Giants, Jets Heading in Opposite Directions

It’s amazing how different a team can look when it scores first and doesn’t draw a lot of penalties. There are more sophisticated explanations for the Giants’ turnaround, but none more accurate. Here’s the simple fact of the matter: The Giants have more talent than most of their opponents, and if they don’t make more mistakes than the team on the other side of the ball, they should be expected to beat most NFL teams. Perhaps not impressively, as Sunday’s 17–3 victory over Tampa Bay illustrates, but win.Yesterday, for the second consecutive game, the Giants took the ball downfield in the first quarter and scored the first touchdown on a pass (good for seven yards) from Eli Manning to Plaxico Burress. They could have had no way of knowing that that would be the winning touchdown, but good things generally happen when you score early, and so they did for New York. In the second quarter, Bucs quarterback Brad Gradkowski attempted an ill-timed pitchout to Carnell “Cadillac” Williams, and Giants tackle Fred Robbins recovered the fumble at the Tampa Bay 28. On the second play, Manning again threw to Burress, who looked as if he was trying to catch a feather in a wind tunnel before haling the ball in at the TB one. Brandon Jacobs scored on the next play, and as the wind swirled through Giants Stadium, it was obvious that the second score pretty much wrapped up the game.About the only thing to discuss for the rest of the game was whether the Giants’ defense was great or the Bucs’ offense was terrible. There was plenty of evidence to support both arguments. Gradkowski, stymied by both the wind and the Giants’ coverages, had one of the worst days of any NFL quarterback this season, attempting 50 passes and netting the ridiculous total of just 134 yards for an average of 2.7 yards a toss. It was one of those days where it would have been more profitable for Tampa Bay to run the ball on every play — if they could have held on to it.The Bucs fumbled six times, partly because every time Gradkowski went to hand off, there was a thicket of blue-clad arms reaching to snatch at the football. Cadillac Williams had one run for 16 yards, Tampa Bay’s longest gainer of the day, and, looking more like a punched buggy, on his seven other carries, totaled exactly four yards. The only reason the Giants secondary didn’t intercept any passes was because Gradkowski’s throws were so lousy no one could catch them. There haven’t been so many wounded ducks at the Meadowlands since the colonists first went hunting there. Eli Manning wasn’t having an easy time of it either, but he was much smarter than his Bucs counterpart, generally throwing under the wind rather than challenging it, completing 16 of 31 for 154 yards. The stats won’t help his passer rating much, but it was a smart performance on a difficult day and highlighted Eli’s growing confidence and maturity.It would be easy to write off the Bucs’ total offensive ineptitude to the winds, but the wind blew just as hard when the Giants had the ball, and they made the most of their early opportunities. The shutdown was particularly gratifying to a Giants defense that was missing three starters, Osi Umenyiora at defensive end, LaVar Arrington at linebacker, and Sam Madison at D-back. Mathias Kiwanuka made the most impact of the subs, replacing Umenyiora and collecting a sack, making four tackles and forcing a fumble. As the season wears on and the Giants need a strong pass rush late in the game, Kiwanuka could be their secret off-the-bench weapon.Wind or no wind, the Giants defense is clearly on a roll, having stuffed four consecutive opponents and holding them to a total of only 42 points. It’s hard to believe the Giants are really this good since getting humiliated at Seattle September 24, but the scoreboard doesn’t lie, at least not for four straight weeks, and the Giants have won their last four by an average of two touchdowns a game. There’s a growing feeling around the league that the November 12 match with the Bears at the Meadowlands may well be a preview of the NFC championship game, and there’s some wellfounded optimism for believing the Giants can win it. Next week’s home game with Houston should, at the level the Giants are currently playing, come to little more than a full scrimmage with pads as they get ready for their defining game of the regular season.***The New York Jets-Cleveland Browns game yesterday afternoon offered a decisive answer to a question deranged physicists have been asking for centuries, namely, what happens when a moveable object meets a resistible force. The answer is that the Jets lose.Coming into this game, the Jets defense had allowed the most yards of any team in the league, while the Cleveland Browns offense had gained the fewest, thus adding a rare element of suspense to what promised to be an otherwise lusterless game. The suspense lasted till about midway through the second quarter, when the Browns, guided by their new offensive coordinator, Jeff Davidson, glided effortlessly through a 10-play 69-yard drive to give Cleveland a 10–3 lead that they never really came close to relinquishing.For a total team disgrace, the 20–13 loss outstripped even the 41–0 shellacking at Jacksonville three weeks ago, which at least came against a team that had a .500 record when not playing the Jets. This loss came against a team that had a legitimate claim, before Sunday, of being the worst in the league.After being outgained by 74 yards yesterday, that claim can now be made by the New York Jets. All early season optimism has now vanished, and with it, in all likelihood the hopes that Chad Pennington will finally blossom into a great NFL passer. Earlier in the afternoon, Tampa Bay’s Brad Gradkowski had one of the worst days of any passer this season; Pennington had the worst, with no winds to blame for the wild inaccuracy of his passes. He had one completion of 23 yards to Laveranues Coles, and it was his only completion longer than 17 yards all day.Pennington was 10 of 27 for 85 yards with no TDs and two interceptions against a Browns defense that had been giving up an average of 21 points per game. His ineffectiveness was inexplicable, especially since the impotent Brown pass rush sacked him only one time for a loss of three yards. But I can’t say in all honesty that Pennington’s performance was any worse than any of the Jets defense, which, amazingly, couldn’t force the Browns into a punt until 9:18 in the third quarter.The Jets get a bye next week, which might be spent best with many of the players thinking about going back to college to get their degrees. After that, the ones who gut it out will face, in successive weeks, the New England Patriots and Chicago Bears, who are a collective 12–1. There’s a very good chance that those two weeks will rank as the ugliest in the history of the one of the worst franchises in modern NFL history.Mr. Barra is the author of “The Last Coach: A Life of Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.”

Giants, Jets Heading in Opposite Directions

Giants, Jets Heading in Opposite Directions

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