Heading into Year 2, Daniel Jones knows he needs to improve on turning the ball over. Whether it’s his league-leading fumbles last season or throwing interceptions, it all comes down to making smarter decisions with the football and relying on fundamentals.

Unfortunately, Jones had a couple of those blunders, one of which was a straight momentum killer for Big Blue.

Jones was leading the Giants down the field on a beautiful, 19-play drive that featured the skillset the team loves to see from its franchise quarterback – solid throws in the pocket, staying poised through pressure, and even rushing the ball for first downs. But when the Giants were knocking on the door of scoring a touchdown in what would’ve made it a 19-17 game, Jones made a terrible mistake by throwing an interception after being pressured by DE Bud Dupree.

The worst part about it: Jones could’ve easily thrown the ball out of bounds and lived to see another play. But as he was running to his left, he tried to plant and throw to Darius Slayton in the back of the end zone, though he appeared to be tightly covered to begin with. That gave Dupree enough time to hit his arm and send the ball flying in the air so Cam Heyward could come down with the pick, allowing the Steelers to finally breathe without points going on the board for the Giants. Big Blue was on the 5-yard line.

“Obviously a play I’d like to have back,” Jones said after the game. “I’d like to get a chance to look at it with the coaches tomorrow and really look into it. That’s a costly mistake there after a long drive. Something I gotta work on and improve on.”

The Giants never got into a rhythm after that. And it’s a shame because the offense did look great, in particular the execution on Jones’ first touchdown pass of the year to Slayton earlier in the first half. The offensive line gave Jones a clear pocket that he used to look away Minkah Fitzpatrick and fire a great pass to Slayton running the deep post to the middle of the end zone. New York went up 10-3 at that point.

“I thought Darius did a good job tonight and he’s had a good camp and came in ready to go,” Jones said of the second-year receiver who had six catches for 102 yards and two touchdowns on the night.

Popular in the Community