The New York Giants seemingly struck gold when they hired Brian Daboll a little over a year ago. 

The long-time assistant turned main man, Daboll got the Giants off the schneid in terms of the playoffs, doing so with a mediocre roster at best. 

So when broached with the topic of what makes head coach Brian Daboll so effective, I came across a compelling answer from former college QB and The Athletic Football Show co-host, Nate Tice:

It would be a stretch to say coach Daboll did the impossible, but he certainly made the most of a 2022 team that struggled to generate any sort of preseason expectations. Here's how according to Nate Tice:

"Sometimes just there's a term I like to say which is that good players create their own luck because they're smart. That's what they did as a coaching staff," said Tice. "It's that a game of bounces, they would set themselves up to be competitive in every game to where it's a one-score type of game and then take advantage of any bounces that went their way."

And Tice is speaking facts here, with games like Green Bay or late-season Washington coming into mind, where the bounce of the ball literally went their way, propelling them to wins and the playoffs. 

"I think what the best thing that this offensive staff specifically did with the Giants, and we talked about this routinely, is that if something was working, don't overthink it, just pound away at it, Just pick at that scab," said Tice. "Again, the Vikings game is the one I always talk about but there are plenty of other games that happen throughout that season where they did that."

"The game they played in London against the Packers, I believe was another good one where they just kept going Wildcat stuff," added Tice." Using pony personnel, to keep them guessing. So I just think that's the one thing that they did. They didn't overthink their offense. It was nothing crazy. The Wildcat and Pony stuff. Pony personnel stuff was I don't even consider that gimmicky, but it's just that that was their best."

For those uninitiated in football lingo, wildcat is when the quarterback is actually the running back, and pony personnel is when the offense has two backs on the field, but instead of one being a fullback, they are both running backs. 

Daboll repeatedly did this, even mingling the two and running wildcat with Barkley and Breida on the field at both times. Why? Because it worked. Far too often coaches get caught up in their own system. 

They finally get their dream job and they want to run things under their philosophy, and on their terms. But the 2022 Giants offense wasn't the Bills offense that Daboll had done such a good job of orchestrating. 

Instead, he made lemonade out of lemons. He left his ego at the door and like an episode of Chopped, he took a combination of questionable ingredients and made a Michelin-star meal. 

Giants fans just hope he can do it again this fall. 

Featured Image via: © Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports