The Jets and Giants meet up coming off of encouraging wins
The Jets and Giants will play each other this Sunday at MetLife Stadium, their shared home field, for the second time in a little over three months. They met there on August 26 in a preseason game won by the Jets 32-24.
That contest is meaningless now and seems far removed from the two teams’ current circumstances.
Neither expected to be gasping for air heading into Week 8 of the NFL schedule. The 3-3 Jets are floating on a life preserver after a shockingly impressive 20-14 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife two Sundays ago. The 6-1 Eagles are arguably the best squad in the league, aligned with the 6-1 Kansas City Chiefs as the only one-loss teams out of 32.
The Jets are third in the AFC East behind the 5-2 Miami Dolphins and 4-2 Buffalo Bills. They are coming off of their bye-week, so they have had ample time to rest, recover, and prepare for the Giants.
“There’s a lot of excitement over beating Philadelphia,” said Jets head coach Robert Saleh earlier this week. “It was a great atmosphere—everyone was pretty charged after the game, but you don’t approach any game differently than you do any other game. Obviously, the Giants—it’s another championship opportunity. And the…whole mindset of ‘go to bed better than you woke up’—you’re always attacking things like it’s a championship moment.”
Conversely, the 2-5 Giants are last in the NFC East but have built momentum after a hard-fought 14-9 road loss to the Bills on October 15 and a grind-it-out win last Sunday against the 3-4 Washington Commanders at home.
Still, the Giants have not proven to be consistently competent on both sides of the ball. In fact, collectively at times, they have looked like the worst team in the NFL. But they have shown improvement over the past two weeks, notably with Tyrod Taylor at quarterback in the absence of QB1 Daniel Jones, who is recovering from a neck injury suffered in a Week 5 31-16 defeat to the Dolphins in Miami.
As of yesterday, Jones had not been medically cleared to play. It is no coincidence that the Giants’ progress has coincided with the return of Saquon Barkley. The Giants’ best offensive player missed Weeks 3, 4, and 5 after sustaining a high right ankle sprain versus the Arizona Cardinals on September 17 in Week 2.
“As you go through the week, it’s important to know who your guy is going to be at really any position,” said Giants head coach Brian Daboll regarding Jones’s status. “You have strategy and backup plans if that’s not the case. Certainly, it’s an important position. Each week we go into it, it’s ideal when you know who your quarterback is versus who it’s not.”
All-Pro left tackle Andrew Thomas has played in just one game: the season opening 40-0 loss against the Dallas Cowboys on September 10, shut down with a hamstring injury. The Giants are hopeful that he’ll be ready to go this Sunday after missing six straight.
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