Photo: Ron Chenoy/USA Today Sports
The Yankees received back-page treatment from the New York Post and Newsday on Monday after they swept the overmatched Boston Red Sox in a weekend series that put them in a good position to win the wild-card. The Giants and Jets only received a skybox treatment of the back page after another usual Sunday loss.
It made sense the newspapers centered its back page on the Yankees than the two wretched NFL teams in town that are a combined 0-6 to start the season.
For the fifth straight season, the NFL season for the locals seems over after three games and before baseball’s regular season is over. Looking at the Giants’ next 11 games, they may not win any of them. The Jets are rebuilding, and they played like it in the last three games by being outscored 70-20 to start the season.
The rough start has become the norm here. Over the last 10 seasons, the Giants and Jets are a combined 20-49 in September. This explains right there why we haven’t had a winning football in these parts in quite some time.
Since the start of the 2017 season, the Jets and Giants each have an 18-49 record.
This is depressing, and it isn’t going to get any better. It’s not crazy to think either or both New York’s NFL teams may not win a game this season. I saw nothing to think it will happen.
We knew the Jets would be in for a long rebuild. There’s no excuse for the Giants to be this bad. They should have been 3-0 heading to their game against the New Orleans Saints in New Orleans Sunday. Instead, they lost all three games by playing poorly. In the first game, it was the defense that let Denver Broncos quarterback Teddy Bridgewater play like Y.A. Tittle. In the second game, Washington Redskins backup quarterback Taylor Heinicke threw for 336 yards that led to an eventual game-winning field goal by Dustin Hopkins aided by Dexter Lawerence’s offside penalty. In the third game, the Giants did not muster much on offense and their defense blew a 14-7 lead that helped Younghoe Koo kicked a game-winning field goal for the Falcons.
The Giants went through a rebuild for the last few seasons. By now, progress has to be made in Year 4 of the rebuild. If anything, they are getting worse. They can’t defend or score. They are not disciplined. There are no playmakers on both sides of the ball. This explains why fans booed John Mara when he spoke during Eli Manning’s halftime ceremony on Sunday.
If the Giants can’t beat the Denver Broncos, Washington Football Team and Atlanta Falcons, exactly how they are going to beat the Saints, Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Rams, Carolina Panthers, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders and defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers?
Giants fans know the score. They are obviously frustrated. It could just be once again a change that could be in the offering after this season. Giants general manager Dave Gettleman and Giants head coach Joe Judge could be on their way out, and once again, the Giants will go through the exercise of getting it right with a general manager and a head coach.
Mara struck out hiring coaches such as Ben McAdoo, Pat Shurmur and now Judge. He also struck out hiring Gettleman to replace Jerry Reese. Giants fans clearly don’t trust him to get it right when he has never gotten it right. Make no mistake. He is a major problem to why the Giants are one of the worst teams in the NFL.
If the Giants did not win the Super Bowl twice during Mara’s tenure, they would have been the Cleveland Browns in terms of losing. A few more awful seasons would make them the new Cleveland Browns.
As for Gang Green, what’s there to say? It’s the same as the last few seasons. Awful offense. Terrible defense. Getting blown out often. Not even first-year Jets head coach Robert Saleh’s energy can get this team going. After the Denver Broncos’ 26-0 shutout against the Jets on Sunday, it’s hard to be encouraged about this rebuild.
Here’s what troubling about this team: None of Joe Douglas’ draft picks turned out to be impact players so far. Mekhi Becton is the best of the bunch, but he is always hurt, so what good is he? Saleh has zero use for the inactive Denzel Mims since he never plays him for only reasons he knows. This year’s draft pick class has done nothing so far.
If Douglas can’t get it right with his draft picks, he will be no better than his predecessors John Idzik and Mike Maccagnan. This would mean he put his head coach and his quarterback Zach Wilson in a position to fail as his predecessors did with their head coach and quarterback.
We all knew the Jets would be bad, but the least they can do is show there is hope. Maybe they will do that later in the season. If they do, then there’s something to talk about. This has to be the best-case scenario.
Right now, the Jets fail on the eye test in so many categories from quarterback play to coaching. They also have no playmakers to build around. This team is no better than the Giants.
Instead of hoping for the best, the locals could be preparing for the worst. As in how bad exactly the Giants and Jets could be. Right now, both teams looked poised to make history by being the first 0-17 team in the NFL in the first season of a 17-game season.
The Giants and Jets play their first October game on Sunday at the same time, and there’s no reason to watch them on that day and anymore this season.
This is New York football in a nutshell. New York football fans are numb to this since it’s like this every year now. It got so old a long time ago.
Both teams show that there is no hope in the next few years, either.
