Dan Campbell isn’t brushing off the New York Giants, even though their season has gone off the rails. At 2–9, with their head coach dismissed last week and two key young players out for the year, New York has shuffled through three quarterbacks and sits near the bottom of the league.

Still, the Giants have shown grit. Five of their games have been decided by one score, and they’ve let four fourth-quarter leads slip away. They pushed the Packers to the final moments last week and did the same against the Bears the week before.

Campbell is aware of their record, but he also sees a team that keeps swinging — and he understands that mindset from personal experience.

“Actually, I showed our guys the tape — this team has been right there in so many of these games,” Campbell said Wednesday. “They’ve had multiple chances to close out wins, they’ve been up a couple scores in some of them, and they always play with intensity.”

He noted that even though New York changed head coaches only a week ago, their effort against Green Bay reflected that typical burst of energy a team can get after an internal shake-up. Campbell knows the dynamic firsthand: he stepped in as interim coach for the Dolphins in 2015, replacing Joe Philbin. Miami immediately responded with two straight victories and finished 5–7 under his leadership.

The Giants followed a similar path, moving on from Brian Daboll and appointing offensive coordinator Mike Kafka as interim coach.

“I thought you could see a little bit of that new-coach spark last week,” Campbell said. “Sometimes that freshness gives you a jolt — you don’t know how long it lasts, but change can wake a team up. And honestly, these guys have played hard all year anyway.”

Detroit enters the upcoming matchup at Ford Field as a heavy favorite. At 6–4, the Lions are still fighting for playoff positioning in a tight NFC North race, with a pivotal Thanksgiving game against Green Bay looming. But Campbell refuses to look beyond the immediate task.

“Sure, we’d love to be undefeated, but that’s not where we’re at,” he said. “And trying to crank up some artificial sense of urgency usually backfires. That’s when players press, try to do too much, and mistakes pile up. That kind of panic means you’re not trusting the process.”

Instead, Campbell wants his team grounded.

“We correct the details, make our adjustments, keep moving forward, and find a way to get a win,” he said.