Malik Nabers waiting for chance to make major Giants impact after quiet debut

The Giants already were losing by the time the ball first went to Malik Nabers.

Anyone expecting Brian Daboll in his first game as play-caller and Daniel Jones in his first game of a now-or-never season to force the ball to Nabers in his first game as a highly touted rookie would’ve been surprised to see Sunday that he wasn’t targeted until the Giants’ 13th offensive snap.

“Daniel said he was trying to give me the ball,” Nabers said after the Giants lost, 28-6, to the Vikings in his NFL debut. “He saw a lot of people in his face. I mean, I cannot control that. They were trying to give me the ball, but stuff was not working right, so we just have to fix that up.”

Nabers finished with five catches for a team-high 66 yards but most of the damage came after the game was out of reach in the second half.

He also had one of the team’s five drops, admitting, “I was trying to make a move before I caught it.”

“We have to catch the ball,” Nabers said. “We had way too many drops, including myself. When we get that opportunity to make the plays, we have to make those plays and we did not do that today.”

The Giants were concerned before using the No. 6 pick in the draft on Nabers about how he would react to not being involved early in the game.

Perhaps the Vikings also watched that conversation on “Hard Knocks” and knew to shade first-quarter safety help that way.

“We lost and we didn’t play very well on offense, and I don’t think anybody was happy about that,” veteran receiver Darius Slayton said. “Malik is a competitor. We are all disappointed in the outcome. We all want to do better. We all believe we can be better. He wasn’t happy, but at the same time, I wouldn’t expect him to be.”

Jones and Nabers showed good chemistry in their two preseason quarters playing together.

“I’ve got to find a way to get [him] the ball more,” Jones said.

The biggest surprise was that the Giants — after advertising a downfield passing attack in training camp and the preseason — settled for short and medium throws even when the pocket was clean against a blitz-heavy Cover 2 defense.

“They were doing a really good job of staying over the top of us receivers,” Nabers said. “Daniel was just trying to get it in those open zones.”

Wan’Dale Robinson led the Giants with 12 targets.

“I feel like I did pretty well for my first game,” Nabers said. “The tempo slowed down since I first got out there but still a lot of stuff to learn, still a lot of stuff to learn from and fix.”

He later added, “I’m getting out of my routes and trying to make a play. Trying to make a better throw for him to make. I was just doing my job. That’s all I can do.”