ALLEN PARK, Mich. — You never know.
Perhaps the Giants will look back in later months on what went down Wednesday and recall it as evidence of the resilience of quarterback Daniel Jones and his running mates on offense.
Jones and the Giants’ offense were not at all happy with their overall performance Tuesday in the first joint practice with the Lions.
It was lowlighted by several poor throws from Jones and a lack of zest in the attack.
Jones spoke up about this, as did new tight end Darren Waller, stressing to their teammates the need to perform at a much higher level in the second round with the Lions.
Jones backed up his words with aplomb.
He completed all four of his passes in the first 7-on-7 red-zone drill, setting an immediate tone.
There was a strike to Darius Slayton, a connection on a swing pass to Saquon Barkley, a check-down to Matt Breida and a nifty touchdown toss to Waller.
Jones’ pass split Lions defensive backs Kerby Joseph and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson.
Point made.
“Yeah, it was pretty crisp, and we were able to execute in some key situations in the red zone and third-and-longs,” Jones told The Post after practice, just before he went in to lift weights. “I thought it was pretty good.”
For Jones, “I thought it was pretty good” is fairly effusive.
He clearly felt better about his own showing, which he admitted had not been up to par a day earlier.
On Wednesday, he threw two touchdown passes to Slayton in a team period.
Matt Peart, subbing at right tackle because Evan Neal is in the concussion protocol, kept dangerous pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson off Jones on the first scoring throw.
Jones also fired a pair of touchdown passes to Parris Campbell and one to Daniel Bellinger.
To complete the impressive showing, in the final team period Jones needed only one play to get in the end zone.
He found Waller with a short pass on the right side that was left undetected by the Lions, allowing the tight end to stroll into the end zone.
“When we looked at the film [after the first day], it was a lot of stuff we did, and we knew that, like, we were kind of messing up and not as crisp in our routes and doing our thing,” receiver Isaiah Hodgins said. “So we came out like, ‘Let’s control us and not worry about them.’
“There was definitely more energy and a little bit more pep in our step. I think that just defines how good of a team we are, how we were able to respond. We felt we didn’t put our best work out there [Tuesday], and we came out and I felt like we were firing on all cylinders.”
Hodgins’ take on his quarterback was that Jones was “going crazy, firing on all cylinders. He was distributing the ball to everybody. I’m pretty sure everybody had a couple of catches. He looked great out there. He was decisive, making great decisions, great throws. Hat’s off to him, he bounced back.”
Slayton said Waller and Jones were the catalysts.
“[Waller] got us going a little bit, D.J. got us going a little bit, just pumping energy, guys we lean on as leaders on this team to get us going,” Slayton said.
Jones, on cue, downplayed any words of inspiration he might have relayed as igniting the passing game revival.
“I think we all kind of spoke and had conversations,” Jones said. “I don’t think [Tuesday] was necessarily characteristic of what we’ve been.”
All were in agreement that it was more than merely a mid-August training camp session against another team.
“I think it was important just to come out here, we’ve largely, on offense, had a pretty good camp, as a team we’ve had a good camp, been sharp,” Jones said. “To kind of get back to that and get back to executing like we’ve been was important for us.”
Jones smiled after he was asked if it was accurate to use the word “rousing” to describe his message to his teammates.
“Nah, it wasn’t. … I think we all realized what we had to do. We’ve got a mature group of guys, and we were locked in and ready to go,” he said.
Maybe this will come and go and no one will think much about it in the months to come. Or maybe not.
“I definitely think it’s important because it shows how the season is gonna be,” Hodgins said. “There’s gonna be times when we don’t play our best game, especially on offense, we might still win but we played a bad game or we might lose and play a bad game. All right, how are you gonna respond to it? Are you gonna let that one game lead into three games, or are you gonna bounce back and get a win that next week?”