Giants and Jets Can’t Shake Basic Ineptitudes
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Fired up by my comments last week that the Jets should not be dreaming of drafting Reggie Bush but of going after some of Southern Cal’s offensive linemen, the Jets’ front five jack-hammered the Oakland Raiders yesterday and played just about their best game of the year.
You have so seldom heard their names this year – and you’re not like to hear them again – that we’re give them to you now: guards Jonathan Goodwin and Brandon Moore, tackles Adrian Jones and Scott Gragg, and center Pete Kendall. That is, you’ve seldom heard all their names together, as three of those five didn’t start the first game of the season and two of them are now playing different positions. Yesterday it looked like the Jets finally had the right combination. If so, it’s about the only bright light the team has coming down to the end of this season and looking into the next.
Here’s what they did. They blocked for a Curtis Martin-less backfield (the first time the Jets have had one of those since 1998), opened up enough holes for number two tailback Cedric Houston and fullback B.J. Askew to gain 128 yards, and allowed just two sacks on Brooks Bollinger, both of them caused by the Raiders’ downfield coverage, which forced Bollinger to eat the ball. In all, the front five collected just two flags, including just one for holding, which was seven fewer than their Oakland counterparts.
Considering how bad Bollinger played in back of them – he was 14 of 26 for just 119 yards and a ridiculous 4.6 yards a throw, or just .43 more than the Jets averaged per try on the ground – they each should have been given a game ball.
Instead of applauding the performance, a lot of Jets fans booed, particularly when the Houston and San Francisco scores were announced. The 49ers lost to Seattle 41-3 to drop one full game behind the Jets in the race for worst record in the league. But the Texans, by losing to Tennessee, are now two games worse than the Jets and look to have the inside track on nabbing Heisman winner Bush. Jets fans don’t appreciate what a break this is, as it will force the team either to go for one of a truly outstanding crop of offensive lineman or a quarterback (perhaps USCs Matt Leinart) to replace Bollinger or Chad Pennington, who, even if the Jets decide to go with next year, is a bad injury risk.
Yesterday’s win over Oakland exposed Bollinger, who, even when he gets good pass blocking and run support, can’t throw with enough zip to connect on an important third down pass. Jam his receivers and he’s useless. All he can do with consistency is roll out on a run pass option, a high school strategy which limits his throws to the side of the field he’s running to and which explains why he’s had just two touchdown passes in his 57 career possessions and 27 trips to the red zone.
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Two touchdowns in 27 trips to the red zone is beginning to look great to the Giants, who once again thoroughly outplayed an inept opponent and found a way to send a game into overtime. A week ago on Monday Night Football, the Seattle Seahawks gained just 194 yards and were able to shut out the Eagles 42-0.Yesterday, the Giants gained 437 yards against the Eagles and were tied 23-23 at the end of regulation play.
The Giants’ inefficiency is reaching the point of the bizarre.
Yesterday’s goat could easily have been Eli Manning, who threw two terrible passes, both intercepted, late in regulation and early into overtime. (He also had a third interception that came on a ball knocked up in the air on fourth down.) The only problem with laying the blame on Eli is that prior to his late fourth-quarter pickoff, he had hit on eight of 10 third down passes, more than good enough to have put the game away under normal circumstances.
But what are normal circumstances for the Giants these days? On one weird possession late in the third quarter, the Giants ran six plays from inside the Eagles’ 10-yard line and could not score a touchdown. Manning threw consecutive incomplete passes on fade patterns that looked terrible until you realized a) the first one was thrown to tight end Jeremy Shockey, who shouldn’t have been flanked wide at all, and b) the second was thrown to Plaxico Burress, who reportedly does not like to run fade patterns despite standing 6-foot-5. Burress usually has two to three inches on the cornerback up against him and would seem to have been designed by God for the purpose of running fade patterns. It seems the previous ball had been thrown to Shockey because Burress didn’t want a fade pattern thrown to him. So why in the world were the Giants throwing fade patterns in that situation?
The Giants’ ludicrous mismatch with their offensive linemen continued yesterday, with David Diehl being shifted from guard to tackle, though whether it was to exploit an Eagles defensive weakness or hide one of Diehl’s weaknesses was not apparent.
What was apparent is that Bob Whitfield, a 14-year veteran, can’t hear Manning while playing way out at the tackle position. He was called for three false starts. The Giants had five on the day and 10 penalties overall to the Eagles’ nine, making this the 10th time in 13 game that the Giants have out-penaltied their opponents.
Though the Giants eventually overcame their own ineptitude and won the game (their second win over the Eagles this season), the outcome was once again not realized through their own execution, but through luck. Yes, I know, they’ve lost a couple on account of bad luck, so it all evens out. But to even out means to be mediocre, and for all the domination of their opponents from scrimmage, the Giants are just a handful of plays away from being a mediocre team.
Mr. Barra is the author, most recently, of “The Last Coach: A Life of Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.”