Despite effort concerns from players, Brian Daboll says New York Giants played hard vs. Bucs

Dabolll says “we just didn’t get the job done”

After Sunday’s woeful performance in a 30-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York Giants players called the performance “soft” and questioned the effort of some of their teammates. After going through the tape with a “fine-tooth comb” head coach Brian Daboll on Monday morning disagreed that there were major issues with player effort.

“The guys played hard. They play with effort. Just didn’t do enough,” Daboll said. “We didn’t play well enough. Some things, whether it’s execution stuff, call stuff, we just didn’t get the job done. But in terms of running to the football, giving effort at the line of scrimmage those those didn’t stand out.”

Daboll admitted that “it’s not gonna be perfect” when you look at the tape.

“You tag certain plays that you want improvement, whatever area that is technique, chase the ball, whatever that may be,” Daboll said. “And again, I think it wasn’t it wasn’t up to our standard in terms of just overall execution of play. But there wasn’t a lot of guys that there were just, you know, not giving effort.”

Veteran offensive tackle Jermaine Eluemunor clearly thought at least some of his teammates were not giving their best.

“We’re gonna watch the tape here as a group in a few minutes, and we’re gonna go through the plays like we normally do,” Daboll said. “And I think that as a coach you make the corrections that you need to make, and I think the players will see what we see as a coaching staff.

“We’ll talk about what Jermaine sees, and we’ll talk about what we see. We’ll watch it. It’s right on tape. But again, I have confidence in the guys in the locker room. And again, when you lose a game like that, the way we lost, certainly everybody’s frustrated.”

No change at play-caller

Daboll took over the play-calling this year from offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. The Giants are averaging a league-worst 14.8 points per game. Daboll, though, said he will continue to call plays.

“We’ll stay status quo here in terms of how we prepare, particularly on this short week,” Daboll said. “But certainly, got to do a better job.”

DeVito still QB1?

Quarterback Tommy DeVito took a few hard shots near the end of Sunday’s game, even having to leave the game for a play after having the wind knocked out of him. Daboll said he is “anticipating” DeVito will be ready to play Thursday against the Dallas Cowboys, but had no update on DeVito’s health or any of the other players who were injured on Sunday.

Has he lost the locker room?

This, of course, is a valid question with the frustrations expressed by players on Sunday night.

“I feel good about our communication with the players, with the coaches. Certainly not happy about the results but I expect a lot from those guys, and they should expect a lot from me,” Daboll said. “And again, there’s a good communication process. But when you lose like that, it’s a frustrating thing.

“When you lose a game like that, there’s frustration. Certainly, you’d like to keep it in house. But you understand them and I’ve been doing this for a while. There’s conversations that you have to have if comments like that are made. I respect the opinions of the players and of the coaches. We’ll work as hard as we can to get this fixed.”