Frustrated Giants players vent, but don’t have answers
The worst thing you can call an NFL player is “soft.” After the New York Giants’ embarrassing 30-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, two players used that word to describe the way the team played.
“We played soft, and they beat the shit out of us today,” said star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence.
“We missed a lot of tackles, we didn’t contain [Buccaneers quarterback] Baker [Mayfield] well in the scrambles, we didn’t cover well, it’s soft to me. I don’t think we lack effort; I think we’re just not doing well tackling and covering on defense.”
Rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers called the team “soft as f—k.”
“I’m tired of going out there and losing,” Nabers said. “It’s just that.”
Nabers was upset by after not being targeted in the second half.
“First, second quarter, I don’t get the ball,” Nabers said. “Start getting targets at the end. I mean, can’t do nothing. Start getting the ball when it’s 30-0. What do you want me to do?”
Lawrence, a veteran leader who has grown tired of losing after six mostly fruitless seasons with the Giants, understands what the rookie Nabers is feeling. Lawrence said his frustration level was “a 10.”
“I’m tired of losing. This season we have a good team, and this season is not turning out the way it should, and it’s frustrating and I get his frustration,” Lawrence said. “I have it, too. But you just got to go out and lead, keep going, keep giving my all, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to do my best to bring guys along as best as I can.”
Lawrence was asked for his definition of “soft.”
“I’m saying soft is we didn’t execute our calls well. We played with a lot of effort,” he said. “Soft is not executing well and soft to me, [it’s] soft to not execute well.”
Lawrence is still trying to lead his bedraggled team.
“I think it always can get better, it’s a process, right now it’s a long process that I’m here for, I’m going to keep leading, doing all I can on the field to lead,” he said. “Talking to the guys I need to talk to, the defense, the guys on the offense, whoever.”
One thing Lawrence wasn’t standing for were questions that gave him an opening to pin blame on the offense, or pit the offense vs. the defense.
“They put 30 on us, or however many points they put on us. So, we didn’t do our job to create short fields, or create turnovers, and it’s going to be hard,” he said. “We had a new quarterback in, so they were going to do whatever they did, blitz the shit out of him every play. So, we got to take it as a defense, we got to understand that, and we got to play harder for the guys across the ball.”
Nabers was not targeted in the first half, when the Giants fell behind 23-0. All nine of his targets came in the second half, when the Giants were doing little more than compiling stats to finish out the game.
He was not happy about it.
“Talk to Dabs about that,” Nabers said when asked why he isn’t getting the ball earlier in the game. “They come up to me and ask me what plays I want and that was that. I don’t know.”
The awful outcome came in the Giants first game since Daniel Jones was benched and ultimately waived. The offense, obviously, did not get better.
“Obviously, it ain’t the quarterback,” Nabers said. “Same outcome when we had DJ at quarterback. Take a look: It ain’t the quarterback.”
“I don’t know what it is,” Nabers said. “Everybody knows better than me.”
Veteran wide receiver Darius Slayton, like Lawrence a Giant since 2019, was also frustrated. He answered post-game questions slowly and carefully.
“I think the energy level was up until we started playing bad and getting beat. And then of course you just get… It just builds at that point,” Slayton said. “I think we have a lot of guys that are made up of the right stuff. I think we have guys that care.
“But obviously, like, caring and hoping is not enough. At the end of the day, like, to a man, when the game comes, you have to make plays if you want to win. And we’re not doing that.
