Giants’ Wink Martindale downplays viral interaction with Brian Daboll

There were a number of animated conversations on the New York Giants’ sidelines during last Sunday’s 49-17 blowout loss to the Cowboys in Dallas but one that had onlookers buzzing this week.

The one between defensive coordinator Wink Martindale and head coach Brian Daboll. The one that the television cameras caught a piece of where the optics were, well, concerning.

“I don’t even know. We talk a lot throughout the game. Probably going into half, kind of some things we wanted to get worked on, things we want to do, but I have conversations with all those guys,” Daboll told reporters about it after the game. “No different. Normal stuff during a game.”

Martindale’s defense has not performed up to snuff the past two games, allowing 30 points to the Raiders in Las Vegas and then the 49 in Dallas last Sunday. More importantly, they looked extremely disorganized and uncompetitive in the process, surrendering 640 yards to the Cowboys last week.

Martindale was asked on Thursday about the conversation with Daboll, which FOX Sports field reporter Tom Rinaldi reported began before halftime and continued as the two men came back on the field for the third quarter.

“Dabs said something to me after the game about that and he and I talk all the time, but in those two situations, I talked to him about what happened because one thing about our defense, we don’t give up a whole lot of big passing plays and I credit the secondary to that and Rome (defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson) and we gave up some big plays in the passing game, which you all saw,” Martindale said.

“So, I told him what happened on the coverages. That was it right before half. And then coming back out, he had just got done at that time talking to the trainers and we were talking about who wasn’t coming back for the third quarter during that time and that turned into whatever it turned into but there was nothing to it.”

That’s not the way it appeared, however, and now comes the speculation that Martindale could be on his way out as the Giants’ defense continues to decline.

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