East Rutherford, NJ: The Giants season ended shortly after halftime in the first game, when a Danny Jones pick six extinguished any flickering hopes of a comeback. Jones looked hesitant and indecisive from the start in this one. His poor play put him directly on the hotseat, joined by Daboll and Schoen, who hitched their fortunes to him. It didn’t help that Saquon Barkley looked reborn in Philly, finally playing on a functional offense. If there are reasons to think the Giants can turn it around and make something out of this season, I can’t think of them. It looks like a grim road ahead for Big Blue.
How to Ruin a Young QB
In his rookie season in 2019, Jones threw for over 3,000 yards, with 24 TDs and 12 interceptions. It was a promising season for the next franchise QB…
The problem was the fumbles. Jones held the ball too long, resulting in a whopping 19 of them. Combined with the 12 ints and you have a big problem. But all the Giants had to do was get him to dial down the risk a bit without losing his aggressiveness.
Well, mission-not-freaking-accomplished. Jones hasn’t had a productive season as a passer since. He was good in 2022, but a lot of that was the 700+ yards and 9 TDs rushing.
The Giants trained the risk out of him, but the production went with it. That and a few years with a turnstile offensive line seems to have destroyed his potential. Yesterday he looked like a scared practice squad QB, unexpectedly pressed into duty against the Steel Curtain.
Putrid Day
He grew a beard, and the Giants decided to wear awful red uniforms. But otherwise, Daniel Jones was easily recognizable.
The stats were painful – 22 for 42 for 186 yards, no TDs and 2 interceptions. He had an eye-gouging 4.4 yards per pass and couldn’t even rack up any garbage time stats.
He almost never threw the ball on time. It seemed like there were a lot of series that went something like:
1st down: running play for 1 or 2 yards.
2nd: check down for 3 yards.
3rd: incomplete pass.
Watching this game felt like getting the Ludovico Technique in Clockwork Orange, with my eyes being forcibly held open. Please, no more of this sir. They never even tried to force some 50/50 balls to Nabers, the only guy who looked even slightly threatening. That dude must be cursing his luck already, and Saquon sympathizes.
Same Ol’ Gints
When the Giants got an early takeaway and were fired up, they needed to punch it in. Show us that you’re a different team with a killer instinct that makes teams pay. But no, that familiar feeling was back in my stomach when they settled for three. Meet the new Giants, same as the old ones.
A lot of it is Jones, but the play calling seems to be part of the problem too. The most common third and medium play seemed to be “everyone run to the sticks and turn around.” The Vikings were sitting back in two deep shell a lot of the time. Why weren’t there more guys open in the middle on intermediate routes?
But I think it’s mostly on Jones. The line held up okay. He has decent receivers now. Where are my Jones Apologists at? Hiding out now, I’ll reckon.
Hey, look at it this way, Giants’ fans. At least they ripped the band-aid right off and didn’t give us any false hope. Our Sundays are looking wide open. Sure honey, I’d love to go apple picking next Sunday. Antiquing the Sunday after that? Sign me up. Maybe we’ll go to Home Depot after, if we have enough time.
Come back tomorrow for Angry Ward.
