He’s back scrambling: Eagles defense knows it must keep Daniel Jones contained

The matchup between the Eagles and Giants is an interesting one. On the one side, you have one of the NFL’s most elite dual-threat quarterbacks. On the other side, you have Jalen Hurts.

That’s a joke, yes, but a far less obvious one than it used to be. Daniel Jones may not look like a guy who can consistently beat you off the dribble, but the Vikings learned on Sunday what can happen when a defense loses him in transition. In addition to his 301 yards on 24 of 35 passing, the fourth-year quarterback racked up 78 rushing yards on a whopping 17 carries in the Giants’ 31-24 upset of Minnesota. According to the analytics, three of the Giants’ 11 most valuable plays were rushes by Jones. In addition to a couple of quarterback sneaks on fourth-and-1, he had a 12-yard scramble on third-and-2 from the Vikings’ 27-yard line in the second quarter that led to a new set of downs. (The drive culminated in a field goal.)

Jones’ seven rushing first downs were tied for second all-time by a quarterback in a postseason game. The only quarterback to get more than seven was Lamar Jackson against the Titans in the 2019 playoffs. Before that, the last quarterback to rush for seven first downs in a playoff game was Colin Kaepernick.

Lamar Jackson.

Colin Kaepernick.

Daniel Jones.

“He’s faster than people give him credit for,” said Eagles linebacker T.J. Edwards, who will be one of the players responsible for containing Jones in Saturday’s NFC divisional-round showdown.

Of course, guys who look like Jones tend to get credit if they walk to the watercooler without knocking over an office chair. In fact, there’ve been plenty of moments in his career when even that has looked like a question mark. Speed isn’t the thing that separates guys like Jackson, Kaepernick, and Hurts from the rest of the field. It’s their instincts, and their acceleration, and their quick-twitch athleticism.

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Jones has plenty of straight-line speed, as we saw during his infamous 80-yard rumble-and-stumble against the Eagles a couple of years ago. On that play, he reached a top speed of 21.23 mph, the fastest foot-speed clocked by a quarterback as a ballcarrier that season. Where Jones has often been lacking is in those other traits. For the most part, escapability has not been a hallmark.

So, what are we to make of Danny Cut-On-Dimes? Are we taking the Giants too lightly when we snicker at the thought of him being an X factor at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday? Or was his performance against the Vikings mostly a function of him playing against the Vikings?

Fortunately, there’s a guy in the Eagles locker room who is perfectly suited to answer such questions. The things that James Bradberry has seen on tape from Jones are many of the same things he saw during his two years practicing against him as a starting cornerback for the Giants.

“He’s making smart decisions with the ball,” Bradberry said. “If it’s not there, he’s going to take off and run. He’s able to make plays with his legs. He’s a dual-threat quarterback, and he’s smart.”

That’s about as benign as you would expect out of a well-schooled veteran in the week leading up to a playoff game. So let’s fill in some of the blanks. Jones is still the same quarterback the Eagles saw when they steamrolled the Giants, 48-22, in Week 14. Jones rushed for a touchdown that day but finished with only 26 yards on four carries. The Eagles sacked him as many times as he scrambled.

The one potential difference lies in the manner in which Brian Daboll and the Giants’ coaching staff are utilizing their quarterback. This is a well-coached opponent, one that is led by a head coach who helped Josh Allen develop from a raw, inconsistent liability to a legitimate All-Pro.

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One of Daboll’s biggest successes this season has been in utilizing Jones’ scrambling ability. In his first three seasons in the NFL, Jones rushed for 1,000 yards and 54 first downs on 172 carries. This year, in 16 regular-season games, he rushed for 708 yards and 57 first downs on 120 carries.

The list of quarterbacks who have rushed for 700-plus yards in a season in the last 50 years: Lamar Jackson, Justin Fields, Michael Vick, Randall Cunningham, Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray, Robert Griffin III, Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, and Cam Newton.

And Daniel Jones.

“He’s playing really good football,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “He’s continuing to get better. Hats off to him and that coaching staff for allowing that to happen.”

That said, there is a reason the Giants enter this game as 7.5-point underdogs. Nothing that we saw from Jones on Sunday suggests that the Eagles should be rewriting the game plan they followed a month ago. Stop the run, pressure the quarterback, and good things will follow.