6 things we learned from the Giants’ 20-17 win over/loss to the Panthers

The time has come for a change at quarterback

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost

When you come to a fork in the road...take it.
- Yogi Berra

(Es tut mir leid, ich konnte nicht widerstehen.)

Somehow, Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers in Munich felt like it would be the setting for a final decision on Daniel Jones’ career as a New York Giant. Many would say that the decision was already obvious, yet Jones has continued as the Giants’ starting quarterback, despite a season alternating between terrible performances (Minnesota, Cincinnati, Philadelphia) and outings in which he played well but never could light up the scoreboard (both Washington games, Dallas), with only the surprising victory in Seattle looking anything like what one would expect of a QB with a 4 year, $160M contract.

Facing the NFL’s worst defense, with a bye next week and a $23M 2025 injury guarantee looming, today might well have been Jones’ closing argument. Would he be on the road to oblivion that so many failed first-round QBs have walked, or would he take a step down the road to success against a vulnerable defense and live to start another game? What did we learn from the Giants’ 20-17 loss to the Panthers?

The Daniel Jones era is almost surely over

Jones could not have played a worse game today. All of his weaknesses were on full display:

• Inaccuracy: On the Giants’ first drive, Jones had Malik Nabers wide open on an out pattern on third down, and he threw the ball so far over Nabers’ head that it looked like he was throwing it away. More often, though, this shows up as passes slightly behind receivers (as on the ball to Tyrone Tracy inside the 10 late in regulation that wound up being intercepted) and thrown short of receivers at their feet.
• Failure to see the field: This shows up even on completed passes, where Jones almost invariably chooses the short option and doesn’t see open receivers downfield. In the second quarter, getting the ball at the 40, Jones threw the ball away when Theo Johnson was open downfield (according to Kurt Warner). Late in the game, on the intercepted pass to Tracy, Nabers had man coverage on a slant near the goal line and it seems that Jones never looked at him.
• Anticipation: I hesitate to use this as an example because it wasn’t all Jones’ fault, but the disastrous flea flicker play in the second quarter illustrates this. It was a strange play call on third-and-1, and the execution all-around was terrible - Jermaine Eluemunor let D.J. Wonnum get past him to pressure Jones, and the toss back to Jones was not accurate as he had to reach down and to his left and reset his passing stance, but there was a brief window in which Wan’Dale Robinson was...