Following Monday night’s 23-16 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll was rather complimentary of quarterback Daniel Jones.
After going back and watching the tape, Daboll realized Jones did far more than it initially seemed.
“He was under some duress. He escaped. He made some loose plays. He did some things with his feet. He made some good throws. He competed his tail off,” Daboll told reporters. “He’s really improved every practice, and he was a good leader out there. And he competed as hard as he could compete and gave us a chance.”
As well as Jones played, he couldn’t overcome the issues around him. He was pressured a career-high 24 times, hit 12 times and sacked five times. On top of that, there were several drive-killing penalties and five dropped passes, including a Kenny Golladay drop on third-down with roughly 8:00 remaining.
“[It] wasn’t just the line. Were there some plays that we got beat? Yeah. There were,” Daboll said. ” There was some stuff inside, like I said some games, some edge stuff. We can chip better. We can stay on a little bit longer.
“We used jams on I don’t know how many snaps. It was a lot. We can help in that area too and be better in those areas – whether it be tight end with the backs.”
Because of the issues around him, evaluating Jones is difficult. That’s something Daboll admits, noting specifically that the game-ending interception wasn’t the fault of the quarterback.
“I think what we try to do each week is just see where we’re at for that week — evaluate the performance. Again, we evaluate the performances on past, but I thought he made good strides,” Daboll said. “Obviously not scoring enough points, and we left some plays out there on the field. But the job that he did in terms of running the offense, handling things when things weren’t always perfect. The last play he threw that pick, but it really wasn’t on him. I thought that he’s making improvement. I think that’s important as we go throughout the season.”
Wide receiver David Sills, who slipped and fell on the timing route, also owned up to that after the game.
Ultimately, Daboll says, despite the loss, the way the game played out provided an excellent opportunity to evaluate how Jones performs under intense pressure and when everything else fails around him.
“You never want that to happen, but that’s a good evaluation to get, too, particularly on a quarterback when they’re under pressure or things aren’t always perfect and how can you ad lib and make plays when it’s not just exactly like it is on the play diagram. I thought he did that well,” Daboll said.
