Giants’ offensive coordinator Mike Kafka expresses confidence in skill players

Whether or not the New York Giants, ultra-conservative on offense at times during recent weeks, have confidence in their offensive personnel has been a topic of debate this week.

Head coach Brian Daboll was asked about that this week, even being pressed on whether he would consider taking over play-calling from offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. Quarterback Daniel Jones was asked this week if he felt Daboll and Kafka had confidence in the offense.

Thus, when it was his turn to face the media on Thursday Kafkas was, of course, asked whether or not he had confidence in the players he coaches.

“I’m very confident in the skill group, quarterback, running back,” Kafka said. “The skilled positions have done a great job, and my confidence is high on that group.”

Kafka was pressed on play-calling sequences at the end of the half and the end of regulation in Sunday’s game against the Washington Commanders, a game that ended in a 20-20 tie.

On third-and-1 from the Washington 11-yard with :19 left in the half and no timeouts, the Giants ran quarterback Daniel Jones around right end for 2 yards and had to scramble to get the field goal until on to get three points before halftime.

“We had a couple of plays in mind,” Kafka said. “We thought that was the best play for that situation given the circumstances.”

At the end of regulation, the Giants took over the ball at their 25-yard line with 1:45 to play. After an incomplete deep shot to Darius Slayton, the Giants tried a second straight deep shot to Slayton that also fell incomplete. A third incompletion forced a punt after the Giants has possessed the ball for only :17.

“Just giving our guys an opportunity on the ball,” Kafka said. “Obviously in the two-minute situation, there’s plays that you talk about. Taking shots or underneath. If you get an opportunity, you take it.”

Kafka said the Giants weren’t focused on running clock at that point.

“We were just trying to give our guys the best chance to make a play, make an explosive play,” Kafka said. “It didn’t work out for us.”

As we detailed earlier in the week, the Giants have not been as efficient running the ball over the past five weeks as they were during their 6-1 start.

Is that purely about execution? Or, do the Giants need to do more vary the looks they give defenses when running the ball?

“I think it’s a combination of both,” Kafka said. “I think you have to, each week we go through it, go through our process. What are our favorite runs? What are our favorite looks? Personnel groupings? Really detail all that stuff out. We go with what our guys do best. We go and we practice it, we detail it up, and that’s what we end up going with each week.”

Whatever the real reasons, the Giants have not been as good on offense as they have gone 1-3-1 the last five weeks as they were during their 6-1 start. They need to hope that whatever they detail up over the next five weeks works a little bit better.