Giants' Mike Kafka Reacts to Malik Nabers' Deleted Post Criticizing Coaching

New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers, who is out for the season with a torn ACL suffered in Week 4, questioned Big Blue's decision-making at the end of their final drive in regulation of a 34-27 overtime loss to the Detroit Lions last Sunday.

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On Tuesday, Giants interim head coach Mike Kafka was asked about Nabers' tweet. In essence, Kafka said he didn't see Nabers' remarks but added that "the beauty of the National Football League is the players have the ability to express themselves."

"That's the beauty of the National Football League," Kafka continued. "You can express yourself any way you want. The beauty of it is, and I think any player, they're going to go out there and they're going to have an opinion of what they'd like to see. But at the end of the day those are the calls we're going to make on game day and those are the calls we're going to make for the betterment of the team."

To set the scene, the Giants faced a 1st-and-goal from the Lions' four-yard line with 3:19 remaining. At the time, New York was up 27-24.

A run for two yards, an incomplete pass and a run that lost four yards gave the Giants 4th-and-goal from the Lions' six-yard line with 2:59 left.

Instead of going for the field goal, which would have put the Giants up 30-24, Kafka opted to go for the touchdown. However, quarterback Jameis Winston's pass intended for tight end Theo Johnson fell incomplete.

The Lions took over with tough field position (their own six-yard line) and, to their credi,t drove 53 yards down the field, setting up Jake Bates' curving 59-yard game-tying field goal with no time remaining.

Detroit then won in overtime thanks to running back Jahmyr Gibbs' 69-yard touchdown run. The Giants went 39 yards in response before turning the ball over on downs.

Kafka got criticism for not taking the points and forcing the Lions to go for a touchdown instead of the field goal.

However, he made the right decision and chose the path that had the highest ceiling, which was a two-score lead. Barring a miracle, the game would have been over at this point should the Giants have gotten the touchdown.

Second, he put the game in the hands of the offense, which was moving the ball up and down the field all game. The defense, at this point, could not be trusted and in fact gave up 494 total yards when all was said and done, including 264 to Gibbs alone.

Third, if the Giants went for the field goal (and got it), the Lions would have had just under three minutes and a timeout left to go, perhaps, about 70 yards or so for a touchdown. In other words, it would have been a very manageable situation for a high-powered Lions offense against a Giants defense that has fared poorly in the fourth quarter all season.

A TD plus a PAT would have given the Lions the game in regulation, 31-30 (unless the Giants would have been able to get a last-ditch field goal in the dying moments of the fourth quarter in response).

In the end, it didn't work out for New York, which fell to 2-10 and fired defensive coordinator Shane Bowen the day after the game. Head coach Brian Daboll had already been relieved of his duties two weeks prior.

The Giants will look to break their six-game losing streak on Monday when they visit the 10-2 New England Patriots, who have the NFL's best record.