‘Embarrassed’ Giants’ players bristle at the notion the team is ‘soft’

Giants have quick turnaround to show improvement from Sunday

The New York Giants are “embarrassed” by the way they played Sunday in a 30-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Two players made available to media via Zoom on Monday, though, pushed back against the idea that the team is “soft.”

“I don’t think guys are out there soft,” said offensive lineman Jon Runyan Jr. “I don’t think it’s in anybody in this building’s DNA to play soft. “I think there was a strong lack of execution in certain areas, especially early on in the game, speaking offensively … The execution, I’d say, was soft all day across the board.

“I don’t think it was for a lack of toughness or physicality. I think guys coming here work hard and train. To say that we played soft, I don’t think, is necessarily true.”

Linebacker Micah McFadden said it would be “an embarrassing statement to hear” if the “soft” label was ever applied specifically to him.

“I hope our team would never carry that identity of being a soft team,” McFadden said. “I don’t think we are a soft team.”

Both players admitted being embarrassed by Sunday’s results.

“I feel like everybody feels like we were embarrassed,” Runyan said. “We spoke to that post-game in the locker room and that is the feeling. Guys are in here, they’re frustrated, they’re mad.”

“it felt like we got dominated out there,” McFadden said. “It felt embarrassing.”

Runyan and McFadden, though, pushed back on the perception that there was a lack of effort vs. Tampa Bay.

“I think overall, especially on defense, I think our effort was good,” McFadden said. “I would say there was a couple one-off plays where, you know, maybe one or two guys would like to have it back. But I think for the most part, we were playing hard.

“And I think at the end of the day, it comes down to doing our job and executing at a high level, and we didn’t do that enough.”

“Nobody in this locker room is happy with how the season’s gone,” Runyan said. “We all do this because we’ve played the sport for a long time, we enjoy it, and we want to win at the end of the day. That’s what we do this for because winning is great and we bust our butts every week trying to prepare for these games and just not getting the results that hurts us just as much as it hurts all these fans.

“We’re disappointed in ourselves and we’re disappointed for them that we’re making them watch these games. But like I said, there’s no quit in this team. We’re doing everything we can to get this thing going.”