FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – When the Giants returned to their hotel rooms in Providence following Wednesday’s practice and turned on their television sets, they saw what just about every other person in New England – and most of the country – was seeing: the hot take coronation of Mac Jones as the next great Patriots passer.
On Thursday, the defense seemed intent on making the rookie quarterback look more like a rookie quarterback. And they did.
The Giants pestered Jones with sacks, pass breakups, an interception by Logan Ryan, and just about everything else they could throw at him to send the hype train from the previous day’s workout off its rails.
“The first day, we made a lot of mistakes and weren’t good enough,” linebacker Blake Martinez said at the conclusion of the two-day get-together with the Patriots. “We didn’t come ready to play and didn’t start fast. I think we went back and looked at the film, made the corrections, came out [Thursday] and played our style of ball. There will still be things to correct, but we felt good today.”
Ryan gave credit to Jones for his performance on Wednesday while Cam Newton was sidelined for a COVID-19 rules violation (Newton returned on Thursday and took some first-team reps), but said the Giants knew they could do better heading into Day 2.
“When Blake has a bad day and I have a bad day on the same day, we lose by 100,” Ryan said. “[Wednesday] we both had bad days. It doesn’t happen a lot, but it was just one of those days. A lot of people looked at us. I felt like as a leader, how am I going to respond? Am I going to drop my head? Am I going to call it a day? Am I going to get all these pats on the back and ‘attaboys’ because I played here [in New England] before? I’ve got to come out and respond. I feel like Blake and I responded better [Thursday] and our team responded better as a whole.”
Notes & quotes: Joe Judge said the Giants seem to have “dodged a bullet” with the ankle injury suffered by Adoree’ Jackson on Wednesday. Jackson was able to work with trainers on the side field Thursday and was replaced in the starting defense by rookie Rodarius Williams but is not expected to miss much time … The Giants traded backup K Ryan Santoso to the Panthers for a conditional seventh-round pick on Thursday. Graham Gano was going to be their kicker all along and they had been hoping to find a buyer for Santoso before they were forced to waive him at final cuts next week … Judge said G Shane Lemieux, LB Tae Crowder and DT Danny Shelton remained in New Jersey to rehab injuries there rather than travel with the team.
