Two plays told the story of safety Jabrill Peppers’ Giants debut.

On his first pass attempt of the night, Jets quarterback Sam Darnold threw short to Quincy Enunwa on the right sideline. Peppers jumped the route and was in perfect position to welcome Darnold to 2019 with an interception. Instead, he saw the ball bounce right off his hands and bounce helplessly out of bounds. There was nobody in front of him, and he would have waltzed into the end zone for a touchdown.

One play later, Darnold tested Peppers again. This time, the QB stepped up in the pocket and found tight end Chris Herndon over the middle for 32 yards. Herndon blew right past Peppers at the line of scrimmage and had created nearly 8 yards of separation by the time Peppers realized where he was.

This was the Giants’ first in-game look at the man tasked with replacing Landon Collins. It ended with the Jets in their end zone.

“We did fine, flew to the ball a lot,” Peppers said after the Giants’ 31-22 preseason win over the Jets on Thursday. “We stopped the run game, but we gave up a couple [big] chunk plays due to our miscommunication so we just can’t shoot ourselves in the foot. Other than that, I think we got the job done.”

After Peppers’ opening gaffe, the Giants first-team defense did little to stop Darnold and the first-team Jets offense. Darnold shredded the Giants secondary en route to a seven-play, 75-yard scoring drive.

A 28-yard pass to Jamison Crowder brought the Jets into the red zone, and a 3-yard touchdown pass gave them their first points of the season. The Giants created little pressure on Darnold in the pocket, which he easily danced around.

That was all for the Jets starting offense and Giants starting defense, as both were replaced for the next series. One drive, one touchdown allowed, little resistance.

“It is what it is … it’s a preseason game,” head coach Pat Shurmur said. “There’s plenty of good things that we can talk about but we made a lot of mistakes that we have to clean up moving forward. … We had a couple of things we needed to get cleaned up [on defense]. And then we did clean it up, and then we didn’t have those issues.”

Nevertheless, that clean-up job came from the second and third units.

General manager Dave Gettleman dealt Odell Beckham Jr. to the Browns in part because of how strongly he felt about Peppers, claiming the 23-year-old, entering his third season in the league, was like getting another first-round pick in the deal. He’s entrusted with being the face of a new-look secondary, filled with rookies and second-year players.

Of course, it was just the first drive of the first preseason game. However, expectations for this defense are as low as ever, and that unit did little to change that in its opening act.