New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones was beaten and bruised up in Monday night's 23-16 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
The Big Blue signal-caller took five sacks, 12 QB hits and was pressured on 40.5% of his dropbacks as the Cowboys' menacing defensive front swarmed all game.
Following the first defeat of the season for the 2-1 Giants, the offensive line took the blame for the relentless pressure on Jones.
"I don't think particularly we played very well up front and other places that are not my job," center Jon Feliciano said, via the team's official transcript. "And they know. Everyone knows we got to help 8, especially when he's out there doing what he's doing: just never giving up on the play, taking big hits, making plays with his legs. I mean, he did everything he could out there. And this loss is on us up front, not on 8."
Jones finished 20 of 37 for 196 yards and one INT while adding nine rushes for 79 yards. When he found time to throw, the quarterback didn't get much help from his wideouts either.
But it was Dallas' pressure that turned the tide of the division matchup.
Rookie right tackle Evan Neal particularly struggled with the speed of the Cowboys' edge players, getting beat repeatedly by Demarcus Lawrence, who earned three first-half sacks.
"It's hard to win that way," Neal said of the five Dallas sacks, . "The bulk of those sacks were on me. I take full responsibility for that. I've just got to play better. I hate being on the end of this."
Neal looked lost at times and struggled against the Cowboys' stunts and creative pressures off the edge. After the loss, Feliciano said it's on the veterans to pick up the rookie.
"The competitor he is and how serious he takes this, it's going to be eating at him and we've got to make sure that this doesn't cripple him going forward," he said. "We've got to be there for him. This is just one game. Bad performance. I get it. But it's the NFL, he's a rookie. It's going to happen."
Outside of left tackle Andrew Thomas, the Big Blue offensive line was ripped apart Monday night. But Jones didn't place the blame at their feet.
"Like I said, they're a good front, they're a good defense," he said. "They play hard, they play fast and you got to give credit to them. That falls on all of us, that falls on me and finding situations where I can get the ball out of my hand quicker."
