Rusty Jones Returns Winning Streak Ends 

 

By Andrew Rosario

 

When the New York Football Giants hosted the Arizona Cardinals at MetLife Stadium last Sunday, they were riding high having won their previous 4 games catapulting them into first place of the NFC East. On the flipside, Arizona had been struggling having lost their last three games. The Giants welcomed back quarterback Daniel Jones who had to sit the previous game against Seattle with a right hamstring strain. Back-up quarterback Colt McCoy guided them to the win as the running game was dominant and the defense had Hawks quarterback Russell Wilson on the run all afternoon. After a convincing week of practice, first year head coach Joe Judge decided to start Jones hoping the winning streak would reach five staying one game ahead of the Washington Football team. Neither would happen as Jones and the offense struggled all day. The defense, which was stellar against Seattle, was on the field way to long and could not come up with big stops when needed. The end result was a 26-7 loss which dropped them into second place 1 game behind Washington with 3 games left in the regular season.    

 

Jones rust showed right from the start. New York would get the ball to start the game and it didn’t take long for Jones to add another turnover to his resume. At midfield, Jones drops back looking downfield when ex-Giants Markus Golden comes off the left side slamming Jones forcing the fumble. Golden recovers the fumble and races down the right sideline before being tackled on the Giants 8-yard line. Said Jones, “I’ve got to do a better job getting the ball out of my hand and finding the open guy.” 

 

The defense picked up where they left off the week before. The Cardinals had the ball on the 2-yard line and decided to try and get a touchdown instead of kicking a field goal. Quarterback Kyler Murray rolled right and his pass to KeeSean Johnson is broken up by cornerback James Bradbury. Three plays later, the Giants punt and Arizona puts the first points on the board courtesy of a Mike Nugent 34-yard field goal. Two more New York punts led to another Nugent field goal (37 yards) before another Giants turnover. 

 

 

New York gets Arizona to punt only to see Dion Lewis fumble after getting hit by Kylie Fitts. Trent Sherfield recovers at the Giants 21 and plays later, Arizona extends the lead to 13-0 after Murray (24-35, 244 yards, 1 td) finds tight end Don Arnold for a 7-yard touchdown pass. Said Judge of the early miscues, “there’s things we did today, turnovers and penalties, we have to take those off the map. You can’t have success when you do those things.”

 

And you can’t have success when you fail to get into the end zone. As well as the offensive line played in Seattle, they did a total 180 against Arizona. By games end, New York only gained a total of 159 yards. After running amok against Seattle (190 yards) they gained only 78 yards against the Cardinals. Before being benched for McCoy, Jones completed 11 passes on 21 attempts for only 127 yards. Jones was sacked 6 times. Down 20-0, the Giants attempted a comeback as Jones drives them down 75 yards in 7 plays when Lewis runs it in from 1-yard out. The next 3 times New York had the ball resulted in punts. 

 

“It’s extremely disappointing for all of us,” said Jones. “I think to play like that, and not execute throughout the whole game, not move the ball well on offense, was certainly disappointing for all of us. We had a good week of practice and felt like we were prepared, but it’s about what you do on Sundays and we didn’t get it done, so I’m certainly disappointed for all of us.”