Thank You, Giants. Sincerely, Every Jets Fan

Despite Their Own Bevy Of Mistakes, Gang Green Gifted Another Miraculous Victory

In a game neither team deserved to win, a tie would have seemed apropos. Credit the Jets, though, for taking it. Gang Green pulled out a miraculous 13-10 victory in overtime over the host Giants at MetLife Stadium on Sunday because they made one less critical error.

That error was a 30-yard pass interference penalty on Giants cornerback Adoree’ Jackson on a third-and-five that gave the Jets new life at the 15-yard line, well within the range for Greg Zuerlein to kick the game-winning 33-yard field goal.

That play, too, could have easily gone awry, as holder Thomas Morstead, perhaps the Jets’ most valuable player on Sunday after four of his 11 punts (the most he’s ever had in one game in his 15 NFL seasons) pinned the Giants deep, handled a difficult snap and Zuerlein tucked the kick just inside the left upright.

Contrast that with Giants kicker Graham Gano, who missed two of his three field goal attempts, including a 35-yarder with 24 seconds remaining that would have forced the Jets to engineer a touchdown drive without any timeouts.

And that was just the story of the kicking game. In between:

The Giants finished the game with minus-9 yards net passing, a franchise-record low for both the Giants’ offense (at least since 1933, when the stat was first tracked) and the Jets’ defense.

Jets quarterback Zach Wilson fumbled twice, including one on fourth-string center Xavier Newman’s first snap after he was forced into action when Connor McGovern and Wes Schweitzer were both sidelined with leg injuries. Rookie second-round pick Joe Tippman was already inactive with a leg injury.

In addition to the Jets’ woes at center, defensive tackle Al Woods tore his Achilles. Meanwhile, Giants quarterback Tyrod Taylor injured his ribs from being tackled on a scramble and had to be taken to a local hospital while tight end Darren Waller, who tied for the team with four receiving yards, was lost for the game due to a hamstring injury. (Goddamn MetLife turf--and the Mara’s and Johnson’s too—they were probably yukking it up in their suites counting the money they were saving when they could be splitting the cost of installing/maintaining a grass field).

The Giants were 2-for-19 on third downs; the Jets 2-for-15.  

The Jets committed FOUR unnecessary roughness penalties, plus a 15-yard face mask, and an utterly stupid offside penalty by Michael Clemons before the Giants could punt the ball back with 7:21 remaining. Instead, the foul enabled the Giants to bleed another 4:43 of the clock after that resulting first down.   

Though there was no excuse for Gano shanking that last kick, the Giants blew a couple of opportunities to ice the game following their fourth-down sack of Wilson with 1:26 remaining. Starting on the Jets 26-yard line, running back Saquon Barkley appeared to give himself up after a six-yard gain, possibly fearing a fumble if he tried to maximize yardage. However, get a first down there and it’s three kneel-downs to run the clock out, or very close to it. OK, so now it gets to fourth-and-1. Going for it is a 65% conversion percentage in general; if successful, it’s victory formation time. I get that they were down to third-string practice squad quarterback Tommy DeVito, but he had showed a proclivity for running the read option with Barkley, so what’s the worst that could have happened? The Jets, who to that point couldn’t block anybody, would have still needed to go some 45-50 yards just to have a chance to send the game to overtime.  

Of course, after harassing Wilson all day—the Jets’ sole score was on a 50-yard dump-off-and-scamper by electric running back Breece Hall—the Giants sat back on the final fourth quarter possession and allowed a pair of receptions in the middle of the field totaling 58 yards. Unlike that pre-halftime blunder in Denver in Week 5, Wilson made it to the line to spike the ball with one second remaining this time so Zuerlein could tie it at the gun.

Oh, the Jets were only able to get off two scrimmage snaps before Zuerlein’s field goal because Giants edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux jumped offsides on first down, not only giving Gang Green a free play that netted 29 yards to Garrett Wilson, but also stopping the clock until the ball was set. Zach Wilson then connected with Allen Lazard for another 29 yards before the spike.

The bad Wilson: So much for my prior post about how well he had been processing opposing blitzes. Through 59:30, he had been an ugly 14-for-31 for 171 yards with four sacks taken. That one on the aforementioned fourth down was inexcusable—he had time to just get rid of the ball as he was rolling right before Thibodeaux tracked him down from behind. The rain wasn’t to blame for several missed gimme throws either, including a bounce to Hall in the flat early in the fourth quarter that had explosive potential.

If I missed something, forgive me. It was a game tape to burn, not review.  

In his remarks to the assembled media after the game, Saleh noted that when it comes to winning NFL games, people “don’t ask you ‘how?’, they ask, ‘how many?’” The Jets (4-3) now have three such victories where the “how” could be analyzed by the most expert football forensics teams for years without them coming to any consensus agreement.

Well, other than that the opponents’ largesse played a significant role.

Photo by: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports