The Giants were pilloried for picking Daniel Jones. Guess what happened next...
Daniel Jones had a lot of doubters to prove wrong. When the New York Giants selected the Duke quarterback to be Eli Manning’s heir apparent with the sixth pick in this year’s draft, experts – actually pretty much everyone – accused them of reaching for someone who was not seen as a future NFL star during his college career. Even with Manning in decline, it was a controversial decision when the Giants decided to make Jones the starter after two games – and two losses – this season. Jones, to put it mildly, failed to give his critics any ammunition on Sunday.
It didn’t look like that was going to be the case early on against Jameis Winston and the Buccaneers on Sunday, as Tampa Bay took a 28-10 half-time lead over the Giants, scoring on every single possession. Jones looked like a rookie as an early fumble led to a Tampa Bay touchdown. Worse yet: 2018’s Offensive Rookie of the Year Saquon Barkley went down with what was later diagnosed as a high ankle sprain, and ESPN reports that he could be out for as long as eight weeks. The only highlight for the Giants in the firsthalf was Jones rushing for his first NFL touchdown, showing off an entirely different skill set than the notoriously immobile Manning.
But something clicked for Jones during half-time, as he threw for two touchdowns, cutting the Tampa Bay lead to three points. The Giants defense also woke up as they held the Buccaneers to a single field goal, which eventually set up the game-deciding moment. In a fourth-down situation, with 1:16 left in the game and the Giants needing a touchdown to win, Jones scrambled for a seven-yard touchdown that gave them a slim 32-31 lead.
And yet the perfect ending for the Giants – and Jones – almost didn’t happen. The Buccaneers had a chance to win the game in the closing seconds, but kicker Matt Gay missed a 34-yard field goal as time expired. It was a heartbreaker of a loss for the Buccaneers, who fell to 1-2, and a muchneeded lift for the Giants who were facing an uncertain future without Manning, who had been the team’s starter since 2004 and won two Super Bowls with New York.
Sure, the Giants needed luck to pull off the win, but even if the Buccaneers had won the game (as they really should have) it still would have been a moral victory. Jones wasn’t perfect – he lost the ball twice during the game – but his balanced approach to the game showed exactly why the Giants defied conventional wisdom by using their first-round pick on him (there’s still validity in the argument that the Giants, who had two first-round picks this year, could have waited for Jones to fall to them at No17 and picked a defensive player at No6). Jones went 23for-36 and threw for 336 yards in the game to go along with his two passing and two rushing touchdowns. In the process, he neatly sidestepped comparisons to the Giants legend he had abruptly replaced by revealing himself as an altogether different playmaker. We can’t get ahead of ourselves about what this may mean for Jones’s future with the team, it was only one game after all. But it was some game.
MVP of the week
Kyle Allen, QB, Carolina Panthers. Kyle Allen’s first half? He only went 13for-16, picked up 173 yards and threw for two touchdowns without a pick. Allen’s second-half wasn’t that bad either, as he added an additional two touchdowns and padded his stats to 261 yards on the day. Allen, who went undrafted in 2018, was in for Cam Newton, who is dealing with a foot sprain. Allen, alongside Jones, is one of the young quarterbacks who have taken the place of an injured or otherwise ineffective starter this week and he may have impressed more than anybody during the 38-20 win over the Arizona Cardinals.
Quote of the week
“We sit at 0-3, living a world of suck” – Denver Broncos receiver Emmanuel Sanders on his team’s performance.
Sanders wasn’t misquoting Full Metal Jacket’s Pvt Pyle, he was instead correctly describing his team’s misery-filled existence. With Sunday’s 27-16 loss to the Green Bay Packers, the Broncos have gone seven regular-season games without a win. Their offense hasn’t scored more than 20 points in that streak and their defense hasn’t finagled a single sack this season.
Video of the week
Kansas City Chiefs’ wide receiver Mecole Hardman went off for 83 yards in this touchdown reception against the Baltimore Ravens. He wasn’t even the most impressive offensive player of the game, as Ravens running back Mark Ingram had three rushing touchdowns and the ever superb Patrick Mahomes threw for three of his own as he led the Chiefs to a 33-28 victory.
Stat of the week
Two. That’s the number of defensive touchdowns that the New York Jets have scored this season, which doesn’t sound like a bad stat considering it is only Week 3. But it’s twice as many offensive touchdowns as they have managed. The Jets have some excuses, as starter Sam Darnold is infamously “out indefinitely with mononucleosis” and his backup Trevor Siemian is done for the season. The Patriots beat the Jets 30-14, and New England could have scored many more.
“Obviously, we were atrocious,” Jets head coach Adam Gase said after the game, “we’ve got a lot to fix going into the bye.” He wasn’t quite as eloquent as Sanders, but the point was made just the same.
Elsewhere around the league
-- This is the season that the Cleveland Browns, packed with No1 draft picks and high-profile stars such as Odell Beckham Jr, are supposed to make the leap to a playoff team. So far their only victory has come against a bad team, the Jets. On Sunday they lost to the LA Rams, 20-13. That’s no disgrace – the Rams are 3-0 this season, reached the Super Bowl in February and have one of the best defenses in the league. And yet the offense – led by Baker Mayfield and Beckham – aren’t clicking as some expected. Mayfield in particular has been a concern and has five interceptions to three touchdowns after three games. The Browns still have plenty of time to turn things around but their next four games are against very tough teams – the Ravens, 49ers, Seahawks and Patriots. We’ll have a better idea of who the Browns really are once those games have been played.
-- The Atlanta Falcons lost starting free safety Keanu Neal to an achilles injury. It’s another brutal piece of misfortune for Neal, who suffered a season-ending ACL tear last year. The Falcon, meanwhile ,nearly pulled off an impressive comeback over the Colts in the game’s final minutes, but Indianapolis were able to hold onto the ball and secure the victory, 27-24.
-- It was an impressive finish in San Francisco. The 49ers were down 20-17 to the Pittsburgh Steelers with just two minutes remaining. With time running down, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo connected with Dante Pettis for the game-winning touchdown in what ended up being a 24-20 victory. The 49ers remain perfect while the Steelers, still reeling after Ben Roethlisberger’s season-ending injury, are still winless.
-- The Detroit Lions upset the Philadelphia Eagles 27-24, thanks, in part, to Jamal Agnew’s 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and improved their record to 2-0-1. The Eagles managed to block a Matt Prater field goal to give them a shot at pulling off a last-minute win, but Detroit were able to prevent Philadelphia from capitalizing.
-- The Dallas Cowboys dismantled Miami for a 31-6 victory, dropping the Dolphins’ record to 0-3. It most situations this would be a disastrous beginning to the season but since Miami are in the midst of one of the most blatant tank jobs in the history of the NFL, it means that they’re one step closer to winning their own personal Super Bowl (aka snagging the top pick in next year’s draft).