QB Daniel Jones
November 4, 2020
Q: I know I asked you after the game about Golden (Tate), but obviously, a lot has happened since then. Did you take personally any of his ‘throw me the ball’ comments or anything that his wife posted on Twitter yesterday about him not being targeted when he’s open? Did you take that as criticism of you?
A: No. I have a ton of respect for Golden. He’s a close friend, a close teammate. He’s made a lot of plays over these last couple of years, and I certainly have a lot of trust in him as a player. I certainly value our relationship, respect him. My job is to distribute the ball to our playmakers and let them make plays. He’s a great player and we’ll keep trying to get him the ball.
Q: Did you guys have to clear the air or anything, or you don’t even address it?
A: We communicated, we talked. But that’s between me and him. Like I said, I have a ton of respect for him.
Q: How do you block out the noise? How do you deal with the criticism as you prepare for this next ball game?
A: I certainly don’t look for it. I’m concerned with the people in this building. My teammates, my coaches, the people I work with on a day to day basis, and that’s where I’m going to find the constructive criticism I need to improve and keep moving forward. That’s my focus. My focus is to prepare every week to play as well as I can. I’m going to do that with the people in this building, coaches and teammates. That’s part of the job.
Q: You obviously want to succeed, you want to win, you want to make plays. Is it simply a hard thing for you to accept at times that a play is over with and you just need to live for the next one?
A: I certainly think that’s part of it. I need to do a better job understanding when the play is over, when it’s not there and when the best outcome is to throw it away or in some cases to take a sack. I think in certain situations like that, I can certainly improve. I’ll continue to work on it.
Q: When you looked at the plays from the game, was that the determining factor in those interceptions in your mind?
A: Yeah, I think so. I think both of those plays were decisions to try to make something happen that wasn’t there. I have to continue to look at that and apply that to games and to those situations.
Q: Why do you think it’s been such a struggle to find that line? To find where that boundary is between those two things, between being aggressive and being too aggressive sometimes?
A: I don’t know. All of us want to make plays and we want to do the right thing. We want to put our team in a position to win. But on those split moment decisions, you have to be able to understand the bigger picture and how each of those plays factor into the game overall. Like I said, the best decision on that play is sometimes to get rid of the ball or minimize the risk of a bad play.
Q: You did exactly that on the final drive. You threw one away in sort of a duress situation. Were those earlier plays on your mind when you made that play? Obviously, it happens very quickly. But was that a lesson learned there?
A: Yeah, I think that was a part of it. I have to continue to do it, continue to focus on it and make sure I emphasize that in my preparation.
Q: We’ve kind of spoken about these kinds of things before, pretty much the same kind of mistakes and saying the same things. I’m wondering, do you try and alter some of the things you’re doing to try and pound it in your head, or is it just sort of memory repetition where you want to just keep saying the same thing over and over again to yourself to try and make sure that the next time, the same mistake doesn’t happen again?
A: I think there are certainly things you can change in the way you prepare and what you do on the practice field. There are certain drills and certain instances even in team situations that you can approach differently. Keeping that in mind and applying it in all situations I think is kind of the thing. Yeah, I’ll continue to focus on it, continue to apply it to different situations and find new and different ways to work on it.
Q: As a team leader with the Golden situation, is that something you feel like needs to be addressed with the group as a whole?
A: The way we handle that will be internal. We’ll deal with it as we need to. Like I said, we all have a ton of respect for Golden. He’s a great teammate and a great player. I look forward to getting him back.
