At the conclusion of Sunday’s afternoon game between the New York Giants and the New York Jets at the facility that they share, MetLife Stadium, a New York team will have either one, two or three wins at the half-way mark of this football season, four wins combined.
Two of the worst football teams in this season’s NFL are the Jets and Giants. They’re so bad that either team could only beat the other. A game ending in a tie wouldn’t be surprising.
Both the Jets and Giants are coming off of losses. The 2 and 7 Giants to the playoff bound Dallas Cowboys and the 1 and 7 Jets to the Miami Dolphins, who until they played the Jets this past Sunday had zero wins. None. The Dolphins were a team that had apparently decided to tank before the season began, but they beat the Jets.
“I feel like crap,” but he wasn’t embarrassed, said Adam Gase, the Jets’ head coach after their 26-18 loss in Miami. “This is the NFL. You can’t be embarrassed by this sh- -.”
Embarrassed or not, Jets fans are rallying for Gase to be replaced after only eight games as the Jets’ coach, a half season. But according to Gase, he’s not focused on that right now. Gase’s focus? The job itself.
“My job is to try to get the team prepared every week. Get them ready to go. Get them focused on the game that we have to play.”
OK, being fair, excluding their first seven games, a fan must ask, how prepared were the Jets for Sunday’s 26-18 road loss to Miami, a team with even less wins in the NFL standings.
“Things haven’t gone the way that we wanted to, it’s just that’s what happens in the NFL,” explained Gase. “We’re going through it right now.” He believes, “We’ll be better for having to go through this.”
Jets fans never expected a post season, but what was expected was incremental progression at the quarterback position and defensively.
Sam Darnold thinks that there are some things that he can clean up.
“I think I can play a little bit faster, go through reads a little bit faster,” said the QB. “Then, as a team, I just think we need to keep improving.”
Darnold further explains, “We’ve put together drives every now and again that we show really good things, and then other times we go three-and-out.” He understands that whether it’s a penalty or bad decision, it’s affected them in the box score.
Gase believes in this team and is secure about the attitude of the locker room. “These guys are working hard to really turn things around, and that’s the number one thing for us.” They’re focusing on getting better every day, “not worrying about what happened the week before.”
What happens against the Giants this Sunday, Nov. 10, and the following Sunday in Washington, D.C. will determine if Gase is correct or not.