New York Giants head coach Pat Shurmur addresses the team’s sloppy play from their Week 2 preseason victory on Friday night.
Big Blue put on a good showing Friday night, as they ultimately defeated the Chicago Bears 32-13 in the second preseason game. The matchup saw New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning finish 4-for-4 with 42 yards and a score, along with rookie Daniel Jones completing 11 of his 14 passes for 161 yards and a touchdown.
Despite the victory, there was some sloppy play from the Giants. Quarterback Alex Tanney threw a pick and Jones lost two fumbles. Head coach Pat Shurmur ultimately addressed this sloppy play in a conference call on Saturday.
“We did a lot of things well. We improved a lot of the things that were a focal point last week, but some things popped up that we need to correct,” Shurmur said, per Mollie Walker of the New York Post. “I thought we were loose with the football. We dropped a punt, we had a chance at an interception which we didn’t get, we did cause a couple of fumbles, which was good, but on the flip side, Daniel Jones had two fumbles, Rod Smith had one, we had three drops and then Eli [Manning] had a little exchange problem.
“That was not up to our standards. Those are all correctable, every one of those, and those are the things that we will continue to focus on as we go through camp. It’s all about the ball, and we need to go a better job at securing it.”
Shurmur said it best. These are fixable issues prior to their Week 1 regular-season game in Dallas.
The two lost fumbles from Jones don’t fall squarely on the rookie’s shoulders. The first one came on poorly snapped ball from Jon Halapio under center. Jones didn’t take many snaps under center in college, so that’s something he’ll have to improve on moving forward.
The second fumble from Jones came due to a mishap from the right side of the offensive line. Bears edge rusher James Vaughters had a wide-open lane to the quarterback. Nonetheless, Jones needs to learn how to sense that type of pressure and protect the football.
