Giants head coach Joe Judge couldn’t have made it more clear who he was pointing the finger at for New York’s lifeless 30-10 loss to the Buccaneers on Monday night. In his eyes, the blame was on himself and the coaching staff.
But the players took a similar approach when speaking to reporters after the game, volunteering themselves to fall on the sword in what was another lackluster effort from the offense, despite having a number of weapons back from injury.
“I think we were put in position to make plays, and we’ve got to make them,” Daniel Jones said. “That certainly starts with me. I felt like we were prepared and we had a good game plan going in.”
Jones managed just 167 yards through the air with a touchdown and two interceptions, one of them coming in the second half when he seemingly threw a pass right to Tampa’s Steve McClendon, with no Giants receiver in sight.
Still, Judge consistently cited the coaching when discussing what needs to be improved, and even declined to comment on the job security of offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, who he previously supported consistently when Garrett’s job performance was called into question. But that’s not something Jones is considering.
“I haven’t thought about that,” Jones said. “I know as players, certainly myself, feel responsible for how we played and executed. That’s on me, that’s on us to do better.”
Asked if he still has confidence in Garrett to lead the offense, Jones didn’t hesitate.
“Yeah, I certainly do,” Jones said. “Like I said, I think we were prepared, I think we had a plan and we didn’t execute it. I think we feel responsible as players.”
Still, there is cause to question Garrett’s ability to run an efficient offense, especially when big-name free agent signings like Kenny Golladay are being targeted just twice, like he was on Monday night. New York doesn’t seem to be putting its big-time playmakers in position to make plays, something Judge also noted in his postgame press conference, but Jones is still putting that on himself, not the coaches.
“I think a lot of guys, we certainly wanted to get more involved and we didn’t,” Jones said. “[Golladay is] a big-time player for us and we’ve got to get him more involved. That starts with me and finding him in certain situations and getting him the ball. Him, as well as the rest of the guys, we’ve got to get him more involved.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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