Daniel Jones was excited to return to the field on Saturday for the New York Giants, even though the game didn’t go as well as hoped.
Jones threw two interceptions, including one that was returned for a touchdown, in his first game since a knee injury ended his season last year. The Houston Texans defeated the Giants 28-10 in the preseason game.
“I feel good, physically,” Jones said. “The knee felt really good. I was excited to be out there.”
Jones injured his right knee on November 5 and had recovered enough to start training camp. However, he missed the Giants’ preseason opener against Detroit. On Saturday, he played until halftime and was 11 of 18 for 138 yards.
The two interceptions were part of five turnovers committed by the Giants during the game.
“You don’t give yourself much of a chance when you turn the ball over,” coach Brian Daboll said. “It’s obviously something we need to improve on so that’s what we’ll try to do.”
Houston’s C.J. Stroud threw for 88 yards in one quarter after playing two series in his preseason debut the previous week. The Texans didn’t score on his first drive, and Case Keenum replaced him in the middle of the next drive at the start of the second quarter.
Jones faced heavy pressure in the end zone during his second drive and threw a desperate pass that was intercepted by Jalen Pitre, who returned it 5 yards for a touchdown to make it 7-0.
Pitre, who is in his third season, feels the secondary has improved a lot since the start of camp.
“We’ve been growing in a lot of different ways on and off the field,” he said. “So I think it’s going to do nothing but help us as we continue to move forward.”
The Giants were moving the ball well on their next drive when Jones tried a deep pass to Jalin Hyatt. However, Derek Stingley intercepted the pass near the end zone.
“A little shaky to start,” Jones said. “Obviously, the first quarter didn’t go the way we wanted. Bad decision, bad throw. I’d like to have that back, but I think we got some things going in the second quarter and moved the ball. I was happy with how we responded.”
