NEW YORK — Malik Nabers, who skipped out on Thursday night’s postgame interviews, was a very late addition to Friday’s mid-afternoon Zoom call with the New York media.

When Nabers showed up on camera, he said the reason he had torn out of MetLife Stadium after the 24-21 loss to the Washington Commanders was that he’d “had a family emergency back home.”

“And when I came back, everybody was gone,” Nabers said. “I had an emergency back home. Everything’s straight.”

Head coach John Harbaugh said he had nothing to do with Nabers’ rare day-after media session. He said the public relations staff informed him Nabers would be speaking because he had not fulfilled his obligation after the defeat.

Regardless, the Giants‘ post-mortem on their most disappointing loss of the season started with Nabers facing some accountability at the end of a roller-coaster week for the Giants’ mercurial wide receiver.

Nabers was forced to face the music that he has still not beaten great friend Jayden Daniels in the NFL. The Washington quarterback is 4-0-1 against his LSU teammate so far as NFC East rivals.

“Yeah, it’s pretty bad,” Nabers said with a smile. “It’s bugging me pretty bad, and he calls me all the time. He’s probably trying to call me right now, but I can’t answer that phone call.”

Nabers was a major reason for the loss this time.

He lost a fumble for the first time in his NFL career as the Giants were entering the red zone in the third quarter. And he was targeted on the J.J. McCarthy interception picked off by Commanders corner Rasul Douglas to end the game.

“You’re thinking about plays that could have been a difference in the game, and that could have been one of those,” Nabers said of his fumble. “We were in the red zone, could have got a field goal or a touchdown, and sadly it went away just off a mistake that I made.

“But I just try to do better, try to be better, and I’ll be better on just protecting the football,” he said, “having awareness of where I am, and protecting the football to give the offense opportunity to score points on that drive.”

As for the final interception, Nabers said he was “seeing how high the ball was and just waiting for it to come down” when Douglas plucked it.

“I didn’t really see him or where he was, so I’m not really aware of that,” he said. “My head is looking up at the ball, even though he was driving on the ball.”

Both Nabers and Harbaugh had more to say about why J.J. McCarthy had thrown two jump balls to Darnell Mooney and Nabers on the final two plays.

The Giants had the ball on Washington’s 48-yard line with 42 seconds to play. They needed only a field goal to force overtime. And they had two timeouts in their pocket.

But Harbaugh defended the coaches and said the Giants’ last offensive series was not mismanaged. He said there were routes available to the quarterback at different levels, and it came down to “decisions a quarterback makes.”

Harbaugh said if taking downfield shots doesn’t work out, “those can be backbreakers.” However, he said, he still has a “high” level of confidence in McCarthy from here on out as the Giants quarterback.

Nabers’ review of that sequence seemed to match Harbaugh’s primary takeaway: The Giants’ quarterback needed to be more patient in executing, rather than going for it all in one shot.

“I think as far as that play and in the ending of the game, I’d say we will be better on just finding a better situation on not trying to score points as quickly as we were, but just make smart decisions on what we want to get to after seeing the cover zero that it was giving us at the moment,” Nabers said. “So, trying to just get the ball out fast instead of trying to create a home run ball. You just got to be better in the situation, and that’s really all.”

Nabers can probably use the weekend to cool off after having his bad language called out by the Fox broadcast during last Sunday’s win in Philadelphia, in which Nabers dropped a fourth quarter touchdown pass from McCarthy.

Nabers lashed out as the broadcast crew, including tight end Greg Olsen. Then the Giants’ third-year receiver had a second straight underwhelming game in prime time on Thursday.

In fact, after winning NFC Offensive Player of the Month of October, with four straight games of 111 yards or more, Nabers only has 87 yards total in the Giants’ two games since the bye.

Nabers showed some frustration on Thursday night again with the Giants’ sideline at times by waiving his arms or turning away in frustration after an unsuccessful play. He said quarterbacks coach Brian Callahan is advising him now to “just play the one play that we call, don’t try to do too much.”

“Don’t try to do a lot on the play, we just need you to be you,” he said Callahan told him. “Just not pressing. I’m getting a lot of different coverages on my side. I’m getting a lot of cloud, getting a lot of double teams. So every opportunity I have to get the football, I think I’m just trying to do too much with the football instead of just let the game come to me and just play the game.”

Players as competitive or emotional as Nabers can be their own worst enemy at times, allowing their frustrations to cloud their ability to make the next play or do what’s best for the team.

Nabers admitted that’s his nature at times. He just has to remember that not everyone has to understand why the games aren’t always leading to big numbers for the Giants’ top receiver.

“For sure, I have my moments,” he said. “But I continue to try to realize that I only can control the controllables. I can’t just freely just run any route I want. I have to run specifically the routes that I’m given. And I can’t stop the defense from doing their scheme to stop me from getting the ball, but I can help get other people open. And I can help the team on doing anything else that I have to do if I have to run off two people to get the look so J.J. can give somebody the ball.

“I’m going to do my job, and I’m going to do that,” he said. “So I can just be frustrated all I want. But in the game, we’re trying to win and I want to win. I’m going to do everything I can to win the game.”

He said the outside world won’t always see his impact if the stats aren’t in the box score, but “I got to be OK with having my opportunities and making those opportunities count. And just knowing when I got to help get somebody else open and help the team win as much as I can.”

It’s not really about what the outside world thinks, though. It’s about Nabers’ ability to accept a different role every week and not dwell on his stats.

He is clearly still maturing in his ability to handle setbacks, defeats and lower production outings.

“I take losses more painful than I say a lot of people just because overall I want to win so bad,” he said. “But I just got to come to the realization that it’s going to happen. You just got to be able to flush it and move on and just fight back and try to go get a win.

“It’s hard for sure, but I don’t know how to handle that,” he continued. “I’m still going through that. I’m still learning, try to find my way on flushing losses like this or just flushing a loss in general. I’m still learning how to do that.”

That’s refreshing honesty and self-awareness. Hating to lose is a good quality to have in such a competition league. Nabers just has to make sure he harnesses his competitive edge appropriately so that it makes him an asset and not a liability.

©2026 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.