Brian Daboll insists Giants ‘played hard’ after ‘soft’ comments saturated locker room

Some of the postgame noise coming from Giants players inside the losing locker room after their 30-7 loss to the Buccaneers on Sunday had to make head coach Brian Daboll cringe, especially with speculation about his job security swirling.

A year ago, the Giants were ravaged by injuries at quarterback and on the offensive line as the team spiraled out of playoff contention, and Daboll was justifiably praised for the fact that his locker room remained strong, resisting fracturing amidst the adversity.

The damning postgame takes Sunday from left tackle Jermaine Eluemunor, defensive tackle and captain Dexter Lawrence, veteran receiver Darius Slayton and rookie receiver Malik Nabers, however, left you wondering if this 2-9 Giants team is on the verge of imploding from inner unrest.

Eluemunor said he saw teammates not giving 100 percent effort. Lawrence and Nabers used the word “soft’’ when describing the team’s effort in the loss. Slayton was disgusted with the same mistakes taking place over and over.

Daboll on Monday insisted that his team played hard but poorly in the loss and acknowledged that the six-game losing streak has taken its toll on everyone’s psyche with the Thanksgiving Day game at Dallas looming.

“When you lose a game like that, there’s frustration,’’ Daboll said. “Certainly, you’d like to keep it in house. But you understand them and I’ve been doing this for a while. There are conversations that you have to have if comments like that are made. I respect the opinions of the players and of the coaches. We’ll work as hard as we can to get this fixed.