Jay Gruden not focused on previous struggles against New York Giants

ASHBURN — Jay Gruden doesn’t need to remind his players about what happened the last time the Washington Redskins faced the New York Giants. The preparation for Sunday’s game at FedEx Field is hardly centered on revisiting what went wrong in a 32-21 loss at MetLife Stadium in Week 3.

Instead, it is about preparing his team to move past last week’s 44-16 loss to the Carolina Panthers and focusing on what is at stake — an opportunity to tie the Giants for first place in the NFC East.

“We feel good moving forward to put that game behind us last week, try to take the good from our season – a lot of the progress that we’ve made – but we can’t let one game hold us back,” Gruden said. “We’ve got to move forward.

“It’s not a 16-game [season], it’s a one-game season,” Gruden later said. “And, if we have any desire at all to play 17, 18 or 19 games, we have to take care of business on Sunday, so we’ve got to get their best effort, physically and mentally. Practice, coming to meetings on time, working out — it’s got to be their best focus week of the season, by far, not even close. I think the guys are revved up.”

The Redskins have lost their last five games against the Giants. In Week 3, Washington fell behind, 12-0, in the first quarter. The Redskins had a punt blocked for a safety on the opening possession and it never quite got better from there. Quarterback Kirk Cousins completed 30 of 49 passes for 316 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions.

For Gruden, it’s important this week not to let the team’s recent struggles against the Giants creep into players’ minds.

“I think we have a lot of new players too that haven’t been a part of that,” Gruden said. “Kirk has grown so much from each start that he’s had — from the last time that he’s played the Giants even. It’s just a matter of how we adapt to their style this week. We’ve got a lot of film on them. We’re studying them. They’ve got a lot of film on us. Once we kick the ball off, man, it’s man-on-man and we’ll just have to go out there and compete.”