Mike Kafka’s critics include Malik Nabers, President Trump and his own dad.
Most Giants fans are worried only about how Kafka is handling the situation with Nabers, who questioned the interim head coach’s play-calling and crunch-time decision-making in bypassing a field goal to go for a touchdown with the Giants holding a 3-point lead late against the Lions.
“I actually didn’t even see it,” Kafka said of Nabers’ since-deleted tweet. “All I know is that I really like the call. I stand by it. I don’t have any regrets about it.”
Kafka, who showed a firm hand two weeks ago by disciplining Abdul Carter with a one-series benching for missing a walk-through, said that he hasn’t met with Nabers to discuss the public criticism because “I haven’t seen it.”
That seems like an odd choice, though the Brian Daboll-led Giants cut Nabers a ton of slack and involved him in everything from play-calling to the search for a franchise quarterback.
Nabers wrote: “Sometimes I think they [be] making us lose on purpose! Cause it’s no way, bro you throw the ball instead of runnin’ it to make ‘em burn two timeouts?? Then you [don’t] kick the field goal??? Then they have to go down and score!!! Football common sense!!! Am I missing something?”
By going for it on fourth down, the Giants added 7.1 percent to their win probability, per ESPN analytics. Jameis Winston threw an incompletion, an untrustworthy defense allowed the game-tying field goal and the Giants lost in overtime.
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“The beauty of the NFL is that the players have the ability to express themselves,” Kafka said. “You can express yourself any way you want. Any player, they are going to have an opinion on what they like to see, but at the end of the day, those are the calls we have to make on game day.”
Nabers, who is out for the season with a torn ACL, has shifted his rehab from the Dallas area back to East Rutherford, so there is ample opportunity to iron out any awkwardness.
“If it’s something that’s detrimental to the team, we’ll address it in-house and talk through it and move on,” Kafka said. “If things happen, we talk about it and communicate it, like we always do.”
President Trump said on Truth Social that “it was crazy” and “weird” for the Giants to not kick a chip-shot field goal and take a 6-point lead with 2:59 remaining.
“Being in this position, you get the opportunity to make tough calls,” Kafka said. “For me, that’s awesome. You get it down to the wire, two-minute, end of game, where you have to take a tough call. That’s a huge responsibility, and something I enjoy doing.
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“Everyone is going to have an opinion. That’s OK. I’m going to do the best I can for myself and for the team first to give us an opportunity to win. Whoever it was — a player, a coach, my aunt and uncle, my dad — I heard it from everybody.”
And how did he reply?
“Whatever that situation is, that’s where we have to thrive and that’s where we have to turn the table in terms of our team,” Kafka said. “When it’s nut-cutting time, at the end of the game when you have to make a play, we’re going to go make a play to win it. I want our guys thinking like that.”
DT Dexter Lawrence (elbow) did not practice Thursday after he was limited in Sunday’s game and said by Kafka to be “in tears” that he couldn’t contribute more.
OLB Kayvon Thibodeaux (shoulder) and ILB Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles (neck) didn’t practice. There was no official injury report.
