Cardiac kids avoid 'Same Old Jets' type loss in last-second stunner vs. Giants
The Jets rip a win out of the jaws of defeat to knock-off the Giants. Plus, more on the ugliest of wins ever.
What’s Up with the Jets? 🛩️
The Jets won their third straight game, defeating the Giants by a 13-10 score in overtime at MetLife Stadium (box)
New York trailed 10-7 with 24 seconds remaining and no timeouts, yet were able to drive down the field in order to set up a game-tying field goal to force OT
QB Zach Wilson was shaky in the victory, going 17/36 (47.2 percent) for 240 yards, a touchdown, no interceptions and two lost fumbles
RB Breece Hall struggled to get anything going on the ground, rushing for 17 yards on 12 attempts, but hauled in six receptions for 76 yards and a touchdown in the victory
Cs Connor McGovern (knee) and Wes Schweitzer (calf) both exited the game with injuries and will be reevaluated tomorrow
The Jets are the first team this season to have to use three different centers in one game
DL Al Woods will miss the remainder of the season with a torn Achilles
New York’s defense held the Giants to negative nine passing yards in the game, the lowest number in NFL history
The Jets are now 2-0 in overtime this season, have had four come-from-behind wins and haven’t lost to the Giants over the last 12 years
Game Balls 🏈
SPECIAL TEAMS
🏈 Thomas Morestead & Greg Zuerlein: Honestly, you could argue that these two players were THE players of the game for the Jets. Morestead was incredible as a punter in a game that featured a helluva lot of them, consistently flipping field position and pinning the Giants deep in their own territory with some absurd boots. And then Greg “The Leg,” who has looked a whole lot like Nick Folk this year, nailing the game-tying field goal with zeroes on the clock and the walk-off kick in overtime.
OFFENSE
🏈 Garrett Wilson: Despite very shoddy quarterback play, even worse play calling and horrible weather conditions, Garrett Wilson truly willed this team to victory in this one. After Giants corner Deonte Banks requested to shadow Wilson on the field this week, Wilson had his way with the rookie with seven catches for 100 yards while drawing two pass interference calls. Even with the Giants knowing he was Zach Wilson’s only true threat at wide out, Wilson was still able to break free on the final drive of regulation and convert a catch that set-up an incredibly unlikely field goal attempt to tie the game.
DEFENSE
🏈 Everyone: Once again, I’m giving the entire defense the game ball on this one. They didn’t force a turnover in this one, but that is mainly because of the Giants unbelievably conservative game plan. Aside from one drive where some awful and undisciplined penalties moved the ball more effectively than the Giants ever could, the Jets defense was once again incredible. New York’s defense held their opponent to negative nine passing yards and 3.9 yards per carry on the ground in the win.
Play of the Week 📺
I can’t believe it either but in a game like this, the play of the game actually came on offense. Now, this is probably mostly because the defense had no jump-off-the-page, game-changing moment and the two field goals by Greg Zuerlein, while extremely clutch, were relative chip shots, but this play was massive nonetheless.
With 24 seconds to go and no timeouts, this game was over. This game was more over than the Eagles one even appeared to be. But thanks to a missed 35-yard field goal by Graham Gano, there was at least a sliver of life for the Jets in this one.
On the first play of the drive, Zach Wilson managed to step up in a collapsing pocket and find Garrett Wilson for a gain of nearly 30 yards to set the Jets up at midfield and give them an honest to God shot to tie this game. What was even more massive on this play, though, was that Giants edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux was called for an offsides which stopped the clock after the completion – if not for that, the Jets odds of forcing overtime are that much slimmer, if not entirely impossible.
One play after this, Allen Lazard caught another huge pass which set up a game-tying field goal attempt with one second remaining. The rest is history.
Winning ugly in the most literal of ways… ✍️
Boy, I’ve heard of winning ugly before but few have ever been uglier than that one on Sunday.
The Jets are once again the champions of this year’s installment of the Slop Bowl vs their in-city rival Giants and, well, it certainly beats losing.
For three quarters, 11 minutes and 36 seconds, this had all the makings of one of those “same old Jets” types of losses. The team had two weeks to prepare for this game coming off their bye, were playing a bad 2-5 team that they had far more talent than, and even got a break when their backup quarterback went down in favor for their third string rookie who had yet to play an NFL snap. And yet with just a minute to go in this game, the Jets were somehow losing this game.
Every mistake you could make, the Jets made. Every stupid penalty that you could think of, they committed. Every unfathomable foolish play call you could conceive, Nathaniel Hackett called. The quarterback was really bad in this one, and the Jets coaching staff deserved (and let’s face it, they still deserve it) all of the smoke for one of the worst performances you will ever see coming off of a bye week.
This game was so “over” that the wrap-up tweets from the beat writers and the “same old bullshit” lament came from every single Jets fan I know. And then the impossible happened.
With 24 seconds to go and no timeouts left, after the Giants missed a 35-yard field goal that, honestly, didn’t feel all that important at that moment, the Jets had the ball one last desperate hope. In that moment, I don’t think a single person watching this game, no matter what side you were rooting for, expected what was about to come next.
First, Zach Wilson was able to step up in the pocket and avoid pressure to find Garrett Wilson for a huge gain to get the ball to midfield, and on top of that the Jets got a massive helping hand from Kayvon Thibodeaux whose offsides penalty stopped the clock at 17 seconds. On the very next play, Wilson was able to connect with Allen Lazard for another big gain, but it looked as if it may be too late as it was a pass to the middle of the field as time continued to tick away.
“They’re gonna run out of time!” I shouted at my television, hands atop my head.
But this time Wilson and the Jets would not repeat their mistake from Denver and they were able to spike the ball with one single second remaining on the clock. And even though I know that about 90 percent of Jets fans expected him to miss it, Greg “The Leg” nailed the last-second field goal and stunningly forced this game to overtime where they’d soon win it on yet another field goal.
As stunning and as ugly a Jets win as you’ll ever see, and I still don’t think I’ve fully processed what in the absolute hell happened at MetLife Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
There’s still a world of issues that the Jets have to solve, because they simply cannot expect to survive too many more games with an offense and quarterback play that is that bad, and the coaching left a whole lot to be desired in this one, but this is a team that has been incredibly resilient all season long and one that we’ve seen play up to competition just as often as they’ve had ugly wins against lesser foes. And you know what, I’d rather be nitpicking an ugly win than having to be a huge crybaby and struggling to cope with a loss like WFAN’s resident blowhard Shaun Morash.
So, we’ll take this win and move on with our season because unlike the Giants, we actually still have one.
Next Week’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Jets (4-3) vs. Chargers (3-4)
Where: MetLife Stadium – East Rutherford, NJ
When: 8:15 PM EDT
Where to Watch: ESPN
Around the NFL 🏁
Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill became the first player in NFL history to reach 1,000+ yards over their first eight games of the season in the team’s 31-17 win over the Patriots
Vikings QB Kirk Cousins is believed to have torn his Achilles in Minnesota’s 24-10 victory against the Packers
The Broncos ended their 15-game losing streak to the Chiefs that spanned over eight seasons as they defeated Kansas City, 24-9
The Cowboys dominated the Rams thanks to a huge afternoon from WR CeeDee Lamb, winning 43-20
The Jaguars won their fourth straight game to go to 6-2 on the year, beating the Steelers by a 20-10 score
Despite QB Brock Purdy starting after a concussion issue earlier in the week, the 49ers lost their third consecutive game as the Bengals won 31-17
Seahawks QB Geno Smith threw a go-ahead touchdown to WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the final minute as Seattle knocked off the Browns, 24-20