New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers on Friday responded to criticism of the idea that he could have given a better effort to knock the ball down on a game-ending interception by Rasul Douglas of the Washington Commanders on Thursday night in the Giants’ 24-21 loss.
“Seeing the ball go up at the time, didn’t really see him [Douglas] or where he was, so I’m not really aware of that,” Nabers said. “My head is looking up at the ball, even though he was driving on the ball. So, just seeing how high
the ball was and just waiting for it to come down and made a jump to catch the ball and then got hit and then he made a play.”
Here is the play:
Nabers was not available to media in the post-game locker room. He said he had a “family emergency back home” that he had to deal with, but that “it’s straight” now.
The Giants, at Washington’s 48-yard line in the closing minute, took back-to-back deep shots. Head coach John Harbaugh said “zero blitzes” by the Commanders led to quarterback J.J. McCarthy taking those shots. Nabers indicated the deep throw might not have been the ideal result.
“I think as far as that play and in the ending of the game, I’d say we will be better on just finding a better situation on not trying to score points as quickly as we were, but just make smart decisions on what we want to get to after seeing the cover zero that it was giving us at the moment,” Nabers said. “So, trying to just get the ball out fast instead of trying to create a home run ball. So, you just got to be better in the situation, and that’s really all.”
Nabers fumbled at the Washington 15-yard line with the Giants trailing 17-14 in the third quarter. That was one of many scoring opportunities the Giants did not capitalize on Thursday night.
“You’re thinking about plays that could have been a difference in the game, and that could have been one of those,” Nabers said. “We were in the red zone, could have got a field goal or a touchdown, and sadly went away just off a mistake that I made. But I mean, just try to do better, try to be better, and I’ll be better on just protecting the football, having awareness of where I am, and just like I said, protecting the football to give the offense opportunity to score points on that drive.”
Nabers and Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels were LSU teammates and remain close friends. Nabers aid it was “bugging me pretty bad” that he has never beaten Daniels as a pro.
“He calls me all the time,” Nabers said. “He’s probably trying to call me right now, but I can’t answer that phone call.”
Nabers said he has a hard time letting go of lost games.
“Every loss stings. Every loss I think we go through, it stings and it hurts, but you got to have your own flush mindset,” he said. “It’s just, we lost, okay, let’s focus on how to win the next one. Let’s focus on doing the things better that we made mistakes on and we bummed out about the loss, but we continue to try to put it behind us and keep going forward and try to get a win next week.
“I’m still trying to find ways, like I said, I take losses more painful than I say a lot of people just because overall I want to win so bad. So, when I receive a loss, I just, I don’t know, it hurts. But it’s the NFL, 16 teams a week are going to lose the game. So, you just got to come to the realization that it’s going to happen. You just got to be able to flush it and just move on and just fight back and try to go get a win, try to do everything that you can the next week to try to get a win. So, it’s hard for sure but I don’t know how to handle that. I’m still going through that. I’m still learning, try to find my way on flushing losses like this or just flushing a loss in general. So, I don’t I don’t know how to answer that question because I’m still learning from it, still learning how to do that.”
