All eyes were on quarterback Daniel Jones as the New York Giants opened their preseason Thursday night against the New England Patriots. And now, the results are in.
“Daniel Jones is terrible,” screamed countless tweets from armchair general managers.
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Regardless of how Jones performed in the first week of the preseason, that was destined to be the reaction. And as predicted, the critics did not fail.
But neither did Jones. Contrary to the fake outrage you might see on social media, the fourth-year quarterback looked solid — albeit unspectacular — against the Patriots.
In a much watered-down version of Brian Daboll’s offense, Jones opened the game with an impressive drive down the field that should have resulted in a touchdown. That didn’t happen because wide receiver Kenny Golladay, who ran an ugly route, dropped a potential field goal. The ball hit him in the numbers and then hit the ground.
It was Golladay’s second poor effort on the drive.
“Yes, there were some good ones and some things we could have had again. What was he? 6 of 10. We threw some vertical plays there,” Daboll told reporters. “They had some loose runners on defense, but I thought he ran the offense well. He got them down on the first drive. We hung in there in the Red Zone. Good start at first, but definitely things to clean up.”
As it has been for most of his career, Jones’ defense left a little to be desired during that opening. And during the second drive, it completely collapsed.
I won’t lie, I cringed a bit as I watched Daniel Jones put his back on his knees. Dangerous there. pic.twitter.com/UUQvZjalez
— Doug Rush (@TheDougRush) August 11, 2022
Left guard Shane Lemieux (toe) left the game and was replaced by rookie Joshua Ezeudu. Left tackle Andrew Thomas was also ruled out. On the other side of the line, rookie right tackle Evan Neal struggled a bit and tight end Christ Myarick was badly beaten.
The Giants were lucky Jones didn’t get hurt.
“It felt good to go out there and it was just like it used to be,” Jones said. “This is football, isn’t it? This is football and I felt good there. I didn’t think much about the neck or anything like that. I felt good and it was just football”.
Jones finished the game 6 of 10 for 69 yards and no touchdowns. He also picked up a first down on a seven-yard scramble up the middle.
Objectively, Jones’ performance wasn’t bad. He made some nice throws under pressure and connected for some big plays. He had strong command of the huddle, but needed to be better against the Patriots’ backups. There is no way around it.
Meanwhile, Tyrod Taylor played at the same level. Under constant pressure, he was forced to throw some and some to sail high, leading to several tips and near interceptions. However, unlike Jones, when Taylor entered the red zone, the touchdown pass was intercepted (Richie James Jr.).
When all was said and done, Taylor completed 13 of his 21 pass attempts for 129 yards, one touchdown and surprisingly, no fumbles. Quarterback Davis Webb completed eight of his 16 passes for 51 yards (no touchdowns, no interceptions).
It was a good performance from the Giants quarterbacks all around. Not good, not bad – just somewhere in between.
