Daniel Jones, Giants give up early TD to Lions on turnover
After two strong starts to begin his NFL career, New York Giants rookie Daniel Jones has been struggling of late — to the point that head coach Pat Shurmur was asked this week whether Jones would be benched and Eli Maning would be reinserted as starting quarterback.
Shurmur shook his head on Monday and said no, Jones is “going to learn from everything that’s going on.”
And learning takes time, though it may not happen as quickly as Giants fans would like.
Midway through the first quarter of New York’s road trip to the Detroit Lions, Jones was pressured up the middle by linebacker Jarrad Davis, who sprinted untouched right into Jones’ face. As Davis was taking Jones down, Jones tried to lateral to running back Saquon Barkley to his right.
The ball went over Barkley’s head, and Barkley seemingly let the ball fall dead.
Except because the pass attempt was thrown backwards, it’s considered a fumble. Jones had three fumbles last week in a loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
Linebacker Devon Kennard smartly scooped it up and ran it in for a 13-yard touchdown, the first of his career. Detroit went up 7-0.
Less than five minutes later, Detroit’s offense scored.
Update: Jones recovered well from the fumble; he finished the first half completing 12-of-16 pass attempts for 138 yards and two touchdowns as the Giants went into halftime down 17-13 after getting in the early 14-0 hole.
Jones ended up finishing the game 28 of 41 for 322 yards and four touchdowns, but it didn’t stop the Giants from losing to the Lions 31-26.
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