense.
The Giants find out how worthy a contender they are Sunday when they visit the Cowboys. Both teams are 5-2, and with the collapse of the NFC East this season, the Giants may be the final bump in the road for the Cowboys. The Eagles are doing a fast fade at 4-3, and the Cardinals (2-6) and Redskins (1-6) already are out of it.
The Giants did a quick fade of their own the past two years, tumbling from Super Bowl champion under Bill Parcells in 1990 to 8-8 in 1991 and 6-10 in 1992 under Ray Handley. That demise cost Handley his job.
In a twist of good fortune for the Giants, Dan Reeves had a falling out with the Broncos in the off-season, and one of the best coaches in the NFL suddenly became available. That gave the Giants their Dan.
Reeves has been to the Super Bowl a record eight times as a player, assistant coach and head coach. In his 12 years with the Broncos, he won 59 percent of his games. His way had worked in the past and would work in the future. And make no mistake about it things would definitely be done HIS way in New York.
The Giants won two Super Bowls in a span of five seasons under Parcells. They were a veteran team set in their ways when Handley took over. They already had rings on their fingers. The Giants didn’t appreciate being told what, when or how to do anything by anyone other than Parcells.
So the Giants resisted the new guy and staged a near mutiny against his defensive staff last season. In the second half of a September game against the Cowboys, some Giants ignored the defensive signals being sent into the game and free-lanced. That set an ugly tone for the season.
Reeves had never coached in a democracy and didn’t intend to start in New York. So he made a quick and effective point after arriving in New York.
Lawrence Taylor, the engine of those Super Bowl teams, liked to play golf in the spring, not attend minicamps. What could he learn in three days in June that he hadn’t already experienced in the past 12 falls? He had not participated in an NFL minicamp since 1982.
But Reeves considered minicamps important. When Taylor spent the first day of the June minicamp on a golf course in Kansas City, Reeves lashed out at his future Hall of Famer.
“I’ve heard what his feelings (about minicamps) have been in the past, but this is the future now,” Reeves said. “To help us from a team standpoint, he certainly needs to be here.”
Taylor showed up on the final day of minicamp and made his peace with Reeves.
Next came the discipline. Reeves issued a series of rules in training camp. Players must wear their helmets on the field with chin straps buckled at all times. No one would be allowed to sit on his helmet on the sideline and shirts must be tucked in at all times. It smacked of Pop Warner football.
“At first, I didn’t really understand why we had to do those type of things,” Taylor said. “But there’s a reason. Dan figures if he can trust us with the little things, then it’s easier for him to trust us with the big things.”
When Handley took over for Parcells, he had to earn the respect of a Super Bowl team. He never did. But when Reeves came in, he made the Giants earn his respect.
“He treats you according to how you act,” said linebacker Michael Brooks, who played for Reeves in Denver before jumping to the Giants in free agency this season. “If you act like a child, he’s going to treat you like a child. You act like a man, and he’ll treat you like a man. It depends on you.”
Reeves wanted his Pro Bowl linebacker Pepper Johnson to move from the inside to the strongside this summer to replace Carl Banks, who left via free agency. But Johnson hemmed and hawed and finally fought off the request.
A few weeks later, Reeves shocked Johnson and the team by waiving him on the final roster cut. Johnson was at the eye of that near-mutiny against former defensive coordinator Rod Rust last season. There would not be a repeat in 1993.
“On every team I’ve ever been associated with, we’ve gone about it the same way,” Reeves said. “You have to make decisions based on what you think is best for your football team.”
Next came the defense. Rust left with Handley, and Mike Nolan, the son of long-time Cowboys assistant Dick Nolan, arrived with Reeves. Like Rust, Nolan employed a 3-4 scheme. But that was the only similarity.
The Giants built a defensive reputation under Parcells as intimidators. They overpowered offenses and bullied them. It was muscle-on-the-Hudson. But Rust implemented a read-and-react scheme. The Giants no longer would attack offenses; they would react to them. They would no longer punch; they would counter-punch.
That didn’t sit well with the Giants.
“It wasn’t us,” cornerback Mark Collins said. “It was like going into battle with a gun and no bullets.”
Harnessing the athletic ability of natural, instinctive players such as Taylor, Banks, Johnson, Collins and Greg Jackson proved detrimental to the Giants. They allowed the most points in the NFC East last year and wound up 18th in defense.
“It was bad . . . real bad,” Collins said. “I can’t put it into words.”
But Nolan returned spontaneity to the defense with his scheme. There are more one-on-one matchups. The players know what they’re going to do before the snap. They don’t have a series of reads before they react to what is happening around them.
So aggressive football is back, and the statistics reflect it. The Giants have allowed an NFL-low 81 points and rank third in defense. The positive feeling between coaching staff and players has returned.
“It’s like a breath of fresh air this year,” Collins said. “The coaches listen to the players. That’s always good. If we practice something and it doesn’t work, we change it. Last year, if it didn’t work, we stayed in it.”
What the Giants want now is to stay in the race. They’ll find out Sunday if their three D’s are enough.
