Giants and Jets Moving in Opposite Directions

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.

The New York Sun

If you’re a Giants fan, all of your worst fears were confirmed in their lopsided loss at Philadelphia yesterday. First, you saw that Kurt Warner is no more than a journeyman quarterback at this point. Second, the undersized secondary is a huge liability. Third, even if Eli Manning is the second coming of Joe Montana, he can’t turn this group into playoff contenders.


Warner was unspectacular in leading a surprisingly conservative passing attack. Most of his pass attempts were screens or short passes to the outside. Warner has done many things in his career, but dinking and dunking was never his forte. He’s a vertical passer, whose average of 8.6 yards per passing attempt ties him with Otto Graham as the highest in NFL history. But the Giants only attempted a handful of passes down the field, even though they spent most of the game trailing by a wide margin. Warner can’t win games playing that way.


Two weeks ago in the pages of The Sun, I wrote that my biggest concern about the Giants was their lack of size at cornerback and safety. Last year, they had difficulty defending big receivers, and the addition of Terrell Owens and Keyshawn Johnson to the division is only going to make things worse. The 6-foot-3 Owens caught three touchdown passes yesterday, and he might have caught more if he hadn’t spent most of the fourth quarter watching from the sidelines. This is not the last time the Giants are going to let a big receiver have a big day.


Manning made his NFL debut late in the game, handing the ball off to Tiki Barber, who scampered 72-yards for a touchdown. On the next series, Manning racked up 66 passing yards and moved the Giants into the red zone. The numbers look good in the box score, but they were all meaningless yards in the waning minutes of a blowout.


There’s nothing positive for the Giants to take from this game. The offense is lackluster, the defense is horrible, and the next four opponents are all tough. It looks like it’s going to be a long year for Giants fans.


***


Half of the 24 NFL teams that took the field yesterday afternoon had a different starting quarterback than they did in Week 1 last year. Seven of those teams won with a new passer at the helm, confirming the idea that making this change can give your team an immediate boost. Four of the last five Super Bowls have featured at least one team with a new starting quarterback.


More often than not, however, quarterbacks are only effective as the cast around them. Without quality receivers or an effective offensive line, quarterbacks like Kurt Warner, Tim Rattay, and Rex Grossman can only do so much. The early evidence suggests that some of the teams who tried to solve their offensive woes with a new passer will end up disappointed.


A new running back, on the other hand, is a different story. Nowhere was this more evident yesterday than in Washington. The Redskins offense was like a three-ring circus last year, but the addition of Clinton Portis appears to have paid immediate dividends. He ran 64 yards for a touchdown on his first carry with his new team, and ended the day with 149 yards.


The Chargers and Seahawks both scored road victories yesterday behind the dominant running of Tomlinson and Shaun Alexander, respectively. Pittsburgh’s Jerome Bettis only ran the ball five times, but he was unstoppable on the goal line, scoring three touchdowns in a hard-fought victory over the Raiders.


***


The Jets certainly looked like a new team yesterday, racing to an impressive Week 1 win over the Bengals. It was a pleasant departure from the past two seasons, when the Jets found themselves digging out of an early 2-5 hole.


One of the biggest factors in both seasons was a slow start by running back Curtis Martin. That trend was resoundingly reversed yesterday, with Martin carrying the ball 29 times for 196 yards. That’s one fewer yard than he had in the entire month of September last year, and twice as many yards as he gained in September 2002.


Aside from scoring two big touchdowns and helping to kill the clock toward the end of the game, the most important thing that Martin did was make it possible for Paul Hackett’s West Coast offense to work the way it was designed to.


Because the Bengals defense had to account for Martin on every play, the Jets were able to throw the quick, short passes into man coverage that are so hard to defend. Once you have both of those elements of your offense working, you can find mismatches and make big pass plays, like the 31-yard pass from Chad Pennington to Santana Moss that set up the Jets’ first touchdown, or the 46-yard reception by Jonathan Carter for their second score.


The Jets’ run defense also delivered an impressive performance. At one point in the first half they had held Rudi Johnson to 9 yards on 8 carries. At the end of the day, Johnson had averaged a paltry 2.9 yards per carry.


When the Jets travel to San Diego next week, they’ll face a stiffer test in trying to contain LaDanian Tomlinson, but so far, the improvements made by defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson have to be considered impressive. They Jets were aggressive at all times, creating two second-half turnovers that made the difference in the game. Sam Cowart forced a fumble on the opening drive of the third quarter that Donnie Abraham returned for a touchdown. With under two minutes left in the game, rookie Erik Coleman intercepted Bengals’ quarterback Carson Palmer to squash their last drive and seal the victory.


The New York Sun

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