Malik Nabers was not happy about his lack of second-half targets Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals, and the New York Giants star wide receiver let the sideline know it during the game.
“I felt like I didn’t get targeted much after halftime. So, that was just a thing,” Nabers said. “It’s just – I felt like creating explosives down the field was just helping us get in a better position to score touchdowns. Some of those plays didn’t come my way, so just trying to figure out why.”
Nabers caught five
passes on five targets in the first half for 84 yards. He caught one pass for 28 yards on just two targets in the second half.
Nabers and head coach John Harbaugh talked about the receiver’s frustration after the game.
“I talked to him just about – just trying to clarify on – I think we need to implement more things after halftime,” Nabers said. “Just also trying to give me the ball down the field to create some of those opportunities for us to gain more points. It felt like during the first half when we did that, it kind of led into the right direction with scoring touchdowns in the red zone. And just – after that, we just couldn’t get going. So, I felt like the offense was needing a spark and I wanted to be that spark, so I was just trying to figure out what was going on, and what was the thought process on going into after halftime and coming out, what was the talk that he had with the coaches on implementing things down the field – we had a talk about it.”
Harbaugh said that Nabers is “emotional.”
“I don’t even know what he was saying because I didn’t hear it – I couldn’t hear. But he’s emotional, he’s a competitor,” Harbaugh said. “I do think that – he and I talked after the game just like we always do, and one of the things that comes through in getting to know Malik is that he’s definitely a high-energy, emotional self-motivator. I think that’s kind of how he gets his energy riled up. So, if it helps him play better, great. If it gets in his way at some point in time and we think it’s hindering him in some way, then I’d like to see less of whatever.
“We always talk all the time about (it to the) guys. If it’s helping us, we want more of it and if it’s hurting us, we want less of it. So, I don’t think it was hurting him in any way, whatever that was, and we had a great conversation after and I think I understand that part of him. I’m getting to know him a little better that way.”
Nabers said veteran running backs coach Willie Taggart had a chat with him after the game about how to “use his voice.
“He was just telling me how to just use my voice. I have a huge voice in the offense, so the more and more I’m reserved and not really saying a lot, it kind of can be either taken as the wrong way or a positive way. Like I say, I’m really quiet and I stay to myself, so everybody can take that which way they want – but just using my voice and just knowing how to use my voice the right way,” Nabers said. “I would say everything doesn’t have to be an outburst or anything like that. Just simply having a one-on-one conversation or getting the offense going like, ‘Let’s go.’ Just using my voice as a leader and being that guy that everybody wants me to be. Right now, since we’re down a couple of people, I’m just trying to lead the team to get more wins.”
