Jets and Giants begin the season with high expectations
The dress rehearsals are over.
From this point on, each of the Jets and Giants 17 regular season games will be extremely consequential. Both begin Week 1 playing nationally televised primetime games against division rivals expected to contend for the Super Bowl.
The Giants face the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday at 8:20 p.m. and the Jets play the Buffalo Bills on Monday at 8:15 p.m. Both games will be held at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
The early part of the schedule for the Jets and Giants will be critical determinants of their postseason goals. In addition to the Bills, the Jets will play the Cowboys (Week 2), New England Patriots (Week 3), defending Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs (Week 4) and reigning NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles, who lost to the Chiefs 38-35 in last season’s Super Bowl, Week 6.
Five of the Giants first six opponents are teams that made the playoffs last season. Based on the combined winning percentages of NFL teams last season, the Giants are tied with the Patriots and Cowboys for the third toughest schedule in the league this season. So by mid-October both the Jets and the Giants will already have gone through what now appears to be a perilous gauntlet.
“I think the biggest thing in the early parts of the year for games is making sure that you are really focused on the things that you can control,” said Giants head coach Brian Daboll to the media on Tuesday via Giants.com, “which is your execution of the plays, whether it’s an offensive play or the defensive looks that we get out here and really focusing on your fundamentals, your techniques, your communication, [and] all the things that help you play well.
“That puts even more of a premium on it in the early part of the season because, again, you usually have a log of a few games here in the beginning part of the year after, call it, October. We are going to have to do a good job of executing our stuff against a really good team.”
Daboll is acutely aware that attention to detail and limiting costly mental mistakes will be crucial to his team avoiding an under .500 start after completing the early six-week stretch.
Jets general manager Joe Douglas, entering his fifth season as the team’s GM, who was part of Super Bowl-winning teams with the Philadelphia Eagles (vice president of player personnel) and Baltimore Ravens (scout), said the Jets are embracing being projected as a lofty contender.
“We’re not running or hiding from any expectations that are out there,” Douglas said last week via Jets.com. “I think when the dust settles, you want to be in the conversation as one of those teams that can compete for a Super Bowl. You get a ticket into the dance and anything can happen.
“… But we’re really not looking any further than the Buffalo Bills. Three-time defending AFC East champions are coming into MetLife and we know what kind of task that is to compete against them.”
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