LANDOVER, Md. — This is the first meaningful December for Daniel Jones, the first playoff chase of his whiplashed Giants career, and after all the misery, after all the misfortune, after all the head-coaching changes, after all the losing, he can smell the playoffs. They all can. And what a sweet smell it is. 

After all the misery, after all the misfortune, after all the head-coaching changes, after all the losing, the football gods were gifting the Giants the promise of a December to remember. 

And they were blowing it. 

The sky was falling on the Giants. 

Now it’s blue. 

It was 14-3 for the Giants when Phil Simms couldn’t resist tweeting this: 

“I’ve seen enough this year & #DanielJones has exceeded expectations – IMO he will absolutely be the @Giants QB next year.” 

Amen. 

Jones, the 20-12 winner, won this game mostly because he didn’t lose it (21-for-32, 160 yards passing, 10-for-35 rushing). 

And because Kayvon Thibodeaux wouldn’t let him lose it. 

Jones’ popgun offense scored all of 13 points. With the absence of playmakers around him, with the absence of a running game, with the absence of a downfield passing game, he had no margin for error. 

And he didn’t make any. 

“I think I made some good decisions for the most part, some key conversions that kept drives going in critical points of the game. I thought I saw the field pretty well,” Jones said. 

I showed Jones the Simms tweet and he beamed. 

“I appreciate that for sure,” Jones told The Post. “He’s obviously someone you look up to and set an example for what the quarterback for this franchise should be. I’m just taking one week at a time and keep playing as well as I can.” 

It was a sack of Taylor Heinicke by Dexter Lawrence and Azeez Ojulari that forced a fumble that Leonard Williams recovered at the NYG 14 that seemed to preserve it. 

It was Saquon Barkley’s hard running that had seemed to close it. 

“He’s asking for the ball,” Jones said. 

Until Heinicke quickly marched the Commanders 56 yards to the NYG 1. 

Where Thibodeaux sprinted to the sideline and met him and met him violently near the goal line and would not let him score. Until Darnay Holmes was not flagged for pass interference in the end zone on Curtis Samuel. 

“I couldn’t tell you if I had a good angle, I just know [Heinecke] saw me and I saw him, and that’s it,” Thibodeaux said. 

Prime-Time Thibodeaux. 

“It’s not a coincidence,” he said. 

The Giants had confronted this unsettling reality when the night began: 

When you fail to meet the moments that December football gives you, if you cannot win a division game, no one should feel sorry for you when you are left out in the cold. 

When you are who we thought you were. 

And the Giants laughed at that narrative when they showed up with a relentless edge, with a tough-mindedness that had abandoned them, with Thibodeaux strip-sacking Heinicke and returning the fumble for an early 1-yard TD … and with a quarterback who was at his surgical, efficient best on the 97-yard TD drive at the end of the half that left the Commanders gasping and in distress. 

Jones calmly matriculated the ball down the field … no completion longer than 15 yards … until it was fourth-and-9 at the Washington 35. 

And Brian Daboll was going for it. 

And Jones had his back. 

“You want to be in those positions with a chance to deliver,” Jones said. 

Jones-to-Richie James, 11 yards. 

Two-minute warning. 

Barkley capped the 18-play, 97-yard, 8:35 drive with a 3-yard wildcat TD run. 

Giants 14, Commanders 3. 

Jones was 10-for-12 for 91 yards on the drive. 

On a third-and-15, Jones rumbled up the middle for 10 yards to position Graham Gano for the 50-yard field goal that made it Giants, 17, Commanders 9. 

Thibodeaux came screaming around the edge, and with his right hand tomahawked the ball out of Heinicke’s hand, and it was Giants 7, Commanders 3 early in the second quarter. 

“He’s playing at an extremely high level right now,” Jones said. 

Thibodeaux was a madman all night. Barkley was so impressed that the rookie had called the team up before the game. He wasn’t going to let the Giants lose. 

And neither was Daniel Jones. 

“I don’t know think there’s any quality you would want a quarterback to have that he doesn’t have,” wide receiver Darius Slayton said. 

And now Daniel Jones can smell the playoffs. They all can.