Buccaneers and Giants face desperate times heading into their final 7 games

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ — – Tampa Bay Pirates And New York Giants They face desperate times heading into the final seven games of the regular season.

Coach Brian Daboll said the Giants (2-8) are in dire shape after losing five straight games. sitting on the bench high priced quarterback daniel jones and I made the New Jersey spark plug Tommy DeVito The starters for Sunday’s game against the Buccaneers (4-6) at MetLife Stadium.

Bucs We are not making radical changes. They need to start winning again because they still have a chance at the play-offs despite losing four games in a row and five out of six.

With losses to Baltimore, Atlanta, Kansas City and San Francisco, Tampa Bay is just 1.5 games behind the Falcons in the NFC South. A win over the Giants would put the Buccaneers in a game with Atlanta (6-5) and their final game would be against Las Vegas (2-8). Los Angeles Chargers (7-3), Dallas (3-7), New Orleans (4-7) and two with Carolina (3-7).

Bucs center Graham Barton He said the team was aware of the standings and needed to make a move.

“There’s no such thing as ‘beginning of the season’ anymore.’ “It’s now or never, so we’re going to win; of course we want to win every game, but for us the play-offs really start now.” “We have to win and we have to win now.”

DeVito, The New Jersey native, whose colorful nickname is “Tommy Cutlets,” was 3-3 as a rookie free agent out of Illinois after Jones and the bench. Tyrod Taylor We were injured last season. That’s why the dashing young man put the experienced reserves one step ahead Drew Lock and the beginning was given.

“If you don’t enjoy going out there, you’re not going to play with the same kind of passion if you did, so I’m really trying to keep everyone’s spirits up, enjoy it and just bring the energy. I’m out there,” DeVito said.

It won’t be easy

Coach Todd Bowles scoffs at the idea that the Bucs have had a weak schedule of late and that could benefit their bid for a fifth straight playoff berth.

“This is the NFL, you don’t play with someone whose schedule is soft,” Bowles said. “Everybody has first-round picks and athletes and everybody is well-coached, so if we come back from the break thinking the schedule is easier, we’re going to lose every game.”

Where is Daniel?

No one is saying where Jones will be on Sunday. He probably won’t play for the Giants again. If he gets injured and isn’t ready for the start of next season, that would trigger a $23 million guarantee on next year’s salary, which puts his cap hit at $41 million.

It should be interesting to see if he’s on the bench, in the suite, or just staying at home. It’s likely Jones and the team will work out a separation agreement before the end of the regular season.

Explosive runs

Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen spent a lot of time during the bye week looking at the run defense, which ranked 29th in the league.

The standout statistic was the number of explosive runs made by opponents this season. New York gave up 33 runs of 10 yards or longer; That’s roughly just over three per game. He said the other 20-22 plays against the Giants’ defense averaged 2.5 yards.

Bowen said some players got out of position on explosive runs, but mostly the problem was poor tackling, which caused a 10-yard gain to turn into a 20 or 30-yard gain.

no excuses

Injuries have forced the Bucs to play without some key players for key periods of the season, but Bowles says there are some issues, too. no excuses young, largely inexperienced reserves not performing well in the absence of starters. He noted that the reserves have skills and are on the team for a reason.

“When you go out there and you get an opportunity, you have to make the most of it,” Bowles added. “This is in football, this is in life.”

no interference

Giants haven’t had an interception since rookie linebacker Darius Muasau chose Minnesota Sam Darnold at the season opener. That’s nine games without selection.

“I wish I had an explanation, because then I could probably come up with a solution,” Bowen said. “I think we should do them while we have the chance. There are a few we didn’t do when we had the chance to get them.”

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AP Sports Writer Fred Goodall contributed to this report.

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