The New York Giants didn’t play very well on their Thursday Night Football loss to the Patriots, and that’s not something that head coach Pat Shurmur can deny – once again, Shurmur was questioned about the team’s performance recently, and spoke openly to the press about not feeling good about the loss despite managing to stay somewhat competitive, something that most teams this season haven’t been able to do on offense with New England.
“No, no I don’t. I don’t. This is the second week you’ve asked me these questions. I don’t. We didn’t win. We didn’t make enough plays. That’s what this is about,” Shurmur said, speaking of finding solace in the fact that the matchup was competitive.
“We battled, we didn’t win, though. So, we’ve got to make more plays so we can win. But I was proud of the way we battled. I’ve never been disappointed with how hard our guys fight, but we got to find a way to make more plays than the other team and win the game,” continued Shurmur.
Of course, some of the loss falls on Daniel Jones – as it turns out, Jones can make or break the game for the Giants and this time, the opposing defense was able to get the better of the rookie more than any of the other three teams that Jones had faced earlier in the season were able to.
“To say that we’re happy not scoring points or moving the ball, or to say that I’m happy turning it over, I don’t think, isn’t accurate at all. I mean, I think we’re pushing to play better, and by no means are we panicked or are we at all looking or questioning ourselves. But, I think we know we’ve got to play better and I certainly know I’ve got to play better. So, we’re trying to do that,” Jones said about his performance.
He did, of course, have to play in the Patriots game without the team’s star running back and with two of his main receiving weapons out with injuries also, which makes the interceptions more forgivable. Not to mention the fact that the Patriots entered the game with the number one defense in the league.
What does Shurmur think about the interceptions?
“Yeah, we had a couple today, obviously you can’t do that. But he’s aggressive with the ball, and you know, we will get that cleaned up,” Shurmur said on the matter.
Going into the next week, we’ll see just how cleaned up the performance from Daniel Jones is – with the first weeks of his career past, plenty of pressure building up, and opposing teams having film to study, this may just be the make or break time for Jones’ rookie season in the league, as well as the time when real evaluation becomes possible.