Dexter Lawrence wasn't available to speak after the New York Giants endured a crucial loss to the Washington Football Team on Thursday night. Coach Joe Judge spoke for him.
Judge refused to place the blame on Lawrence for his offsides penalty that was the culprit in New York starting 0-2 for the fifth consecutive year. The Giants made plenty of mistakes in the loss. Lawrence's was just the icing on the cake.
"The biggest thing for him is it's gonna be a tough lesson," Judge said after the game. "It's a lesson you got to learn, a lesson we all have to learn as a team that we don't repeat the mistakes one by one. You've got to see that and make sure you clean it up. These are obviously things we talked about and coached. But obviously we gotta do a better job in the future going forward.
"I'm not going to put this on Dex. I don't put this on Dex. Dex is a good player, is a strong piece of our locker room. He's a good teammate, he's fun to coach, he's a productive force as a player, I'm not gonna put this on Dexter Lawrence. There's things we all have to do better as professionals. I'm not gonna put this on any one player or one situation."
Lawrence's penalty was one of many errors by the Giants in the 30-29 defeat to Washington, many of which occurred in the fourth quarter. Darius Slayton's crucial drop in the end zone cost the Giants a touchdown that would have put them up two scores. On the final possession, Judge called a timeout because two of his guys weren't off the field while the Giants held a two-point lead with under two minutes to play, giving Washington more time to get into field goal range.
A calamity of errors cost the Giants. Not good for a head coach that preaches discipline like Judge.
"We have to address this to make sure that we keep putting players in position to prepare them properly and make sure we can work it, execute the right way," Judge said. "Obviously something we don't want to have, something that is not acceptable. But look, we're not going to turn around and put this game on any one player and one play.
"There's enough things we can clean up as a team and we can play better going forward. We're not going to go ahead and isolate one incident and say that's the difference in the game right there. We got to make sure that we do a lot of things better for 60 minutes."
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