Giants’ Daniel Jones Threw Two Absolutely Maddening Interceptions vs. Buccaneers

In Tuesday’s Hot Clicks: the frustrating experience of rooting for Daniel Jones, Steve Levy’s Freudian slip and more.

He makes you want to pull your hair out

On a day when everyone’s nerves are fried, perhaps it will be therapeutic for me to vent about my favorite football team for a while. 

It felt good on Monday night to get stressed out about something familiar: a tightly contested Giants game. It was easily their best all-around performance of the season (a low bar for a 1–7 team) and watching them attempt to come back in the final minutes was an infinitely more enjoyable experience than seeing a two-score lead evaporate in the fourth against the Eagles last time out. 

There was another all-too-familiar feeling, though: the frustration of watching Daniel Jones throw mind-boggling interceptions. Jones was picked off twice in the game, both times in the second half while the Giants were trying to protect a lead and both times on plays where he absolutely should have just thrown the ball away or taken a sack. 

.@Carlton_Lowkey records his fourth interception of the season, tying for the NFL lead 🙌

📲: https://t.co/cvKtEGP3p1 pic.twitter.com/16gzosOxuB

— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) November 3, 2020

Caption this:

(via @NFL) pic.twitter.com/ashLFv8QEM

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) November 3, 2020

Jones’s turnover issues are well documented. He’s now thrown 21 interceptions and lost 15 fumbles in 20 career starts. He’s had only one game in which he has not turned the ball over. 

But even by Jones’s standards those are two brutal picks. On the first one, he stared down Sterling Shepard for an eternity before making an off-balance throw directly to a defender. On the second, he threw into double coverage while he had two defenders hanging off of him. Just horrible decision-making. 

Those were just the ones that actually got picked off. There were other close calls, too. 

What makes the experience of rooting for Daniel Jones even more frustrating is how he’ll show flashes of brilliance, like on the final possession of the game. Operating with about three and a half minutes on the clock and no timeouts, Jones led a 13-play touchdown drive that saw him twice convert on fourth down. (The Giants failed to force overtime when a two-point conversion attempt failed on a controversial pass interference no-call.)

Jones used his athleticism on the first fourth down to keep the play alive and find Darius Slayton. 

On the other fourth down, Jones showed great patience to move outside the pocket and find Shepard wide open in the middle of the field. 

And then there was the touchdown pass to Golden Tate. It was a strike, placed where only his receiver could get his hands on it, timed perfectly to allow Tate to get two feet down. 

My approach to pulling for Daniel Jones is a lot like how I think about my golf game. I stink at golf but every time I hit a few good shots in a row, I can’t help but start to think, “You know, if I just cut out all the bad shots, I could be pretty good at this.” If Daniel Jones just stops making bad decisions and makes only good ones, maybe the Giants won’t want to draft Trevor Lawrence.

It’s not that simple, of course. It’s a particular type of Stockholm syndrome that all sports fans are familiar with to see the potential of a player you root for and become convinced he’s capable of putting it all together. Against all evidence, I still hope that things will get better. 

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Steve Levy twice referred to Tom Brady’s team as “New England”

(Click here if you can’t see the second video.)

The New York papers showed Jones no mercy

This never gets old

Pass interference or no?

Not enough give in that glass

(Here are the pictures from the photographer serendipitously positioned right by the broken glass.)

It’s not the Niners’ year

Two games sounds about right

MLB always captures the pulse of the fans

Very mixed feelings about this

Jon Lester ended up buying almost 5,000 beers for people in Chicago

Thanks for coming out this weekend y’all! Yesterday we added 1,372 ⁦@MillerLites⁩ to my tab, bringing our grand total to 4,838. Shout out to all the bars, their staff, and those cheers-ing from afar! Whether this is goodbye or see you next year, I love you Chicago! #JonsTab pic.twitter.com/OTEIO2gOjc

— Jon Lester (@JLester34) November 2, 2020

The throwback court isn’t common enough

Augusta’s famously cheap food will cost you $150 this year

For $150, Augusta National will send you a "Taste of the Masters" catering package.

This offer is available to patrons who had tickets for the 2020 Masters. pic.twitter.com/IeDP23X7kp

— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) November 2, 2020

Not sports

A Dutch train that derailed was saved from plummeting 30 feet by a statue of a whale’s tale. ... An algorithm created by MIT researchers claims to be able to tell whether a person has COVID-19 by analyzing their coughs. ... A Russian oligarch known as the “Sausage King” was killed in a sauna with a crossbow. ... A government official in Milwaukee apologized after using the Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion song “WAP” to promote an energy efficiency effort called the Weatherization Assistance Program. 

You don’t have to speak a word of Spanish to understand what’s happening here

El nivel de producción me parece excepcional y el escándalo posterior es épico https://t.co/Q8Nu9oGen4

— Rodrigo Espector (@RodrigoEspector) November 2, 2020

The dog knows what’s up

A good song

Email dan.gartland@si.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.