Daniel Jones fumbles during garbage time drive vs. Cowboys

New York Giants rookie quarterback Daniel Jones got his first regular season NFL action during Sunday’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

With the Giants down 35-17, coach Pat Shurmur pulled veteran QB Eli Manning in place of Jones, with 1:46 left in the game.

Jones completed 3-of-4 passes for 17 yards and ran for another five yards.

Unfortunately, that 5-yard run was New York’s last offensive play of the game. Jones fumbled the ball as he hit the ground, Chidobe Awuzie recovered and the Cowboys offense ran out the clock to seal the victory.

“I just didn’t do a good job keeping the ball,” Jones said. “I held it to my body and let it go. I’ve got to make sure I’m secure with the ball.”

Fumbles were a cause for concern for the rookie quarterback during the preseason as well.

Jones fumbled twice during New York’s preseason win against the Chicago Bears. One of the fumbles came from a poor snap exchange while the other was the result of a strip sack by a Bears defender.

Against the Cowboys Sunday, it appeared that Jones simply had the ball knocked out of his grasp as he was going to the ground.

“It was good. It was exciting to run out there,” said Jones of his first regular-season action. “It being a regular season game has a different feel to it. The circumstance of the game also felt a little different. It was still exciting to be out there.”

Putting Jones in the game, of course, will only fuel speculation about when Jones will take over the starting job from Manning.

“I thought it was the right thing to do to get him some work. We don’t want to fumble the ball like he did. You can see he’s a competitive guy. He’ll learn to run that out of bounds,” said coach Pat Shurmur. “In his mind, he competes and he said, ‘I wanted to guarantee we got the first.’ You’ve just got to secure the ball on that play. For the rest of it, I felt like it was important to get him some work.”