Ben McAdoo made no secret of his goal in taking over the Giants this season, presenting a first-day plan that has become a quiet rallying cry for the franchise.

The desire to “put a fifth trophy in the case” is repeated often by players on McAdoo’s watch but not as some example of bold, brash bravado. Rather, the faraway target has served as a sort of backdrop to everything in front of it, a simmering reminder of why each workday is so important, each game week so crucial.

That McAdoo never shied away, privately or publicly, from sharing that goal might not fit with his low-key public persona, but as the Giants stand on the cusp of their first playoff appearance in five years, one they can clinch with a win tonight sent to print this way Thursday night in Philadelphia, it has become quite clear there is more to the first-year coach than the oversized, ill-fitting suit he wore upon formal introduction.

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The 39-year-old from small-town Homer City, Pennsylvania, has proved himself more than ready for this big-city job, using a mix of the serious (there is an open spot on the wall awaiting the portrait of a fifth Super Bowl winning team) to the silly (players have come to anticipate what funny slide McAdoo will use to open meeting presentations) in keeping his players focused and interested across their surprising 10-4 start.

The Giants have had plenty of things go right this season, most notably on a defense that grows in stature each week, reaping even better-than-hoped-for rewards from the pile of money invested in free agents Olivier Vernon, Damon Harrison and Janoris Jenkins. But the NFL is littered with rosters high on talent and low on championships, teams that fell silently into the background when the roster, no matter how loaded, never came together the right way.

That’s where coaching comes in, and not just among valuable coordinators and position coaches who work with the players individually or in small groups, but with a head coach who has to tie it all together. A head coach who has to be the public face of, say, a Josh Brown domestic violence controversy; Odell Beckham Jr.’s penalties; sideline antics and referee complaints; the tentacles of a Colin Kaepernick-led national anthem protest; or most recently, an NFL-imposed fine and draft penalty for his own use of walkie-talkies on the sidelines during a game — against league rules.

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McAdoo has navigated all of it and more, matching his public consistency with consistency behind team doors, hitting issues head on, letting players speak up if they need to, staying on course no matter the circumstance. When the Giants turned a 2-0 start into a 2-3 minicrisis, McAdoo didn’t flinch. As they travel to meet the Eagles having won eight of nine, as they travel down the Turnpike carrying the league’s only two wins against the mighty Cowboys on their résumé, McAdoo has earned his way into the NFL’s Coach of the Year discussion.

“Being a new coach, it hit hard,” Giants cornerback and Super Bowl vet Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie said, recalling the three-game skid. “I think the main thing he did was just stay the course. He always comes in here and hasn’t changed since Day One. day one. Most people get a little tight and jumpy, but I think he stayed the course."

Recalling the first meeting after loss No. 3, Rodgers-Cromartie said: "My man came in and put a slide up. It was a funny slide and a joke. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but I know it was something funny because that’s what he does.”

If you’re looking for some sort of glaring contrast to McAdoo's predecessor Tom Coughlin, you can stop right here. The Giants aren’t lacking in discipline, nor have they altered the now-famous facility clocks to go back to regular time versus "Coughlin time." What McAdoo has done is nothing but a sincere reflection of his own personality, of someone closer in age to his players and more than willing to poke the fun at himself he has no doubt they’d be doing behind his back anyway. From the suit to the floppy haircut/cheesy mustache combination recently targeted by Gov. Chris Christie (an avowed Cowboys fan, by the way), McAdoo makes sure to poke himself before anyone else gets the chance. The players love it.

"He obviously takes his job very seriously, but he doesn't take himself too seriously at times," quarterback Eli Manning said. "He's willing to make fun of himself, he keeps things light in the meetings. He is able to prove his point through humor."

It's an observation echoed by running back Rashad Jennings. “He has no problem cracking a joke on himself, which opens up the whole entire room, and that makes you gravitate that much more towards him as a head coach,” Jennings said. “He’s obviously not trying to be a model. He’s trying to be a head coach. And that’s what he’s doing a good job of.”

Or as guard Justin Pugh put it: “Would you rather have your head coach worry about his haircut, or rather have the guy telling you in the Dallas game, at this point the sun will be coming in at this angle, so be ready for it? Personally I’d rather have the guy who’s not worried about wearing a fancy suit.”

The only clothing McAdoo covets is the kind you can’t buy. Come February, he wants these players to earn the right to pull Super Bowl champion T-shirts over their game-used jerseys, to earn his own right to pull a championship cap over his sandy-colored mop.

But mostly, he wants to keep them ready each and every day to make that dream even possible. Attention to detail, from game plans to practice plans, from workouts to eating out, he has advice on all fronts. But mostly, his focus is on winning, winning each day in practice, winning each week on the field, and ultimately winning a fifth franchise Lombardi Trophy. If the offense he used to coach as coordinator (the one unit that, ironically, continues to lag behind the others) gets going, the Giants have as good a chance as anyone.

“When you start beating these playoff teams, the best teams in the NFL, those dreams are more realistic,” Pugh said. “We beat the supposed best team in the NFL twice. Why can’t we go to the Super Bowl?”

Email: sullivan@northjersey.com