Malik Nabers’ comments after the Giants’ 24-21 loss to the Washington Commanders have sparked a fresh round of criticism, with plenty of fans saying the wide receiver pointed too much at quarterback J.J. McCarthy and not enough at himself.
The issue stems from Nabers’ reaction to the final drive in Thursday night’s Week 10 loss. Nabers finished with five catches for 44 yards, but it was still a frustrating night for him overall after a costly red-zone fumble and a missed chance on a late 50-50 ball. He didn’t meet with reporters immediately after the game because of a family emergency, then addressed the media on Friday and quickly set off another debate among Giants fans.
Nabers didn’t directly blame McCarthy, but he did question the way the offense handled that last sequence. He said the Giants needed to be more selective rather than pushing to score too fast.
“We would be better off finding a better situation than trying to score points quickly,” Nabers said. “I mean not trying to score points as quickly as we were, but just making smart decisions on what we want to get to.”
He also said, “Just got to be better in situations.”
Those remarks, along with the discussion around McCarthy’s decision to throw deep on the final two plays, didn’t sit well with a chunk of the fan base. Some felt Nabers was shifting blame after he failed to come down with the late deep ball.
“Malik threw JJ under the bus here. Not cool,” Gridiron Media wrote on X.
Another fan was even more direct, saying, “I don’t respect Nabers for this,” before adding that McCarthy gave him a chance to make a huge play. The same reaction argued that if Nabers had finished the 50-50 ball, the conversation would look very different.
Other responses echoed the same frustration, with one fan writing, “J.J. McCarthy’s knee top receiver is already calling him out for bad decision making,” and another saying, “Can’t ask/demand targets then not take accountability for not making a play. It’s one or the other.”
The Giants now move on to Week 11 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, with McCarthy and Nabers needing cleaner communication if they want to get things turned around.
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