Giants head coach Brian Daboll said he is not considering any changes to his coaching staff, coordinators or play callers in the wake of Sunday’s historically embarrassing 33-32 loss to the Broncos in Denver.
“No, I’m not considering that,” Daboll said on a Zoom interview Monday afternoon. “But we all gotta do a better job. It starts with me. And there [were] plenty of opportunities to finish that game the way we wanted to, and we didn’t get the job done.”
That means second-year defensive coordinator Shane Bowen is staying on after the Broncos’ 33-point fourth quarter in Sunday’s Giants choke job at Empower Field at Mile High.
The Giants are 23rd in the NFL in scoring defense, allowing 25.3 points per game, and 18th in scoring offense, averaging 21.9 points per game.
Daboll might be waiting until the end of the season to make a change there, or he may not have the remaining capital in the building to make such a change — given how many coordinators and assistant coaches have left or lost jobs already on this staff the past four years.
Daboll also is in charge of managing the team and these game situations. So the Giants’ habit of blowing games is on him and Joe Schoen, the leaders of this operation, before it’s on anyone else.
They’ve lost 16 of their last 19 games, and they’ve lost nine consecutive road games.
That is tied for the second-longest road drought in franchise history. The club record is 10 straight road losses from 1978-79.
They will match that and make more history if they fall Sunday in their rematch with the Philadelphia Eagles (5-2).
The players bear responsibility, too. Corner Dru Phillips had a dreadful fourth quarter in Denver. Safety Tyler Nubin made an inexplicable misread on the Broncos’ deep completion to midfield on the final drive.
And Dexter Lawrence (one assisted tackle, one quarterback hit, one pass defended) and Kayvon Thibodeaux (one assisted tackle, one offsides penalty) are examples of some big names who could have done a lot more to impact Sunday’s result.
Daboll, meanwhile, provided no real answers for anything on Monday. He kept the majority of his answers general and unhelpful.
When asked about his players’ obvious frustrations with the defense dropping eight into coverage on the deep late completion to Marvin Mims Jr., Daboll punted any insight.
“Yeah, look, there’s plenty of plays that we had opportunities to make throughout I’d say the fourth quarter, and we just came up short,” Daboll said. “So it’s not about one play. It’s not about one player. It’s not about one specific side. And I can do a better job.”
Daboll also refused to even acknowledge the element of clock management that played in to losing the game.
Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka called a pass play on third down instead of running the ball and trying to force the Broncos to use their final timeout.
The head coach would not discuss any detail of why that was a smart decision in regards to the clock. His best explanation was that they threw the ball in a similar situation and converted against the Chargers in a win four weeks ago.
“I thought the play call that Mike [Kafka] called was a good play call, and I thought it was an aggressive call to make a play against the right coverage we anticipated to get,” the coach said. “And credit to Denver they made a play.”
Daboll made reference to some players being hurt emotionally and others being hurt physically after the loss to Denver. But then he said he had no update on players like edge rusher Brian Burns (right foot), safety Jevon Holland (knee), corner Paulson Adebo (knee) and rookie Abdul Carter, who got banged up in the second half but finished the game.
The coach capped it off by providing no update on what he’ll do about Jude McAtamney and a kicking situation that cost the Giants yet another game.
“We’ll see where that goes here throughout the week,” he said.
In Daboll’s mind, clearly, the sooner everyone turns their attention to the Eagles game and away from that Denver horror show, the better it will be.
Giants fans won’t forget that loss anytime soon, though. They recognize something is rotten in East Rutherford, N.J.
It’s possible the rematch with the Eagles will expose that once and for all.
