{"id":502309,"date":"2025-11-05T16:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/502309\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T16:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:22:12","slug":"ny-giants-will-keep-losing-until-coaches-roster-are-held-accountable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/502309\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Giants will keep losing until coaches, roster are held accountable"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my Tuesday piece discussing potential replacements for head coach Brian Daboll<\/a>, I wrote that the Giants \u201chave an accountability problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accountability on a football team, for both the players and the coaching staff, comes directly from the reactions by the head coach to a variety of occurrences.<\/p>\n

In thinking about having put that out into the ether, I realized I never explained why I think there is an accountability problem with the Giants. I never gave examples, nor did I offer ways I believe certain situations should have been handled.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s correct that now.<\/p>\n

In Week 4 of 2024 against the Dallas Cowboys, Banks was heavily criticized for not hustling to try and bring down CeeDee Lamb after giving up a completion that turned into a 55-yard touchdown. Banks was not removed from the game. Daboll said nothing \u2014 and, honestly, I can\u2019t find evidence he was asked directly. Defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson was furious, and said so to the media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Four weeks later, Banks was again criticized for giving up on a play where he could have tackled Jalen Hurts during a blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles but simply watched him run by. Again, no removal from the game, nothing said by the head coach<\/a>. No loss of his starting job the following week.<\/p>\n

Mysteriously, Banks was benched at halftime the following week against the Pittsburgh Steelers. No satisfactory explanation was ever given. That benching, honestly, felt like the Giants realizing they had to make a show of somehow holding Banks accountable rather than them actually holding him accountable.<\/p>\n

At season\u2019s end, Henderson was fired. Banks is still a Giant, though he did lose a competition for his job to Cor\u2019Dale Flott. Perhaps there is accountability in that.<\/p>\n

Still, the person who lost his job is the person who was critical of the player. Daboll has always been tight-lipped in his remarks to the media. He doesn\u2019t like direct player criticism to the press. Henderson, in trying to reach Banks, violated that twice. He got fired. Mostly, in my view, for trying to hold his player accountable.<\/p>\n

Where was the accountability for the player in that?<\/p>\n

Is it any wonder that Banks, after losing his job to Flott, has spent the season hiding from the media, usually not even entering the room when media is in the locker room? Or that, when asked by a reporter to speak after Sunday\u2019s loss, Banks walked away with his pants around his ankles?<\/p>\n

In the 28-3 Week 8 loss to the Eagles last season, the same one in which Banks was criticized, the Giants offense was abysmal. Daniel Jones went 14 of 21 for 99 yards and was sacked seven times before being lifted for Drew Lock.<\/p>\n

Malik Nabers wasn\u2019t thrilled about catching just four passes for 41 yards, and said so.<\/p>\n

Daboll\u2019s reaction to Nabers saying \u201cI was open?\u201d Meaning, of course, this was someone else\u2019s fault and not mine.<\/p>\n

Daboll didn\u2019t fall back on his \u201ceverything is collective\u201d trope. He didn\u2019t say he had talked to Nabers about choosing words that could be interpreted as a shot at the quarterback more carefully. He said this:<\/p>\n

So, players can say what they want. Not have each other\u2019s backs. Not say winning and losing is a team thing. They can just blame someone else and move on.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to the present<\/p>\n

The defense wasn\u2019t the Giants\u2019 biggest problem in 2024. It wasn\u2019t close to good, though. A frustrated John Mara said this about defensive coordinator Shane Bowen\u2019s group:<\/p>\n

\u201cQuite frankly, I didn\u2019t think our defense played very well this year, at all,\u201d Mara said. \u201cI\u2019m tired of watching teams go up and down the field on us, so I think that has to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a clear opening from the owner for Daboll to find a new coordinator. He did not.<\/p>\n

This year, a defense with a fresh infusion of talent that was expected to be among the league\u2019s top groups, has been far worse than last season\u2019s less talented group.<\/p>\n

Bowen clearly has culpability in that. There have been a couple of games \u2014 the Denver debacle in Week 7 and last week against the San Francisco 49ers \u2014 after which moving on from Bowen for the remainder of the season seemed to be an obvious call. Daboll did not.<\/p>\n

The Denver meltdown, 33 points allowed in the fourth quarter, was the second time Bowen was thought to have played too soft at the end of regulation with the Giants protecting a slim lead.<\/p>\n

Nor did Daboll explain, when I asked him directly, why he thought Bowen could still get things right after not having been able to do that for a year-and-a-half?<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing\u2019s good enough. Offense, defense, kicking game, we all can be better. That\u2019s what we\u2019re all working towards,\u201d Daboll said. \u201cI know that\u2019s what Shane is working towards. That\u2019s the defensive staff, that\u2019s the offensive staff, that\u2019s the kicking game. That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to try to do. We\u2019re doing everything we can do to try to improve it and I\u2019m confident we will.\u201d<\/p>\n

OK, then. So, we\u2019re just going to keep trying the same stuff that hasn\u2019t been working and hope for different results.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a question: Did Daboll ever actually say he was wrong for going into the medical tent a few weeks ago and interrupting Jaxson Dart\u2019s concussion check? He said he apologized to the Giants\u2019 team doctor, but did he ever say he knows he made a mistake? I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

After the $100,000 fine was announced, Daboll was asked for his reaction. Rather than take the opportunity to admit wrongdoing and admit knowing that he and his players have to respect the protocol because it is for their protection, he just said he would keep his thoughts between himself and the league.<\/p>\n

When you question Daboll about in-game decisions he almost always gives some variation of \u201cthat\u2019s the decision we made\u201d and doesn\u2019t explain. He certainly doesn\u2019t have to, but some detail into the thinking would be nice.<\/p>\n

Is it any wonder that a player like Banks walks away from media with his pants around his ankles? That Dexter Lawrence says \u201cI think I\u2019m playing well\u201d after his defense gave up more than 30 points for the third straight week and he clearly is not? Is it any wonder that Graham Gano says of his 45-yard miss on Sunday that it was his \u201conly miss all day.\u201d As if anyone cares about the kicks he made in warm-ups.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter who the head coach is, or who the defensive coordinator is, or who\u2019s on the roster. Until this team takes real accountability for its failings, things are not going to get better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In my Tuesday piece discussing potential replacements for head coach Brian Daboll, I wrote that the Giants \u201chave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[7,519,1917,56,1870,2321,2469,6,3748],"class_list":{"0":"post-502309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-giants","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-giants","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-giants","12":"tag-new-york-giants-analysis","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkgiants","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-valentines-views"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115498015172654336","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}