{"id":402230,"date":"2025-11-24T22:18:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T22:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/402230\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T22:18:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T22:18:19","slug":"dexter-lawrences-giants-absence-explained-after-overtime-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/402230\/","title":{"rendered":"Dexter Lawrence’s Giants absence explained after overtime loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dexter Lawrence was not on the field much in the second half of this past Sunday\u2019s 34-27 loss<\/a> to the Lions, and his absence was especially notable on the first play of overtime, when Jahmyr Gibbs ran untouched 69 yards for a touchdown to give the Lions their winning points.<\/p>\n

Lawrence desperately wanted to be out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, this guy was like in tears on the sideline, just wanting to be out there with the players,\u2019\u2019 interim head coach Mike Kafka said.<\/p>\n

\"DexterDexter Lawrence during the Giants\u2019 overtime loss to the Lions on Nov. 23, 2025. NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"MikeInterim head coach Mike Kafka said Lawrence desperately wanted to be out there with his teammates. David Reginek-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Of his many issues this season, defensive coordinator Shane Bowen \u2014 fired by Kafka on Monday<\/a> \u2014 has admitted that at times he has not had the ideal personnel on the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The defensive meltdown in Dallas back in Week 2, with Lawrence not in the game on a fateful play, comes to mind.\u00a0Still, it was stunning to look out onto the field at the start of overtime in Detroit and not see Dexter Lawrence lining up at his nose tackle spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Did Bowen make another game-day error by not having Lawrence in the game?\u00a0Actually, no.<\/p>\n

Lawrence said he got \u201cnicked up this game.\u2019\u2019\u00a0He said it happened in the first quarter, and after that, his playing time was limited.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were just allowing me to get to third down and get some good rushes,\u2019\u2019 Lawrence said.\u00a0\u201cOf course, as a competitor I always want to be on the field, but understood the process and the game plan, and I trusted it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

This is why Lawrence played only 31 of the 68 snaps on defense.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo behind the scenes with Big Blue\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Giants by Paul Schwartz, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Kafka said the injury \u201ckind of flared up again during the fourth quarter,\u2019\u2019 but Lawrence would have been in the game if the drive continued.\u00a0That did not happen because the Lions scored on one play \u2014 one without Lawrence on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a guy that was battling through this game, this injury, and probably just toughed it out for us and was trying to give us everything he had,\u2019\u2019 Kafka said. \u201cAnd so, the decision was just to kind of play him in like those pass situations, second and longs, third and longs, so he can be a factor on a limited snap count. I thought that was the right thing to do in handling it and hats off to Dexter for toughing it out and working through that because he got dinged up pretty well.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dexter Lawrence was not on the field much in the second half of this past Sunday\u2019s 34-27 loss…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":402231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[38554,1318,58347,1317,1315,1316,4716,1232,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-402230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-dexter-lawrence","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-mike-kafka","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-ncaafootball","14":"tag-new-york-giants","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115606999647060224","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}