Daniel Jones has to secure the football
New York Giants’ second-year quarterback Daniel Jones isn’t having the sophomore season that many hoped he would in 2020.
Jones finished the 2019 season with 3,027 yards, 24 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and a quarterback rating of 87.7 to go along with 279 rushing yards. The one stat that stuck out to everyone was the six fumbles, in which he lost three of them.
So heading into 2020, it was obvious that the issue he had to overcome was fumbling the football. Unfortunately, Jones fumbled against the Dallas Cowboys in week five, which turned into a touchdown for Dallas.
Looking at the play, it’s obvious that Jones should have felt the backside pressure, which should have prompted him to tuck the ball in and secure it. Instead he kept rolling to his right and was hit from behind, which in turn caused him to fumble the ball.
With Jones now being known as a player that fumbles easily, defenders will continue to salavate at the mouth knowing that if they can get to him, prying the ball loose won’t be a problem.
Now one thing that hasn’t helped Jones is his offensive line.
Looking at last week’s game, Jones was rolling out way too much, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that he can’t hold onto the ball..
Giants’ quarterbacks coach Jerry Schuplinski talked about Jones’ turnovers this week and he agreed with my assessment on Jones needing to covering the ball up.
“That was the perfect storm,” Schuplinksi said, via SNY. “They had a really good call on, we didn’t handle it very good, and then we certainly compounded the mistake by putting the ball on the ground. On some of those plays when they get you, I think it’s our responsibility to understand when you’re got, and just kind of say ‘it’s over’. Try to cover it up as best we can and go down. No one wants to take a negative gain or a sack, or anything like that.
“When they get you in a compromising position, I think it’s time, we gotta work on covering up and going down in that case. The hard part with that is Daniel has made some really good plays with his feet, and gotten away from some of those things. So it’s the judgement of when is it really done. Regardless, we gotta put two hands on it and take better care of that.”
It’s really a simple fix that Jones can make. He will have his hands full this week against Washington and he will once again be tested by a very good pass rush.
