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I’ve been told you’re not supposed to overreact after one game in the NFL — particularly if that one game happens to be the season opener.
So, in that spirit of remaining levelheaded, I’m not going to overreact after the Giants desultory 28-6 loss to the Vikings in their home and season opener at MetLife Stadium and demand that the Giants bench quarterback Daniel Jones.
After a day of embarrassment with the franchise honoring its top 100 players of all time in a lavish halftime ceremony celebrating its 100-year anniversary.
After a day when Jones looked unsettled and unprepared while failing to get his team into the end zone despite having three drives stall in the red zone and producing only three points.
On a day when Jones completed 22 of 42 passes for 186 empty yards with two INTs and a paltry passer rating of 44.3.
On a day when Jones’ quarterbacking counterpart, Sam Darnold, playing on his fourth team in five years, looked like a Pro Bowler as he completed 19 of 24 for 208 yards and two TDs with a passer rating of 113.2.
The contrast in quarterback play in this game was an indictment of the losing quarterback, Jones, who’s in the third year of head coach Brian Daboll’s system, and on Sunday looked like it was his first game in it.
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Despite all of this damning evidence for a change at quarterback after only one game for the Giants, no, Jones should not be benched right now.
He should, however, be benched next week if he delivers a similarly putrid performance against the Commanders.
One game — good or bad — is not enough of a sample size. You can make the argument that neither is two games.
But if the Giants offense looks as lifeless and listless as it did against the Vikings when it goes against the Commanders, Daboll may be forced to give No. 2 Drew Lock a go — provided Lock is healthy enough to play after dealing with an oblique injury early in training camp.
The Giants cannot win games with the kind of quarterback play they got from Jones on Sunday.
By the time the Vikings took a 14-3 lead with a soul-crushing 99-yard drive, on which Darnold completed all seven of his passes for 94 yards, Darnold was 10 of 10 for 136 yards for the game while Jones was 6 of 10 for 40 yards.
By the time the Vikings took a 21-3 lead, scoring on their opening possession of the second half, Darnold was 15 of 17 for 181 yards with two TDs and a passer rating of 150.2 while Jones was 8 of 16 for 55 yards and a rating of 58.1
The quarterbacks were the difference in this game. Darnold was exponentially better than Jones, and that was a terrible look for the Giants quarterback.
Darnold engineered a 99-yard scoring drive, highlighted by a 44-yard dime to his star receiver, Justin Jefferson. Jones threw a point-blank, 10-yard pick-six into the arms of Vikings linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel, who put the game away before the fourth quarter began.
While Darnold was as accurate as Joe Montana, Jones was throwing routine short passes across the middle into the dirt, his receivers having no chance to catch them.
“Obviously not good enough,’’ Jones said.
When I asked Jones what “bothered’’ him most about his performance, he said, “The fact that we scored six points, didn’t execute in the red zone, didn’t consistently execute and move the ball. All those things. I need to play better.’’
Giants fans, understandably antsy, began booing Jones and the offense early in the game as they stalled, and those boos grew louder as the game progressed, climaxing to utter disgust after the pick-six.
“It’s our job to give them something to cheer about and to play well, to execute,’’ Jones said.
Jones said it’s important for his team “to understand this is the first week and there’s a lot of football to play.’’
Not for Jones if this keeps up.
Daboll was asked, on the last question of his postgame press conference, if he might “consider’’ a quarterback change as he reviews this game.
“We’re going to watch everything,’’ he said. “That’s not in my mind.’’
It may enter his mind a week from now if Jones is who he was on Sunday.
In fairness to Jones, he had five passes dropped by his receivers. But those drops weren’t the difference in the game. After a preseason that emphasized a more aggressive, down-the-field passing approach, Jones didn’t throw a pass of more than 20 yards in the air all game.
Was that Daboll’s play-calling or was it Jones not seeing the field well enough to pull the trigger? It looked like more of the latter.
“A lot to fix,’’ Daboll said.
Beginning with the play of his quarterback.
