The New York Giants’ 2024 season is spiraling, and Monday night’s 26-18 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers may have been the tipping point. Now 2-6 and sinking fast in the NFC playoff race, the Giants are staring down a lost season—and fans are starting to question if Daniel Jones is the right man for the job. With two costly mistakes in the game’s final three minutes, Jones might have all but sealed his fate in New York.
The game slipped away in the fourth quarter when Steelers’ linebacker T.J. Watt, who was a nightmare for the Giants’ offensive line all night, delivered the dagger—a brutal strip-sack on Jones with less than three minutes left and the Giants down by eight. Jones, scrambling to keep hope alive for New York, failed to shift his protection, giving Watt the split-second he needed to crush the Giants’ comeback hopes.
In a moment of candor, Jones took responsibility for the play. “I needed to shift,” he admitted to reporters after the game. “That’s my fault.” But for fans, patience has run thin. Jones’ night was riddled with missed opportunities, capped by an overthrown pass that landed in the hands of the Steelers’ secondary, officially sealing the Giants’ fate.
Watt, a known force on the field, left his mark in a big way, racking up five tackles, two assists, and two sacks. Giants head coach Brian Daboll saw it coming, even warning that Watt could disrupt the game plan entirely. “We could stay here for a long time talking about T.J. Watt,” Daboll acknowledged before the game. “He’s unbelievable… one of the best players in the league. He’s a problem.’’ On Monday night, Watt lived up to that warning.
Jones’ numbers—24 completions out of 38 attempts for 264 yards with a single interception—only tell part of the story. The real story is the sense of exasperation rippling through Giants fans, who are taking to social media to voice their frustrations. “An absolute embarrassment,” wrote one fan, while others targeted the leadership, questioning if the Daniel Jones experiment has finally run its course.
The Giants head into Week 9 with a daunting schedule ahead and slim playoff chances. But the bigger question looms—are they prepared to turn the page on Jones come offseason? For now, the once-promising quarterback faces a make-or-break stretch, with little room for error and even less forgiveness from a disillusioned fanbase.
As the Giants limp toward a grim finish, one thing is clear: New York’s patience has run out, and Monday night’s meltdown may be the final chapter in the Daniel Jones saga.
