It was an embarrassing night for Daniel Jones.
It was a night that painfully summed up his career in that he was really good at times, but still not good enough.
Jones, the Giants' much-maligned quarterback, was not to blame for the Giants' 20-15 loss to the Cowboys on Thursday night at MetLife Stadium, dropping them to the basement of the NFC East with a 1-3 record. There wasn't.
However, he also wasn't good enough to lead his team to victory.
Jones was strong Thursday, completing 29-of-40 passes for 281 yards and a Hail Mary interception in garbage time. But the most egregious statistic next to his name on the scoresheet was a “0” under the “TD” category.
Jones and the Giants lost the game by kicking five field goals and no touchdowns.
Bill Parcells, the former great Giants head coach, famously said that quarterbacks are judged by how often they get their team in the zone and how well they lead their team to victory.
Jones helped the Giants control the tempo of the game (35:37 of possession time vs. Dallas' 24:23), made good decisions and moved the ball around, and deserved more credit on this night. It could have been better, but both failed. These Parcells benchmarks.
Still, after the game, current Giants head coach Brian Daboll, like Jones' teammates, went out of his way to praise his quarterback.
Jones looked like he would be benched for one more game after a terrible preliminary performance in the season-opening home loss to the Vikings, but he has played well in the last three games and has lost his job. All rumors regarding the matter were silenced.
“Three games in a row…I'm proud of him,” Daboll said. “He made good decisions and threw the ball where he needed to throw it. For three games, I thought he was locked in. He made good plays, saw the field and put the ball where it needed to be.” delivered.
“I'm proud of his performance and preparation.”
Still, there was more to Jones than that. Arguably the throw he most wanted to return in the game was an underthrow long ball to Darius Slayton on a free play when the Cowboys were offside. Dallas cornerback Trevon Diggs picked off the pass and undercut Slayton toward the ball.
The interception was negated by a penalty, but if that ball was thrown where it needed to be, the Giants could have scored a touchdown and possibly won the game.
“Oh, that down-the-field throw, [we’ve] I had to hit them,” Jones lamented after the game.
Daboll said, “I thought the quarterback played well. I want to complete everything…''
Jones' teammates took over his defense — most notably Wan'Dale Robinson. He dropped a pass from Jones into the left flat with a lot of open space between Jones and the end zone.
“He's a baller,” Robinson said of Jones. “Even when your back is against the wall, he always answers the doorbell. You couldn't ask for a better person or a better leader. There shouldn't be that drop in the red zone trying to get away. That's on me. I think it definitely should have been a touchdown. I just started running. [before securing the catch]”
Left tackle Andrew Thomas praised his quarterback, saying there were a lot of “bad” plays in the game.
“DJ's play was great,” Thomas said. “He stood in the pocket and made some unplanned plays. We've got to be better up front for him.”
Jones was never involved in a spiritual victory after that. When suggested that maybe the team is ahead of the Cowboys, who have won seven straight games and 14 of their last 15, Jones said: We don't feel good about losing. We didn't try hard enough to win and I'm disappointed. We are not disappointed. We still have confidence in our team and what we can do.
“But no, we don't feel good about losing.”
