Admit it, you probably didn’t have Daniel Jones high on your fantasy draft board, if ranked at all. The performer theretofore known as Danny Dimes was anything but a standout during his mediocre and injury-filled career with the New York Football Giants and when he did play he wasn’t someone who was inclined to put up quality numbers in any given week. Let alone win.
But the gunslinger who many considered himself to have landed a backup job with the uncertain Indianapolis Colts that parlayed into a starting gig only after draft bust Anthony Richardson finally stayed healthy enough himself to demonstrate he was indeed not worthy of the role has, at least in the first two games of the 2025 season, turned his world completely around. In the wake of the Colts’ rout of the moribund Miami Dolphins in last week’s opener, the still somewhat creative Chris Berman pinned the nickname “Indiana” on him, one of the lower-hanging fruits of Boomer’s career. But Temple of Doom? Nope, completely the other way around. As the ASSOCIATED PRESS reported yesterday:
Jones had another efficient performance, avoiding any turnovers in his second Colts start. He was 23 of 34 for 316 yards, one TD pass and one TD run — his first 300-yard game since Sept. 17, 2023 for the New York Giants.
Added CBS SPORTS’ Cody Benjamin:
Jones was once again a revelation under center.
OK, maybe he’s not quite yet MVP caliber material. After all, he had a lot of help and a few breaks along the way to his second consecutive victory, as the ATHLETIC’s Adam Coleman noted:
The Colts win on a 45-yard field goal by Spencer Shrader after a very costly Broncos penalty. Denver’s Dondrea Tillman was called for a leverage penalty after Shrader missed the original 60-yard field goal, which would’ve given the Broncos the win as time expired. Instead, Shrader got a retry at 45 yards and didn’t waste his second chance.
And as even Benjamin was quick to add:
Jonathan Taylor was even better, cruising past the Broncos defense as the explosive heartbeat of the squad.
All of this added up to merely a 29-28 squeaker over a decent but not world-beating Denver Broncos squad in what was effectively the Equine Bowl. But if you’re a long-suffering and increasingly embarrassed Giants fan, you’ll gladly take this kind of start over what is going on with Jones’ former employers. As Coleman’s stablemate Jim Ayello reported:
Not only did the New York Giants just fall to the Dallas Cowboys in heartbreaking fashion, 40-37, and drop to 0-2 on the season, but they also allowed for some brutal streaks to continue. The Giants have now lost nine straight to the Cowboys as well as nine straight games in Dallas. They have also now lost 14 games in a row to Cowboys QB Dak Prescott. Finally, they’ve dropped eight consecutive NFC East contests.
Benjamin offered up both praise and blame for this ignominious result:
There were a lot of positives for the Giants in their Week 2 loss to the Cowboys. Russell Wilson bounced back with a huge performance. Malik Nabers was tremendous. They scored 37 points. But Daboll gets into the loser category for the way the Giants defense came out following Nabers’ last-minute touchdown in the fourth quarter. They were far too passive and gave Dallas easy yards to allow the Cowboys to get into Aubrey’s field goal range. Aubrey is not your normal field goal kicker, and the Giants should have known that and played a more aggressive approach on defense.
It should be noted that Aubrey’s kick was downright super-human; a 64-yard effort as regulation time expired. But the Cowboys also had three possessions in an overtime that extended into the tenth minute where they had possession for more than 70 per cent of it and 13 plays. That’s simply too many opportunities for even a team as inconsistent at this version of Dallas to have, and the G-Men paid the price for their laxity.
Sure, it’s only one-ninth of a season that’s eight-ninths complete as of this writing. Overreaction is far away the dominant reaction. But I’d sure rather be riding Daniel Jones’ horse than the nag he just alit.
Courage…