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USATSI

New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones had a rough go of things in his first preseason action. Jones, whose 2023 season ended with a torn ACL suffered last November, sat out New York's preseason opener before making his return on Saturday against the Houston Texans.

To say things began poorly for Jones would be a massive understatement as two of his first three drives ended with an interception -- the first resulting in a pick six. The pick six occurred as the result of a truly atrocious throw on which Jones narrowly avoided a safety, only to create an even worse outcome on the play.

Jones held the ball for too long in his own end zone, then pump faked under pressure rather than throwing the ball away. He tried to throw late into the flat to avoid the safety, but instead tossed it right into the hands of Jalen Pitre for an easy score.

Jones got off the ground with an intermediate completion to rookie wideout Malik Nabers -- his first catch as a pro -- on the Giants' third drive, but that drive eventually ended with a turnover as well. Jones tried to thread a ball up the sideline to second-year wideout Jalin Hyatt, but Derek Stingley Jr. had other thoughts.

Stingley had fantastic coverage on Hyatt on the deep ball, and he essentially became the wide receiver on the play and Hyatt never really had a chance to haul it in for the score. 

"Obviously, the first quarter didn't go how we wanted it," Jones said after the Giants' 28-10 loss, via the New York Daily News. "A bad decision and a bad throw, I'd like to have that back. We got some things going in the second quarter. Executed, moved the ball. You want to finish with touchdowns, but I was happy with how we responded."  

Jones eventually bounced back with a pair of stronger possessions. He threw a big completion to Darius Slayton up the sideline to set up a short touchdown run by Devin Singletary, he completed 4 of 6 throws to Nabers for 54 yards and the Giants scored a field goal on his last drive of the game. Jones ended his afternoon 11 of 18 for 138 yards and the two turnovers, with New York managing 10 points on his five drives.