Giants still winless at home as Tommy DeVito can't move offense against Buccaneers
Tommy DeVito of the Giants is helped up off the field during the first quarter against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Mike Stobe
Is it too late for the NFL to flex the Giants out of Thanksgiving Day?
After Sunday’s turkey of a game at MetLife Stadium, that might be a service to the league, its fans and the Giants themselves to avoid further embarrassment.
Their 30-7 loss to the Buccaneers — one in which they trailed 23-0 at halftime — dropped them to 2-9 overall, with a six-game losing streak, and 0-6 at home.
So much for the Giants demoting and eventually releasing Daniel Jones in hopes of getting a spark from pop culture star Tommy DeVito at quarterback. He threw for 31 yards in the first half and finished 21-for-31 for 189 yards.
Next up is the Cowboys in the high-profile, highly rated, late-afternoon national TV window on Thursday. Yikes.
Team president John Mara inadvertently highlighted the unfortunate scheduling when he declined to comment on the state of the team after the game but did tell reporters, “Happy Thanksgiving.”
Normally, it would be a nice sentiment. But Mara and many of those to whom he was speaking have to schlep to Texas on the holiday to watch more of this.
The Buccaneers (5-6) snapped a four-game losing streak. Baker Mayfield was 24-for-30 for 294 yards — 230 in the first half — and after scoring on a 10-yard run, he rubbed it in by using DeVito’s trademark hand-gesture celebration.
Asked if the game made him angry, Dexter Lawrence said, “Extremely. We played soft, and they beat the [expletive] out of us today.”
Malik Nabers, who had zero targets in the first half, said the team played “soft” and that he is “tired of losing.”
Outside linebacker Brian Burns, who addressed the team after the game, called the performance “terrible.”
It was logical to wonder if the events of the week might have affected the team, but the players insisted the quarterback change was not to blame, on or off the field.
“DJ wasn’t on the field today, so he had no effect on how well the people that were out there did their jobs,” receiver Darius Slayton said. “At the end of the day, the people who did play today did a terrible job. That’s why we got beat.”
Said Nabers, “Obviously, it ain’t the quarterback. Same outcome when we had DJ at quarterback.”
Said Burns, “I don’t think that’s got [expletive] to do with us tackling. Was it a bummer? Was it awkward? Yeah. Danny was a leader. He was a great guy, a great captain, a great teammate.
“It was a bummer. But at the end of the day, it ain’t got [expletive] to do with us tackling.”
Coach Brian Daboll deflected all questions about Jones, saying the team has moved on from that. He also insisted the effort was fine despite what appeared to be a lack of it, especially some sloppy tackling.
“They did everything better than we did today,” Daboll said of the Bucs.
He said DeVito will start again on Thursday if he is healthy. He took a shot and had the wind knocked out of him late in the game.
The Bucs produced a methodical 14-play, 70-yard march on the opening drive, capped by Sean Tucker’s 1-yard run with 6:37 left in the first quarter.
The Giants had a fourth-and-1 at their own 37-yard line when Daboll made the bold decision to go for a first down. Wan’Dale Robinson was stopped inches short on an end around.
“Had two plays there, thought we had an opportunity to get a first down and keep the drive going,” Daboll said. “Try to build some momentum and didn’t get it.”
The Bucs were up 10-0 when Bucky Irving ran six yards for a touchdown, untouched until he reached the end zone, to make it 17-0.
Mayfield threw to Irving for a 32-yard gain to jump-start yet another Bucs drive. Mayfield ran it in from the 10, and it was 23-0 at halftime.
Three consecutive completions to Nabers got the Giants going to start the second half, and they eventually got to the Tampa Bay 5-yard line. But Tyrone Tracy Jr. took a direct snap, tried to run the ball and fumbled when he was hit by Lavonte David, ending the Giants’ threat.
After a pass-interference penalty against Adoree’ Jackson gave Tampa Bay the ball at the 1-yard line, Rachaad White ran it in to make it 30-0 with 3:45 left in the third quarter.
DeVito ran 17 yards to the Tampa Bay 1-yard line in the fourth quarter, and Devin Singletary scored from there to put the Giants on the scoreboard with 11:28 left.
DeVito was disappointed but positive when it was over. He was supposed to be the spark, but nothing short of an inferno appears capable of helping this team.
“I am going to go watch film to see what I could have done better on my part,” he said, “whether that’s on the field, whether it’s off, energizing the guys, keeping the guys going, like anything, any way, shape or form.”
There is not much time to figure things out.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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