Daniel Jones downplays severity of concussion at Dallas: ‘Got the wind knocked out of me’

Daniel Jones said his concussion at Dallas wasn’t as bad as it looked.

The Giants’ quarterback started and played Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams, assuring he hadn’t experienced many concussion symptoms outside of his stumbling in the previous week’s loss to the Cowboys.

“I got the wind knocked out of me and stumbled there and had no memory loss,” Jones said of his helmet-to-helmet collision with Cowboys linebacker Jabril Cox. “When I got back to the locker room, I passed all the tests and just went through the week, did the concussion tests and took it a day at a time. I did what the trainers wanted me to do and passed all the tests.”

Jones added: “I was diagnosed with a concussion because I stumbled in that moment. That’s a symptom of a concussion. But I didn’t have a lot of the other symptoms.”

Unfortunately, Jones walked right back into the line of fire against the Rams and turned the ball over four times. He’d turned the ball over only twice through four and a half games. But on Sunday he threw three interceptions and lost a fumble.

“We didn’t execute and obviously turnovers were a big deal and that set us back,” Jones said.

A major part of it, obviously, was playing without weapons Saquon Barkley (sprained left ankle), Kenny Golladay (hyperextended right knee) and Darius Slayton (right hamstring).

Aaron Donald and L.A.’s front also teed off on an overmatched Giants offensive line, especially after Andrew Thomas left with an ankle injury around the 10-minute mark of the second quarter.

Jones was hit 11 times, including four sacks, one of them a strip-sack on Matt Peart’s first left tackle snap in place of Thomas. Jones said he didn’t mind the contact and took blame for his fumble.

“That’s part of the game and I gotta do a good job communicating and getting the ball out of my hands,” Jones said.

While fans called on social media for Joe Judge to pull Jones out of the blowout in the second half, Jones said he was grateful his coach left him in.

“No, I appreciated the opportunity to be in there and compete,” Jones said. “Coach Judge preaches 60 minutes and that’s what the game is, that’s how long we’re gonna compete for.”

Jones did lead a late touchdown drive, capped by fullback Eli Penny’s 4-yard score. But all it did was pad his stats in a line of 29-of-51 passing for 242 yards and four yards rushing.

Jones hadn’t spoken to the media since his concussion at Dallas, so he was also asked why he’d overthrown Barkley just before the running back’s freak injury, stepping on Cowboys corner Jourdan Lewis’ foot.

“Just a bad throw,” Jones said.

Barkley was wide open. He’d toasted Micah Parsons in coverage on a slant route. But Jones had overthrown him. Since, after Lewis and Barkley inexplicably collided, everything has gone south.

Judge didn’t harp on his quarterbacks’ turnover-filled afternoon against the Rams, though.

“Daniel’s improved a lot as a player,” Judge said. “We don’t want to have turnovers in a game. We’ll look specifically at what happened, but Daniel has improved as a player.

“Daniel,” Judge said, “is a guy that we’re going to have success with.”