Malik Nabors was quiet on the field, but in the locker room he was ready to explode.
The rookie receiver on Sunday called the Giants' struggles in their 30-7 loss to the Buccaneers “as sweet as free kicks” and questioned why he wasn't more involved in the offensive play-calling.
“In the first quarter, in the second quarter, we didn't get the ball,” Nabers said. “At the end you start getting targets, which means you can't do anything. Once you're 30-0, you start taking the ball away. What do you want me to do?”
Nabors had zero targets in the first half, finishing with six catches on nine targets for 64 yards. This was his fifth straight game since returning from a concussion, a resemblance to his red-hot four-game start.
And now head coach and offensive play-caller Brian Daboll is on fire.
Asked why he wasn't getting the ball early in the game, Nabors said: “Please talk to Daveth about that.” “They would come up to me and ask me what kind of play I wanted, and that was it. I don't know.”
The quarterback change from Daniel Jones to Tommy DeVito didn't bring the “inspiration” Daboll had hoped for. It didn't sound like Nabers was blaming Jones, who was fired at his request after being demoted to the fourth team on Friday.
“Obviously, it's not the quarterback,” Nabers said. “We had the same result when we used DJ at quarterback. Look, that's not a quarterback.”
So what then?
“I don't know what it is,” Nabers said. “Everyone knows better than me.”
At one point during the game, Nabors sat on the bench away from the other receivers.
“I'm tired of going out and losing,” Nabors said. “That's it.”
