If the Giants are losing games, and if the Giants are getting blown out like they were in a 28-3 loss to the Eagles on Sunday when the offense managed just 119 total yards, then head coach Brian Daboll hopes his players are frustrated.
That’s what appeared to happen in the aftermath of the game, when star rookie Malik Nabers told reporters to “watch the target tape” because he “was open.”
Nabers, who returned to the lineup after suffering a concussion and missing two weeks, caught four passes for 41 yards in the opening half but managed just two targets across the final 30 minutes — both occurring after Daboll benched quarterback Daniel Jones and replaced him with Drew Lock.
When asked about Nabers’ comments, perhaps a sign of frustrations mounting as the Giants offense continues to sputter, Daboll said that he didn’t “want to imply” what Nabers meant or didn’t mean, though he did acknowledge that the wideout “was open a lot, yeah.”
“I respect Malik,” Daboll said Monday. “I respect all our guys. Again, I don’t want to imply as to what he said or what he didn’t say. If he said he was open, he was open quite a bit.”
Jones, who finished 14 of 21 for 99 yards before getting benched, threw his first two attempts to Nabers, with one going for 13 yards and another one falling incomplete.
The duo added a 14-yard connection in the second quarter — the Giants’ longest play of the day — that helped Big Blue get into field goal range before halftime.
After that, though, Nabers was invisible. He finished with eight targets, marking his fewest in a game since Week 1.
He’d collected 18, 12 and 15 that helped produce 320 of his receiving yards and all three of his touchdowns the next three games before exiting late in the loss to the Cowboys on Sept. 26.
He then spent the next two weeks in concussion protocol.
Despite Daboll describing Nabers as open often during the game and acknowledging that he wanted his players to be frustrated after a fifth loss in seven games, he thought that Jones, for the most part, made the right moves with the football — while acknowledging there are always a few cases when the defense disguises looks and makes it difficult.
“Look, he’s taking care of the ball,” Daboll said. “He’s made the right decisions for the most part.”
After not commenting much Sunday about Deonte Banks seemingly giving up on a scrambling Jalen Hurts in the fourth quarter, Daboll said defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson and Banks spoke about it in between series — while reiterating that the Giants would deal with the situation privately.
“Obviously, we want maximum effort on every play, so again, we’ve addressed that,” Daboll said when asked about the message a play like that sends to fans. “We’ll continue to address it. And we’ll make sure it’s better.”
Dexter Lawrence collected another two sacks Sunday to set a new career high with nine, topping the 7.5 in 2022 that preceded a four-year, $90 million extension that offseason. Lawrence leads the NFL in sacks through seven weeks.