Giants head coach Joe Judge garnered plenty of headlines with his rant about disrespecting the game by not playing to win for all 60 minutes. He was clearly talking about the Eagles, though he never mentioned them or former head coach Doug Pederson by name.
Though the comments received widespread praise, it didn’t escape some that Judge’s own team finished the season 6-10 and had plenty of opportunities to win the NFC East that didn’t involve Philadelphia beating Washington in Week 17.
To that end, Judge noted in an interview with WFAN on Tuesday that he knows the Giants sealed their own fate.
“Look, that’s our fault. Point blank. We have to do better. 6-10 is not a playoff team. That’s the reality. That’s what it is. You don’t deserve to be in the playoffs with that. Our guys understand that,” Judge said, via Zack Rosenblatt of NJ.com “We’re not trying to sit back and make some excuse, or sit back and paint some picture that someone else owes us anything. They don’t. We owe it to ourselves to go out there and take advantage.
“What I was commenting on was specifically was about our players asking me about that and how I would respond to it. I was clear about what my message to the team was throughout the year from Day 1. And the last meeting we had as a team, that’s what I shared as well. So they could understand our approach as an organization here and my approach as a coach to make sure they’re always out there fighting for a result.”
Judge reiterated his comments were about how he would approach that type of situation with his own team, especially considering the sacrifices people made for the 2020 season to happen.
“We’re always going to try to put the payers in position to be successful, and we expect the players to always play for 60 minutes,” Judge said. “It has nothing to do with us not making the playoffs.”