Giants QB Daniel Jones takes blame for T.J. Watt’s strip-sack: ‘That’s my fault’

Jones took the blame for the miscue.

“I needed to shift,” the quarterback said. “[Tight end] Theo [Johnson] was looking at the coverage, and I didn’t shift him, and Jermaine expected my chip, and he didn’t get that. That’s my fault.”

Miscues and brain cramps have characterized the Giants’ season. Once again, they couldn’t get out of their own way on Monday night, getting called for pre-snap penalties, called poor plays, missed blocks, missed tackles, and Jones made several poor throws and reads. The QB ended the game with an interception to seal Big Blue’s third consecutive loss.

Mistakes on the road against a better team will get you beat every time. When the blunders come against an All-Universe player like Watt, it’s even more of a problem.

“I saw the tight end over with me and I saw [Watt] one on one with [Eluemunor] and thought, ‘He’s about to make a play,’ and he did,” Steelers linebacker Alex Highsmith said. “He got the ball. That’s what he does. That’s why he’s the best in the world.”

Watt generated two sacks and six QB pressures on Monday night. Highsmith added two sacks and a whopping 12 pressures against a banged-up, porous Giants offensive line.

The loss pushed the Giants to 2-6 on the season.

Big Blue fell to 0-3 in prime-time games in 2024. Jones is 1-15 in prime time in his career, the worst win percentage in the NFL since 1970 (minimum 10 starts), per NFL Research. He’s 0-8 in his career on Monday Night Football, with 12 career interceptions. It’s the most QB losses and INTs on MNF since Jones entered the league in 2019.