With just under 3:00 remaining in the fourth quarter on Monday night and facing a third-and-7 from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 19-yard line, T.J. Watt blew past New York Giants right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor for a strip-sack on quarterback Daniel Jones.
Although the Giants would have one final opportunity to score, Watt’s sack effectively ended the game.
Watt is a dominant player but even to the untrained eye, there appeared to be something off about the play. And as it turns out, there was.
“(Watt) was supposed to be chipped,” head coach Brian Daboll told reporters. “Jermaine was anticipating a chip.”
Jones was supposed to shift rookie tight end Theo Johnson from the left side to the right side in order to chip Watt but that never happened. DJ got lost in the moment and never even saw Watt coming clean.
“We had a shift with the tight end to get back over to Watt and we didn’t get the shift,” Daboll said. “We talked about it in the locker room. DJ feels terrible to be honest with you. I know he’s going to own it. He came up here to say he owned it.”
It was a rookie mistake from Jones and it’s hard to fathom how it even happened. It’s not like Jones enjoys taking such a beating, so how he simply forgot to chip one of the best pass rushers in the league when that’s what the play was designed to do is baffling.
Still, Daboll credited Jones for being a competitor even after the veteran quarterback screamed at him following a botched two-point conversion attempt earlier in the game.
Angriest I’ve ever seen Daniel Jones pic.twitter.com/lSqU6Bu9vR
— Bobby Skinner (@BobbySkinner_) October 29, 2024
“Loved it. I loved seeing his competitiveness,” Daboll said. “He played hard. I thought he did a lot of good things and unfortunately at the end of the game there we had a couple turnovers. But I thought he played extremely hard, competitive, fiery and that’s what you want from a quarterback.”
Lip service. Everyone, Daboll included, knows Jones is in his final days with the Giants and he can’t be thrilled with either of those instances.
