Denver Celebrates After Zuerlein Miss

Photo: Michael Henriquez – NY Beacon

MetLife Stadium

By Andrew Rosario

Bo Does Enough To Win

Photo: Michael Henriquez – NY Beacon

MetLife Stadium

It was a lost week for New York football fans as both the New York Giants and New York Jets could not take advantage of playing on their home field at MetLife Stadium. It began last Thursday night when the Giants took on their division rival Dallas Cowboys who were ripe for the picking having lost their previous two games. The Giants were coming off a road victory over the Cleveland Browns for their first win of the season. A win would have given them a 1-1 division record after losing to the Washington Commanders in which they did not give up a touchdown. Against Dallas, they could not get in the end zone, settling for 5 field goals in the 20-15 loss.

13 Straight For Dak Against The Giants

Photo: Special to the NY Beacon

The New York Giants had multiple chances to keep drives alive putting them in the position to get into the end zone. The first possession, quarterback Daniel Jones (29-40, 277 yards, no TD’s, 1 Int) needing 10 yards for the first down, throws a 6-yards pass to wide receiver W Robinson. It gave Big Blue an early 3-0 lead after a G Joseph 52-yard field goal. The only time they would be ahead.

Dallas and quarterback Dak Prescott (22-27, 221 yards, 2 TD’s) responded taking a 7-3 lead with a 12 play, 75-yard drive as running back Rico Dowdle gets behind the Giants secondary to haul in the 15-yard touchdown pass. New York would get within 1 (7-6) after another Joseph field goal (41 yards) and then Dallas would put another touchdown on the board as Prescott would connect with wide receiver CeeDee Lamb on a 55-yard pass play putting the Boys up 14-6. Jones would get the Giants down to the Cowboys to the 20 but again the drive stalled with the team settling for another Joseph field goal (38 yards) down 14-9 at halftime.

The Giants defense only gave up 6 points in the second half but the offense could only put up 6 points as they fell to 1-3 on the season. The Giants shut down the Dallas running game only allowing 80 total yards. Meanwhile, New York could not take advantage of a Dallas defense that had allowed 190 rushing yards against New Orleans in the 44-19 loss. The week before against the Baltimore Ravens, they gave up 274 rushing yards. Against Dallas, they ran the ball 24 times for a pathetic 26 yards. 

Head coach Brian Daboll talked about the offense strugggling when they got the ball deep in Dallas territory. “We got down in the red zone twice. We missed a couple opportunities. We just got to do a better job on converting some of these third downs and when we do get in the red zone, which the previous two weeks we have, is finishing off drives.”

Giants rookie wide receiver had another solid game (12 catches, 115 yards) but had to leave the game with a concussion and will be evaluated during the week. The Giants travel across the country when they play the Seattle Seahawks Sunday. The Seahawks lost to the Detroit Lions Monday 27-17 for their first loss of the season. The Lions improved their record to 3-1. 

The New York Jets hosted the Denver Broncos Sunday afternoon and were looking raise their record to 3-1 after coming off a road win against the Tennessee Titans. By the end of the day, like the Giants, they could not get into the end zone and the offensive line could not protect quarterback Aaron Rodgers (24-42, 184 yards)

who was sacked 5 times. Add 13 team penalties, 5 of them for false starts, leading to a depressing 10-9 loss. The weather wasn’t ideal but Gang Green could not use that as an excuse as both teams were subjected to the constant rain. 

Neither team would get on the board in the first quarter and the Jets took a 6-0 lead in the second on the foot of field goal kicker Greg Zuerlein who connected on kicks from 23 and 41 yards. On the drive leading to the first field goal, Rodgers moved the team to the Denver 1-yard line. They were going to try and get into the end zone on 4th down but were bitten by the false start bug and had to settle for the field goal. Said Rodgers, “We were kind of killing ourselves.’’

The third quarter would see the only touchdown of the day courtesy of Broncos quarterback Bo Nix. He guided them on a 11 play, 87-yard drive as he found wide receiver Courtland Sutton in the back of the end zone for the 8-yard touchdown reception. It didn’t help that cornerback Michael Carter ll was flagged for pass interference. Still, the Jets took their last lead of the day as Zuerlein connects on another field goal (40 yards) for a 9-7 lead. Denver went ahead 10-9 after a Wil Lutz 47 yards field goal. With the game winding down, Denver had a chance to go up by 4 forcing the Jets to get a touchdown in order to win the game. Lutz shanked the attempted 50 yarder giving the Jets a shot at stealing the game with a field goal.

Starting at their own 40 with 1:47 left, Rodgers misses on 3 pass attempts but manages to get the team to the Denver 32-yard line. Zuerlein’s 50-yard game winning attempt went wide right dropping the Jets Record to 2-2. The Broncos evened their record at 2-2. “There’s really no excuses, you just have to make that kick,” Zuerlein said afterwards.

Head coach Robert Saleh did not envision losing to a rookie quarterback at home. Neither did he expect his offense to implode. Said Saleh leading up to the game, “we had a great week of prep. Felt great energy pregame and even at halftime … the reality is it was going to be tough sledding no matter what because of the rain. What was disappointing was the self-inflicted wounds.” 

There seems to be a disconnect between Saleh and Rodgers that started the week before when Rodgers blew off an attempted Saleh hug after a Rodgers touchdown pass. The side eye stare as Rodgers walked away from Saleh was equally awkward.

Now the Jets look to right themselves when the travel across the pond to play the sizzling Minnasota Vikings and former 1st round Jets draft pick Sam Darnold. The Vikings (4-0) jumped out to 28-7 lead and held off the Chicago Bears (2-2) coming away with the 31-28 victory. Darnold finished day 20-28, 275 yards and 3 touchdowns. Darnold will not need any extra incentive when he faces his former team.