Daniel Jones gets the last laugh with veteran-like NFL starting debut

Daniel Jones probably won’t hold a grudge against those who gave him a less-than-warm welcome when he landed in East Rutherford, but if he keeps on delivering inspiring performances as he did against the Bucs, he won’t ever have to worry about those Bronx cheers again.

The young man was simply amazing, completing 23 of 36 pass attempts for 336 yards and two touchdowns for 112.7 passer rating, his fifth (out of six) such game in which his rating went for triple digits.

For good measure, he even rushed for two touchdowns on four carries (for 28 yards), and took a beating behind an offensive line that allowed 11 quarterback hits and five sacks, each time jumping up like a jack-in-the-box as if to say to the Bucs defense, “Is that all you got?”

But if that’s not enough to impress you about this young man and how he conducted himself after being named to replace the legendary Eli Manning, with his team down 12-3, the clean-cut, soft-spoken Jones stunned his teammates when, after driving his offense to the Bucs’ 7-yard line, growled an order to his teammates

"He started screaming and cussing," said receiver Russell Shepard. "We were in the red zone, and he was like, ‘Let’s (bleeping) score.’”

Score they did, and it was Jones whose 7-yard touchdown run closed the scoring deficit from nine points to two.

“I just love to compete, and just play,” Jones said when asked where his confidence came from. “I thought we did a good job as a team preparing this week. We all felt comfortable and confident coming into the game with what we had prepared.”

Jones, who in the second half of the game would lead his team back from an 18-point deficit, didn't have it easy. Besides losing star running back Saquon Barkley to an ankle sprain, Jones was hit 11 times according to the official defensive stats and sacked five times and had two balls pop loose to give the Bucs new life.

While some players might curl up in a ball and call it a day given that kind of adversity, Jones kept his cool and fought back with the steel-like resolve of a silent assassin who simply wasn’t going to accept what fate had dished out to his team at that point.

No words describe how great a man and teammate Eli Manning is! I’m very happy for Daniel. I’m amazingly proud of WHO both of these men are! Eli you’re the complete definition of “CLASS”
— DAVID CUTCLIFFE (@DavidCutcliffe) September 23, 2019

“I thought I did a pretty good job first time out,” head coach Pat Shurmur said in his opening comments.

“I think as you go along, he'll continue to get better. There were mistakes--there were a couple of times when we took a couple of sacks, the fumbles and some of the loose stuff-- we can work on that. There are drills for that.

“But the stuff that he did in the game, there's not drills for that. So we believed in him from the day we drafted him. And first time out he didn't disappoint.”

One of the reasons why Shurmur turned to Jones was for his mobility. Besides finishing as the team leader in rushing yards with 28, Jones’ ability to move helped the offense extend plays.

“I think it's value-added,” Shurmur said of Jones ‘ mobility. “In a game, there's a lot of plays that are less than perfect. As you move around and you get outside the pocket, things sometimes start to clear up for big plays, and I think he moved a few times.

“Pass rushes are too good, and if they know you're throwing the ball, and you break contain and you've got a good set of legs on you, you know, then you have a chance to make a play.”

And help win games.

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