49ers Defense Mocked Giants QB Daniel Jones After Loss
Talk about kicking someone when they're down.
Members of the San Francisco 49ers defense, some naturally hiding under the protective veil of anonymity, took some verbal shots at New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones after the 49ers thrashed the Giants 30-12 on Thursday Night Football, holding Jones and the Giants to just 121 net yards passing.
Mike Silver of the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the 49ers defense was looking forward to Jones and the Giants airing it out in the passing game so that they'd have chances for interceptions and strip sacks.
But instead of an all-out aerial attack, Jones and the Giants gave the 49ers a more passive passing approach consisting of dinks and dunks, which drew mockery from the 49ers.
“The dude did not want to throw the ball,” an unnamed 49ers defender told Silver after the game. “Early on, you could tell it wasn’t gonna happen. Everything was a check-down. At that point, we knew what time it was.”
Jones was playing behind a third version of the Giants offensive line, which has been dealing with injuries to left tackle Andrew Thomas (ankle) and left guard Ben Bredeson (concussion) and whose starting right tackle, Evan Neal, has struggled.
In their attempt to stave off the 49ers pass rush, the Giants deployed several max protect blocking schemes in which they kept a tight end to help with the pass blocking. However, according to Pro Football Focus, Jones was under pressure on 44.1 percent of his dropbacks despite only being blitzed 32.4 percent of the time.
And on those dropbacks in which he was under pressure, Jones was 8 of 13 for 66 yards.
Jones, who has never been one to point fingers, win or lose, took his share of responsibility for the Giants' loss after the game.
"Not good enough. Not good enough," he said when asked how he would assess his play in the loss.
Jones was especially upset with himself for sailing two balls over the intended receiver's head, which might have altered things if caught.
"I think there were plays across the board that I would like to have back, and those are definitely two of them,” he said.
Instead of taking the win from the battle of the trenches, the 49ers went all out on their verbal attack against the Giants' $40-million-per-year man.
“A lot of people who make all that money don’t even deserve it," linebacker Dre Greenlaw told Silver. "I think they took a chance (when they paid him). I mean, he’s not bad. And if you ain’t got nothing better …”
Several other members of the 49ers defense were incredulous over the fact that Jones's average per year salary is $6 million more than what the new deal pays 49ers star pass rusher Joey Bosa.
“Yeah, $40 million a year is a lot of money,” said cornerback Charvarius Ward, while other members of the 49ers defense, choosing the safety of anonymity, described Jones's annual compensation as “unbelievable,” “ridiculous,” and "a travesty.”
For the 49ers, some of whom sounded like they were personally paying Jones's salary, the real travesty is that some of them forgot how to be gracious winners.
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