Notebook: Deonte Banks looks to bounce back

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – A moment in the Giants’ game last week that Deonte Banks, his teammates and his coaches conceded was unsatisfactory has been addressed, and everyone has moved on.

“I believe in my ability,” Banks said today. “They believe in my ability, and I believe in my own.”

Banks’ pursuit on the first play of the fourth quarter of the Giants’ 28-3 loss to Philadelphia attracted scrutiny. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts scrambled around right end for a 16-yard gain. Banks was the closest Giants defender to him when he seemed to slow down instead of attempting to tackle Hurts. Banks was instantly rebuked on the sideline by defensive backs coach/passing game coordinator Jerome Henderson.

“I misjudged it,” Banks said. “I thought he was closer to the out-of-bounds than he was. Bad play by me.”

The first six questions defensive coordinator Shane Bowen fielded at his weekly news conference today were about Banks.

“It’s just something we got to continue to harp on and make sure we’re playing to our maximum ability and full tilt to the tackle every opportunity that we have,” said Bowen.

It was the second time this season Banks’ determination on a play has been questioned. It also happened after Dallas wide receiver CeeDee Lamb scored on a 55-yard reception on Sept. 26. Eight days later, in his bi-weekly meeting with reporters, Henderson said of Banks’ response on the play, “Didn’t like it. Liked nothing about it.”

Henderson hasn’t spoken publicly since the Eagles game, but one of the team captains did.

“It’s not acceptable,” defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence said. “He knows it. We addressed it and that’s the type of thing that we don’t accept as a defense.

“When you see it, you address it. … We addressed it and now everybody knows that’s not acceptable.”

Coach Brian Daboll said Banks will start Monday night against the Steelers in Pittsburgh.

“We’ve talked to Tae,” Daboll said. “We talk to all of our players, and I’ll keep that in house.”

Daboll was asked what he does to keep such transgressions from being repeated.

“You address it with the player, and you move on,” he said. “We have a good communication process here. We have a certain expectation, and I expect to see that.”

“We expect these guys every snap to play full speed to the tackle,” Bowen said. “Making sure they’re running the ball and doing all those things. That’s the expectation. That’s the standard we want to have here across the board. Something we got to continue to coach. We’ve addressed it as a coaching staff and with the unit and everybody else. Hopefully, moving forward, we can continue to see some progress and some growth in that regard from all our guys, too.”

Banks has started every game and missed just 13 snaps this season. He is fifth on the team with 32 tackles (24 solo), and second with five passes defensed.

“It was a bad play,” Banks said. “I had one bad play. A bad play doesn’t judge a whole season.”

Banks said he addressed the play in last week’s game with his teammates in the postgame locker room.

“They know what I’m capable of,” he said. “They know what I do. It was like, ‘Hey, come on, we know what you got, you feel me, you know what you got. So, there was really nothing, there was no problem.

“I know I have to have better effort,” Banks said. “It won’t ever happen again.”