Having 12 hours to process what happened in Thursday night’s loss to the Washington Football Team, Dexter Lawrence holds himself accountable for the defeat.
Lawrence jumped offsides on a missed Dustin Hopkins 48-yard field goal in the final seconds that would have given the Giants the victory. Instead, Hopkins earned another opportunity at the field goal — and hit the game-winner from 43 yards out.
Did Lawrence actually jump offsides? From a certain angle, the Giants defensive tackle may have timed the snap well.
The penalty was still called, even if Lawrence may not necessarily agree with the ruling.
“That’s on me. I gotta be more disciplined in that time, a critical situation,” Lawrence said Friday, via Kim Jones of NFL Network. “I just gotta do better…The refs call what they call.”
Lawrence isn’t going to blame the officials for his mistake.
“That don’t really matter,” Lawrence said. “My opinion don’t matter.”
Giants head coach Joe Judge had an adamant defense of Lawrence after the loss Thursday, pointing out he’s not the sole reason for the defeat. The Giants made plenty of mistakes. Lawrence was just one of them.
“I’m not going to put this on Dex. I don’t put this on Dex,” Judge said. “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.
“We talk a lot about our team building and our leadership building that when things like this happen, we respond the right way as a team. So, in terms of the pressure he will be under, it’s nothing that we don’t prepare for already.”
