The New York Giants lost in a big way to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, October 20, with a 28-3 final score. After the game, Giants players and coaches expressed their frustration over the loss, including franchise quarterback Daniel Jones.
Jones was benched in the fourth quarter of the game, when the Giants were 28-3 and the offense just wasn’t jelling. Jones went 14 of 21 for 99 yards before he left the field and was replaced by backup quarterback Drew Lock.
Daniel Jones Talks Getting Benched
In a postgame interview in the locker room, Jones was asked if it was frustrating getting benched.
“Yeah, it was frustrating,” Jones said. “You want to be out there playing with your teammates and fighting to score points and move the ball. So, yeah, I was frustrated.”
Then, Jones had a four-word comment about being taken out of the game: “But, not my decision.”
Jones then reiterated that it was “frustrating, for sure. You want to be out there playing.”
Head coach Brian Daboll was the one who made the decision to take Jones out. During the interview, Jones was also asked if he talked much with Daboll about what was going to happen before the coach pulled him out. Jones answered that he and Daboll didn’t have “much of a conversation” and that Daboll implied he was “looking for a spark.”
“As the quarterback, I think it’s my responsibility to get everything going and build rhythm, build momentum, execute the opportunities that are there, and I take that seriously,” Jones said. “I’ll certainly look at myself first and see where I can improve. Football is a team game, and it takes everyone playing well. But I have a big role in that. (I) take that very seriously.”
As for Daboll, after the game, he said that the Jones benching didn’t mean Jones wasn’t going to be the Giants’ starting quarterback anymore.
“Daniel will be the quarterback going forward,” Daboll told reporters. “But, obviously, we didn’t do enough offensively. Hardly had any yards. No points.”
Elaborating on the benching, Daboll said, “Again, I made that change when it was 28-3, 11 minutes left in the fourth to try and create some type of spark. Obviously, it wasn’t going great. That’s not all on Daniel, trust me.”
In the end, the Giants only had a field goal for the game, and Philadelphia had more than 300 yards of offense.
The Giants signed Jones to a four-year, $160 million deal before the 2023 season.
Giants Head Coach Brian Daboll Says ‘Our Guys Will Come Back’
In the same postgame interview, Daboll was asked if he was concerned the loss to the Eagles would be demoralizing to players.
“No one was happy about the result. I think we have a strong group,” he said. “You need to have a strong group in this league. There’s a lot of ups and downs. Unfortunately, we’ve had more downs. But, our guys will come back. We’ll regroup and we’ll do everything we possibly can do, like we do each week, to be at our best on Monday night.”
He added, “We have some guys around that I think can create explosive plays. We’ll just go back to the drawing board and do the very best we can to try to improve that area…we haven’t created them and we need to.”
