New York Football Is Back

 

 

By Andrew Rosario

 

 

The New York Football scene over the last decade has been, to be totally honest, abysmal. From poor coaching hires, to poor draft choice selections, both the New York Giants and New York Jets have had their fans wearing paper bags over their heads. After last year, things didn’t appear this season would be any different. The Giants record the last 5 years was 24-57. The Jets were worse with a 22-59 record. Big Blue entered the season with a new head coach in Brian Daboll who came over from the Buffalo Bills as their offensive coordinator. The Jets head coach Robert Saleh entered his second year as head coach coming over from the San Fransisco 49ers where he guided the team as their defensive coordinator. Both teams had injuries to their main players last year. The Giants running back Saquan Barkley and quarterback Daniel Jones missed significant time. The Jets quarterback Zach Wilson missed time with a knee injury. Coming into the 2022 season, Wilson gets hurt in the very first pre-season game, forcing the Jets to open the season with veteran quarterback Joe Flacco. The cries on “same old Jets” reverberated among the fan base. The Giants began the season with a healthy Barkley and Jones. Whether or not it would translate into victories remained to be seen. After this past Sunday, both teams showed they will be a force in their divisions. How deep they will go, if they make the playoffs, is anyone’s guess. What they have shown so far is that they are no longer Sunday pushovers.

 

 

The New York Football Giants (4-1) hosted the Baltimore Ravens and previous MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson at MetLife Stadium Sunday afternoon. If there was any advantage Big Blue had coming into the game, it was that their defensive coordinator Wink Martindale had the same position with the Ravens last year. By games end, the defense pressured Jackson every time he stepped back to pass. At times it back fired as the defense focused so much on Jackson, it opened up the other aspects of the Ravens running game. Baltimore gained 211 rushing yards led by Keynon Drake who ran for 119 yards and 1 touchdown. Jackson ran for 77 yards but was kept in check passing. He completed on 17 of 32 passes for 210 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception.

 

 

The Giants were down 20-17 when they came up with their first interception of the year. Jackson muffs the snap from the shotgun. Scrambling to his right, he attempts a pass as he gets pressured. Julian Love steps in front of Ravens fullback Patrick Ricard for the pick and returns it to the Ravens 13-yard line. Three plays later, aided by a Ravens pass interference penalty, Barkley hops in the end zone giving them the game winning lead. Said Daboll, “defense played the best when it counted the most.” 

 

It was another comeback victory behind Jones who finished his day passing for 173 yards, 2 touchdowns and more importantly, no turnovers. Barkley started slow but finished his day rushing for 83 yards and 1 touchdown. Said Barkley after the win, “there’s no panic in this team, at all.” Jones added, “we’re confident in what we can do and we’re confident in our toughness, our ability to compete and find ways to win down the stretch.”

 

The New York Giants surpassed their total win victory at 5 games from last year. They travel to Jacksonville this Sunday to face the Jaguars who lost to the Indianapolis Colts 34-27.

 

The New York Jets were coming off routing the Miami Dolphins the week before at MetLife Stadium 40-17 for their first division win in their last 12 games. Miami had started back-up quarterback Teddy Bridgewater as starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa missed another week due to concussion protocol. Bridgewater would get hurt early in the game and was replaced by third string QB Skylar Thompson. 

 

It was a totally different scene when Gang Green traveled to Green Bay to face future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. The same Packers who lost the week before to the New York Giants in London. By games end, the Jets imposed their defensive will over Rodgers and his offensive line coming away with their second straight win 27-10. The first half was a grind for both teams as the each could only manage a field goal going into the half tied at 3. The second half was all Jets as they outscored the Packers 24-7 for the 27-10 win.

 

When the defense wasn’t pressuring Rodgers (26-41, 1 td, 4 sacks) the offense ran rough shod over the Green Bay defense for a total of 179 yards. Running back Breece Hall led the team with 116 yards on 20 carries. Quarterback Zach Wilson had a pedestrian game as he only threw for 110 yards connecting on 10 of 18 passes with no touchdowns.

Saleh praised his defensive line saying, “we love our D-line. We think they’re a rolling ball of butcher knives, and there’s a lot of them that can play at a high level.”

 

The New York Giants entered week 6 with a 5-1 record. The Jets improved to 4-2 their best six game start since 2015 and are looking to improve Sunday when they travel to Denver to face the Broncos.

 

Both teams may not go to the playoffs this year but for the first time in what it seems like forever their fans have something to look forward come Sunday afternoon.