Winning is a habit. We know this because coaches tell us as often as possible that winning is a habit. We know this because players tell us just as regularly that winning is a habit, a reflection of culture and mindset and execution and resolve.
As a result, watching winning becomes a habit, too.
That’s what was so jarring about the Giants’ 31-18 loss to the Lions Sunday at MetLife Stadium in front of 76,267 wind-blown customers. The Lions are feisty enough, and were playing well coming in, so this wasn’t exactly the upset of the year. And even the most pie-eyed optimists probably weren’t expecting the Giants to run the table all the way to Glendale, Ariz., on the second Sunday of February.
Still, this was a game that belied everything we’ve seen with the Giants this year. The Lions’ run defense, No. 32 out of 32 coming in, smothered Saquon Barkley. The Giants’ defense, forced on their heels much of the day, didn’t have any answers for Detroit quarterback Jared Goff and even fewer solutions for running back Jamaal Williams.
“Nothing,” coach Brian Daboll lamented later, “was up to standard.”
Atop that list, for maybe the first time all season, was the Giants’ quarterback. A week after playing a virtually perfect game, reflected by a QB rating of 153.3 (out of a max 158.3), Daniel Jones did amass 341 passing yards and 50 more running the ball. But he also threw two awful interceptions — the first picks he’s allowed since Week 3.
Daniel Jones and the Giants lost to the Lions on Sunday.Robert SaboAnd a basic truth about the Giants is this: if Jones is forced to throw the ball 44 times — and the Lions made that so because of how effectively they bottled up the Giants’ running game — it’s almost certainly going to be a long day for the lads in blue. And so it was. Coupled with an untimely fumble by Isaiah Hodgins later on, those turnovers led to 14 Lions points.
In other words: ballgame.
“When you have three turnovers and the other guys have zero,” Daboll said, “you’re probably gonna lose every game.”
Jones had enjoyed a highly successful season through the first nine games because he had been one of the NFL’s most highly efficient quarterbacks. In addition to his dual-threat ability he’s also been far more careful with the ball than he’d been across the first three years of his career.
He was sitting at 153 straight pass attempts without a pick — the best streak in the NFL — when he dropped back to pass with 6 minutes and 19 seconds left in the second quarter, the Giants protecting a 6-3 lead, second-and-8 from his own 31-yard line.
What Jones saw was Darius Slayton break into an open patch across the middle of the field.
Daniel Jones runs the ball against the Lions.Noah K. MurrayWhat he didn’t see was Detroit’s terrific rookie defensive end, Aidan Hutchinson, drop back into coverage. Hutchinson — whose goal-line interception of Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers two weeks ago helped propel the Lions’ now-three-game winning streak — plucked the pass out of the sky. Three plays later the Lions had a 10-6 lead. They never looked back.
“I didn’t see him there,” Jones admitted. “That’s a bad decision there and a good play by him. You can’t afford to do that.”
Later, on the Giants’ first possession of the second half, after the Lions had scored to make it a 24-6 game, Jones was leading the Giants on a promising drive before he overthrew Lawrence Cager on fourth-and-5 and the ball found Detroit’s Kerby Joseph instead. Joseph returned the ball 38 yards and while the Lions didn’t score, it seemed to solidify in the mind of everyone inside the stadium that this wasn’t the Giants’ day.
Or Jones’.
“Credit to Detroit,” Jones said. “They had a good plan and stopped us in some areas where we’ve had some success. We have to look at ourselves and see where we can execute better.”
This wasn’t a regression to old form as much as it was a recession from the high level at which Jones has played, a level to which the Giants have come to expect. There were questions all week if the Giants could survive a shootout if they had to, and this time around they could not. They can expect another short week filled with similar queries before their Thanksgiving Day date with the Cowboys.
“Nothing looked good enough today,” Daboll said.
“I think we’re all already anxious to get this taste out of our mouths, and play a much better football game,” Jones said.
They’ll get their chance. Three skinny days from now.
