Giants "Throw Away" Chance of Upset Against Bucs in 25-23 Loss

The Giants literally threw away a chance to upset Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football. But don't expect them to throw away the quarterback responsible for that.

The Giants had the Tampa Bay Buccaneers right where they wanted them.

That is until they literally threw the opportunity away.

Quarterback Daniel Jones, who came into this week’s game with a growing reputation as a turnover machine, continued to shoot himself in the foot from his gunslinging ways.

This week, Jones, who has now turned the ball over in 20 of his 21 starts as a New York Giant, threw two back-breaking interceptions, both while under pressure, one by Carlton Davis and the other to Sean Murphy-Bunting.

Both interceptions were converted by Bucs quarterback Tom Brady and the offense into 10 points, which not only helped them overtake the Giants for the lead in the game but get out just enough in front to hold on to the win.  

The Giants have now gifted opponents to the tune of 48 points off their miscues, most of those coming at Jones’ hand and which has become an on-going problem that doesn’t seem to want to go away despite the coaches trying to convince the second-year quarterback to that it’s okay to throw the ball away if nothing’s there. 

Despite his struggles with turnovers, don't expect the Giants to throw away Jones to the side or even out the door by the end of the year.

"Daniel's our quarterback," Giants head coach Joe Judge said when asked if he felt the need to do something about Jones' turnovers. 

"What we have to do is keep making sure we improve everything around him, and that we coach every player the same way."

Judge said he preached patience to Jones after both interceptions. "I told Daniel both times the play happened, 'Be patient with it, stay committed to it. We're going to need you to make plays.' 

"And obviously, on that final drive, he made a lot of big plays for us, so we have to keep moving on. Things happen in games. We all have to hold ourselves accountable."

Judge's devotion to Jones is very similar to Tom Coughlin's devotion to a young Eli Manning who threw 64 interceptions in his first four seasons in the league before winning the Super Bowl in 2007. 

Over the next 12 seasons, Manning would only throw for more than 20 interceptions twice, in 2010 (27) and 2013 (25).

Judge is apparently willing to exercise the same patience with Jones, who is still trying to figure things out and who at times (such as on the Giants final drive when he led the team down the field by converting two fourth-down pass plays) looks like he's more than capable of playing with the big boys in this league.