Ronald Darby took a lot of crap on Monday for missing a tackle on Darius Slayton that resulted in a New York touchdown.

This was in the 2nd quarter, still a scoreless ball game, with the Giants facing a 3rd and 13 from the Eagles’ 35 yard line. The Eagles blitzed, didn’t get home, and Slayton won his 1v1 battle en route to the end zone.

Today defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz took responsibility for that touchdown while delivering a lengthy quote, one that began with him explaining his belief that corners typically get more blame for their mistakes since they are easier to identify than errors made at other positions.

Then he said this:

Corners live with that kind of scrutiny, and it takes a special kind of guy to be able to do that. Darby didn’t start that game off well, but I will say this; that first touchdown is 100% on me. It’s not on him. We had a third and 13 and I’m trying to keep them out of field goal range there. It looks like it’s going to be a low-scoring game, we got some weather situations coming in, maybe points are gonna be at a premium. I don’t want to let them get five yards or seven yards to get into field goal range. Generally I don’t really care too much about field goals, but if we’re in zone defense there and we got more guys at that thing and they make a ten yard thing and kick a field goal, and also we lose by three, we’re sitting there saying we should have been more aggressive to get them out of field goal range. That’s what we were. We blitzed, we played man, the field was slippery, he’s coming for the interception point. Eli made a really good throw, throwing the backside hip right there. Darby is driving to the break point of that route and Eli saw him, threw the back hip, he was able to catch it and spin out of that tackle.

I don’t view that at all on Darby, I view that 100% on me.

Let’s take a look at the play from the coaches film.

Again, it’s 3rd and 13, the Giants nearing field goal range in the second quarter. Schwartz schemes up a single-high safety with two corners playing up on the line while Darby is about eight yards off Slayton. Malcolm Jenkins tries to blitz through the B Gap and is picked up by Saquon Barkley:

Now that I think about it, that didn’t seem like a bad idea to me. It’s Eli Manning, isn’t it? Guy hadn’t played in months, so why not send pressure and try to make him uncomfortable? You saw how he shriveled up in the second half whenever somebody got close to him.

And Darby was in position to make a tackle for a seven-yard gain, which would have forced the field goal, but he didn’t. He missed that tackle while Rodney McLeod’s angle wasn’t fantastic either.

Nice of Jim Schwartz to step up and say what he said today, but there’s nothing wrong with him being aggressive there and trying to eliminate the field goal. My take.