Daniel Jones: Giants 'Have to Find a Way' to Fix 1st-Half Scoring Struggles

After falling to 1-2 on the season with Thursday's 30-12 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones stressed the importance of the team getting off to faster starts.

New York was shut out in the first half of its first two games and scored only six points in the first half of Thursday's game. Stumbling out of the gates has cost the Giants dearly this season, and Jones told reporters that they can ill afford to continue that trend: "Yes, it's not what we're trying to do, so we have to find a way to figure that out. Execute better early in the game, finish in the end zone, take advantage of opportunities, but it comes down to making plays and executing better in those situations."

The Giants trailed 26-0 at halftime in their 40-0 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1 and trailed 20-0 at the half against the Arizona Cardinals last week before coming from behind to win 31-28.

On Thursday night, the G-Men were down 17-6 at the break, giving them a minus-57 point differential in the first half this season.

According to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, that is the worst first-half point differential for an NFL team through three games since at least 1991:

In the first two games of the season, the Giants had no real excuse for starting slow, as Jones essentially had his full allotment of weapons, including running back Saquon Barkley and tight end Darren Waller.

Barkley missed Thursday's game with an ankle injury, though, which forced head coach Brian Daboll to press Matt Breida and Gary Brightwell into action in the backfield.

The Giants sorely missed Barkley, as they rushed for a mere 29 yards on 11 carries as a team, and just 22 of those yards came from their running backs.

Beyond that, the Giants may have a roster construction issue also, as Jones is severely lacking weapons in the passing game.

Through three games, Waller is the team's leading receiver with 12 catches for 132 yards. In terms of wideouts, Darius Slayton leads the way with 109 yards and Parris Campbell has the most receptions with 11.

The Giants were able to make the playoffs last season with a low-end group of receivers, but rather than going to great lengths to fix it during the offseason, they merely signed Campbell at a discount and selected Jalin Hyatt in the third round of the draft.

New York also signed Jones to a four-year, $160 million contract extension during the offseason, which raised plenty of eyebrows.

For now, Jones has to work with what he has, and his next chance to turn things around will come on Oct. 2 when the Giants host the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football.