It is always good to see the Giants win one… though the season’s record is 3-6 even after Sunday’s upset victory.

Still, still, most commentators gave Big Blue no chance against the Los Angeles… er, Oakland… er, Las Vegas Raiders, the high-flying silver-and-black leaders of the AFC West.   It was nice to prove the talking heads wrong.

Credit for the win really belongs to the defense.   The Raiders outgained the Giants by a considerable margin, but time and time again the Gmen stiffened inside the red zone and forced Carr and company to settle for field goals in place of touchdowns.   In the end, that made all the difference.   A couple of key interceptions and a forced fumble and recovery at game’s end helped a lot as well.

Daniel Jones played an okay game, but most of the Giants offense came from the run.   That was especially encouraging since Saquon Barclay was still out, a positive test for covid coming in on top of his ankle woes.

Whether this represents any kind of positive omen for the rest of the season is hard to say, but it really doesn’t matter much.   This season is pretty well gone already.   But a hard-fought victory that comes down to the final seconds… that does put me in a considerably better mood.

Let us just say… life is full of ups and downs.

Who WERE those men in black?

They couldn’t have been the New York Jets, could they?   The same team that got spanked by the Falcons and humiliated by the Patriots?   No way.   I mean, they did things the Jets have not done all season.   Scored in the first quarter.   Took the lead.   Got first downs.   Throttled one of the highest scoring offenses in the NFL.   They ran, they passed, they scored.   And that quarterback who came off the bench, four years in the NFL and never started a game before… or even played, till last week.   Mike White?   Is that his name?  I doubt that even Fireman Ed knew it till last week.

But every Jets fan knows it now.   He passed for 400 yards!  Against a tough Bengals D.   No Jets quarterback has passed for 400 yards since Vinnie Testaverde, back in the dawn of time.   Chad Pennington never did it.  Mark Sanchez never did it.  Fitzmagic never did it, Geno never did it, Sam Darnold never did it.   Mike White did it.   He bounced back from a hellacious hit too.   And he caught the two point conversion on a trick play.

I love this guy.   He was everything Zach Wilson and Sam Darnold were supposed to be, but weren’t.

I know, I know.   It’s Halloween.   This must be some kind of trick.   I will wake up tomorrow and it will be Halloween all over again, and the game will have been a dream… a nightmare for Cincy.   Then I will have to watch the real game, and it will be a horror.

But meanwhile… what a treat!

The Jets should wear those black uniforms every week.

And Zach can take his time recovering.   Please.   I want to see if White is real (please please please please please).

Meanwhile, life is marvelous and full of joy.

Current Mood: giggly

Well, this Sunday was somewhat better.

The Giants won one, at least, defeating the Panthers and Sam Darnold… who got benched before the game was over.  Maybe the Jets did the right thing letting him walk after all.   The final score was pretty lop-sided, but only because Big Blue came on hard in the fourth quarter.   For most of the game it was 5-3.   Yes, really.   Daniel Jones looked good… as a receiver as well as a quarterback… but the win really belongs to the defense.   Let’s hope they can do it again.  (Though next week could be MUCH harder).

As for the Jets game, the less said, the letter.   Not a defeat, a humiliation.   Our kid QB looked awful, and then he got hurt.   Now he’s out two to four weeks.   Mike White, the guy who came off the bench, had never played in a regular season game before, but he threw a touchdown with his first pass.   All in all, he actually looked better than Zack Wilson.   Which did not help much, since the Pats were scoring every time they touched the ball.   I see that the Jets just traded for Joe Flacco today.   Whether to back up White or to replace him, I am not sure.   Was Flacco the best option, though?   They could have signed Cam Newton off the street, no draft choices required.

Guess we will find out.

Right now, looks like the Jets will be picking second in the 2022 draft.   Maybe first, if the Lions ever win a game.

Life is… well, mostly wretched, but once every few Sundays they let you win one.

Current Mood: discontent

Well, at least the Jets did not lose this weekend.

They had a bye.

The less said about the last two Giants games, the better.   It does not help that half the team seems to be injured, including half the offensive line and most of the top wideouts.   We had a rookie who was flashing some great moves at receiver, to be fair, but now he is hurt too.

The past few years — maybe longer than than, the months and years have been flashing by in a blur and I have lost track — I have pretty much forgotten what a “day off” looks like.   I have so much to do, so many projects, books and films and television shows, even a railroad, that I have been working seven days a week for longer than I care to remember.   EXCEPT during the NFL season, when I take Sundays off to watch the Jets and Giants games.   Sundays used to be a nice restorative for me.   The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat… usually, with two teams, there was a good chance that at least one of them would be competitive.

No longer.   The Jets and Giants are both awful, and the rare signs of progress (like two weeks ago) always prove illusory.

I do not have the energy to dissect games like today’s Giants loss to the Rams.

Life is miserable and full of pain.

Might as well work.

Current Mood: depressed