New York Giants defensive lineman Leonard Williams is ready for more as he finally gets a taste of playoff football after nine years of waiting.
In last week’s NFL postseason debut, Williams and fellow defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence controlled the interior line of scrimmage, leaving the Minnesota Vikings unable to advance in a run game against Dalvin Cook. This made the Vikings one-dimensional and allowed them to focus on stopping passing attacks.
The stats may only show that Williams made four tackles, but his impact was felt. He dominated the one-on-one opportunity and let the Vikings slide an extra defender over him.
It may have been a rough night of work, but Williams enjoyed every minute of it.
“It was a great experience. The atmosphere in the stadium was great. Their fans were very loud,” said Williams.
“Everybody had a whole family in town and it was like that. Then not only did I get into my first playoff game, but when I won it was an incredible feeling. We were happy to be together and happy with each other.And we moved on quickly.I moved to the next team and knew that every team’s goals for each season were within reach at this point. It’s very exciting to be there.”
It didn’t take long for Williams to realize just how important every element of the game is in the playoffs. The finality and importance for top players to perform is what he noted as a major difference in the game once it reaches the postseason.
“The difference is that mistakes are magnified. To play your best in those situations, you need the best players. “It’s on a higher level. Playing even when you’re making mistakes is on a higher level,” Williams said.
“We stayed together and I think we did a good job every time we played. If their attack scored us, we weren’t keeping our heads down. We will be there for the next play.” We were ready to go to .The mentality we had has to continue in the next few games.”
Yes, he said “next few games”. Now that he’s had a taste, Williams doesn’t want to stay in one game. The team had to hear last week about their lack of playoff experience during the Super Wild Card weekend.
He believes their players’ overall football experience was enough to carry them, but admitted that that makes a difference. , which Williams believes will help him expand to Philadelphia.
“I often hear that many players on our team didn’t have playoff experience before the playoff games.” Most of us have been playing soccer since we were eight years old.
“So we have to get out there and treat it like a game. That said, it still feels different in the playoffs,” Williams said. , with the win, I feel we have a little more enthusiasm and attitude going into the next playoffs.”
A matchup with its next divisional rival gives you a little extra sauce, and you can bet that the Philadelphia faithful will be on hand to make life as difficult as possible. Williams has a unique way of dealing with crowds. He doesn’t try to coordinate them like other players are trying to do. Instead, he uses them like fuel. Similar to what he did in Minnesota.
“When I hear the noise of a crowd, I don’t think, ‘That’s the other crowd.’ “Whether I’m at my stadium or someone else’s stadium, it’s just crowd noise,” Williams said.
“I mostly channel it and make it my own. It excites me when I hear the crowd going wild. I don’t know if they’re rooting for other colors.” I don’t care. I take it as mine,” Williams said. “I love environments like that. In the last game against the Vikings, they had an incredible environment. I loved it.”