Many people call Giants quarterback Daniel Jones’s 2021 season a make-or-break year, and yesterday epitomized what we have seen out of Jones in his short career.
We saw some decent moments from Jones, including a 37-yard touchdown pass to Sterling Shepard that gave the Giants an early 7-3 lead. However, in the third quarter, with New York trailing 17-7 and driving deep into Broncos’ territory, Jones fumbled after a 15-yard scramble, which Denver recovered.
After the fumble, the Broncos would add a field goal to take a commanding 20-7 lead.
“Yeah, turnovers are always going to hurt you at any point in the game, and they’re big plays,” the third-year quarterback said. “We’ve got to do a good job of taking care of the ball, and you’ve gotta do a good job. But we’ll keep moving forward and keep improving.”
Giants head coach Joe Judge added: “We’ve got to do a better job as a team eliminating the penalties and turnovers. That’s a team focus right there, so this isn’t about any one player. It’s about a team improving and, look; good teams improve week to week. As I talked to the team, that’s what our focus has to be, to be a better team in Week 2 and a better team in Week 3. It’s a long season. We literally have an entire season ahead of us, okay. Any other year, it was 16 games; we have 16 games ahead of us that we have to improve week by week and keep climbing and make sure we’re the best team we can be.”
This loss is not all on Jones. The Broncos were able to move the ball against the Giants effectively. Broncos quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was 28/36 for 264 yards with two touchdowns, and Melvin Gordon had 101 yards rushing, including a 70-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
Denver converted 10 of 18 third and fourth-down opportunities, and according to Giants safety Logan Ryan, the defense did not play well on Sunday.
“It wasn’t our standard,” Ryan said. “We were terrible early last year in a similar way on third and fourth downs. We have to be better.”
Disappointing game for the Jones and the Giants’ defense, but fortunately for them, they get back at it on Thursday night in D.C against the Washington Football Team.
