Daniel Jones Comes of Age in 27-17 Win Over Eagles

It was only a matter of time before Daniel Jones's time to shine was coming.

Despite the growing concerns about his worthiness to be the Giants long-term answer at quarterback, Jones kept his head down, continued to chip away at those deficiencies he had in his game.

After showing increased signs of having finally turned the corner in his last four performances, he delivered the best game of his young career to snap an eight-game Eagles winning streak.

How good was it? Jones completed a career-best 75% of his pass attempts for 244 yards and no interceptions.

While he didn’t throw any touchdowns this week, he executed a couple of smart and pretty zone-read runs, one of which resulted in a 34-yard touchdown to get the Giants on the board in the first quarter.

He also guarded the ball with his life, making sure to keep two hands on it when Eagles defenders converged all around him or when he was about to be talked as a runner.

The result? A second turnover-free game and his first in which he didn’t put the ball on the ground at all.

“This guy is a young player who is developing, he’s learning a lot every week. You can see his improvement week to week,” said head coach Joe Judge.

“Sometimes there’s something you want to get off the tape, and he understands that, and we correct that in practice, working hard. But there’s a lot of games he’s played where maybe there’s a blemish that takes away from the 99% of the really good football he has played.

The biggest blemish has been the turnovers—13 of them this year and 36 in his career between interceptions and fumbles lost.

For weeks Jones would face the media after committing yet another gaffe, saying how he was working to clean things up only to go out the following week and turn the ball over again.

But again, things sometimes take time, and Jones, who kept at it, finally had something to show for all the work he’s put in behind the scenes to rid turnovers from his game.

“It’s something I’ve been focusing on,” Jones said. “It’s up to me to understand where to take risks and where not to. I think it certainly feels good not to turn the ball over—got to keep building on it.”

Jones, when asked about his rowing confidence, chose to speak about the team’s growing confidence instead.

“I think our confidence as a team is continuing to grow,” he said. “We were certainly frustrated through the first stretch of the season not to get the results we expected, but we didn’t let that discourage us.

“We didn’t let it affect our confidence week in and week out. We continue to improve, continue to work towards the next week, and I think that’s ultimately what has helped us do that, continue and grow, and the challenge is to keep doing that.”

Judge said that the improvement has come as no surprise to him given how he’s seen up close how hard Jones has worked at his craft, but he echoed Jones’ sentiment that the growth is not just limited to one person.

“I think Daniel is a guy who is continually growing in his profession, in his position. We have a lot of confidence in him,” Judge said.