I returned from Mexico last night just in time to watch the amazing WESTWORLD finale, and the Giants – Steelers game, which Parris had TIVO’d for me.

WESTWORLD won, but the G-Men lost. Can’t say I was surprised, but I was disappointed. My fears were confirmed: the six game Giants win streak was more an artifact of weak opposition than it was an indication of the strength of Big Blue.

Against a strong team like Pittsburgh, New York’s weaknesses were exposed. There’s still no run game — second worst in the league, at present — and the offensive line is a turnstile. Eli gets no time to throw, they can’t open holes for the RBs, and Flowers is still holding on every other play and getting beat on the others. Injuries have not helped. Justin Pugh was a huge loss. That being said, it would help if Eli threw the ball to someone besides Odell from time to time. Victor Cruz was not targeted once.

The defense still looks stout, but injuries there hurt as well. JPP going out was very worrisome. He’s desperately needed.

It should also be said that Odell was not wrong in his postgame comments: the officiating was terrible, and very one-sided. The Steeler DBs got away with mugging ODB repeatedly, but that was far from all. The Pittsburgh O-line was holding flagrantly on several big plays from Big Ben, but was never called on it.

Honest officiating would not have made a difference, however. The Steelers would have won anyway. They were the better team yesterday.

These next four games are all tough ones. The Giants need to step it up, or they could very well lose all four.

The Giants got their sixth win in a row yesterday, which is great. Their longest win streak in years. Of course, it was against the hapless Cleveland Browns, who are racing toward an 0 -16 season and the first overall pick in next year’s draft. I’m informed that it still counts.

Odell Beckham had an amazing afternoon, catching two TDs and returning a kick for a third… though the last was called back on a penalty, pfui. And JPP had a monster game on the defensive side of the ball, the best he’s had since blowing off half his hand in a Fourth of July fireworks accident. Big Blue’s D seems to be getting better every game, and JPP is a big part of that. Victor Cruz had a nice catch as well.

On the other, the win was not nearly as convincing as it should have been, considering the quality of the opposition, and there was plenty to be concerned about as well. The Giants still have no running game to speak of, and the O-line is suspect. They don’t run block well, they don’t give Eli enough time, and Eric Flowers commits too many holding penalties.

So while I am pleased, I am still far from convinced that the G-Men are juggernauts. The Giants are now 8-3 and well positioned for a playoff run, but the real test for them lies ahead. The easy part of their schedule ended in Cleveland. Their last five games are all tough ones. The acid test will come in their rematch with the Cowboys, who they beat in the season opener. Dallas has not lost since. Rematches with the Redskins and Eagles also await them, along with games against the Steelers and Lions. Every one of those teams is formidable, and Eli and Company will need to be playing at the top of their form to beat any of them. I just hope the Giants have saved their best for last.

As for the Jets… sigh… well, they lost again. To the Patriots. What else is new?

To be fair, Gang Green played a pretty good game. If they had played that well in some of their earlier games, they might not be 3 – 8. But they didn’t, and they are. Fitz had a good game, except right at the end when it really counted.

At this point, I just don’t see the sense of starting Fitz. He’s not going to be with the team next season, and even if he does “give them the best chance to win,” winning a few more games this season is not going to make any difference. The Jets need to look to the future and start thinking about next season, and the season after. They need to see what they have in Bryce Petty. Yes, he’s young, he’s raw, he will make mistakes… but he won’t get better sitting on the bench. With rookie QBs like Carson Wentz and Dak Prescott tearing up the league, there’s no good reason for not playing Petty, who has been in the league a season longer than either. And if he’s NOT the answer, well, better to know that sooner rather than later…

The Giants won their fifth game in a row on Sunday.

It was, admittedly, not as convincing a win as I would have liked. The opponent was the woeful (this year, anyway) Chicago Bears, with the worst offense in the NFL, but even so the Giants came out sleepwalking during the first half and let the Monsters of the Midway take an early lead.

Thankfully, they woke up in the third quarter and took command, with a couple of nice touchdown drives that put them well ahead. Not far enough ahead for my comfort, mind you. Come the fourth quarter, the playcalling turned absurdly conservative. One more score would have sealed the game, but instead the G-Men played run, run, run, kick, trying to run down the clock… a rather dangerous tactic, given how much our run game sucks this season. The Bears could still have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat up to the last moment. It took a late Jay Cutler INT to nail down the win.

Landon Collins, who made the pick, looks like the real deal. A star in the making. The whole defense played well. They get better every week. Kudos to Spags, and all the guys on D, especially Snacks, Vernon, and JPP.

It was great to see Victor Cruz back as well.

So… five in a row… and a good shot at a wild card berth. Maybe even more, if the Cowboys stumble. The G-Men are the only team to beat them this year.

(The Jets avoided losing by having a bye).

I was in Arizona at Tuscon this past weekend, so I did not see the Jets game. Good thing, that. From what I heard, it was a truly abysmal performance. The only point of interest is that Bryce Petty started at QB, and did moderately well. I hope he continues to start for the rest of the year. The season is over, might as well see what we’ve got in Petty. Neither Geno nor Fitz is going to be on the team next season, I figure, and we do need a quarterback.

The Giants played Monday night, and won their fourth game in a row, a hard-fought one-point win over the Cincinnati Bengals. I did catch that one. Good game, too. Big Blue’s offense is still not the explosive juggernaut I was hoping for pre-season (Victor Cruz is badly missed, and there’s still no running game), but the defense is looking better every week. This victory belonged to the D. Let’s hope they continue to improve. And come back soon, Victor!

Tuscon was a pleasant, friendly, low-key con, by the way. They took good care of me, and I had fun. Signed a lot of books too.

A win is a win. And any win is better than a loss.

Still… it is hard to get to excited about the Jets’ victory yesterday.

They beat the Cleveland Browns. The hapless, winless Cleveland Browns, who are clearly the worst team in the NFL this season, stumbling ahead toward next year’s number one draft choice.

They barely beat the hapless, winless Cleveland Browns. In fact, they were losing for much of the game. Gang Green came out sleepwalking, and snoozed through the entire first half, allowing the Browns to run up a 20 – 7 lead. The offense was asleep, the defense was asleep, and Fitz was just awful.

They woke up in the second half, hallelujah, and scored 24 unanswered points to take the lead. Then, with the game seemingly in hand, they went back to sleep again in the final two minutes, to let Cleveland score a late TD and a 2-point conversion, so the whole thing came down to an onsides kick. Final score 31-28.

It was ugly and it was sloppy and it was way too close. A win, sure, but not one for a Jets fan to feel very good about. If the Jets are only twelve seconds and three points better than the Browns, it is hard to imagine they are going anywhere this year.

But at least it wasn’t a loss.

(The Giants had a bye)

Life is magical and full of joy? Well, that may be overstating the case this weekend. Let’s just say life is tolerable and full of hope.

By which I mean, hell yes, the Giants and the Jets both won this week, and that was good. But neither win was convincing enough to have me turning cartwheels. The Giants beat the Rams in London, and the Jets beat the Ravens at home. Neither of those teams is exactly a powerhouse this season, however, and both games were a lot closer than I would have liked or hoped.

The Giant offense was supposed to be lights out this year with Eli and three terrific wideouts, but it looked anemic yesterday. Big Blue has no running game whatsoever. The highlight of the game in London was an insane pick six runback by Landon Collins that changed the whole momentum of the game. Aside from that, and one cool catch by ODB, there wasn’t much.

As for Gang Green, well, this was the week that Geno Smith got his starting qb jon back. He held on to it for almost a quarter before an injury sent him back to the sidelines, and brought Fitz back in again. Good thing Fitz did not get hurt, since neither one of the young Jet quarterbacks was active. The win broke the losing streak, which is good, but at 2-5 the Jets have little or no chance of making the playoffs, so I think the debate over whether Fitz or Geno should start next week is pointless. It’s time to give Petty and Hackenberg some playing time, to see if either of them is the long awaited savior Jets fans have been waiting for since Joe Willie.

Ah, football Sunday…

The Giants came out looking like they were going to dominate the Redskins. Then they shot themselves in the foot. Then they shot themselves in the other foot. Then they shot themselves in the calves, the thighs… stupid penalties, fumbles, interceptions, more stupid penalties. Horrors.

The Jets missed their flight to Kansas City. I don’t know who those guys were wearing the green and white uniforms.

Life is meaningless and full of pain.

The NFL regular season is upon us. And with it, the agony and the ecstasy.

I got a taste of both yesterday from my two teams.

The Jets ripped my guts out and stomped on them with an agonizing one-point loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the morning game, as the Jets have a habit of doing. But in the afternoon game, the Giants made me smile and whoop and cheer with a rousing one-point win over the Dallas Cowboys.

A single point was the difference in both games. The difference between joy and despair.

Ah, we sports fans are a strange and peverse bunch. It really makes no difference whatsoever to my life whether my teams win or lose… yet somehow it makes a vast difference to my mood. And these close games are going to kill me, I swear. Even that wonderful Giants victory could easily have become a second agonizing defeat, if a certain Dallas wideout had cut right instead of left when he caught the game’s final pass from the rookie Cowboy qb.

Fwiw, the Jet defense looked formidable even in defeat, sacking Bengals qb Andy Dalton seven times. How Gang Green managed to lose the game despite that boggles belief, but after decades as a Jets fan, I am used to being boggled.

The Giants defense was not nearly as impressive… but given that last year Big Blue had the worst defense in the NFL, I still have to give them props. I had rather hoped the Giant offense would rack up hundreds of passing yards against a weak Dallas D and crush the boys, but that did not happen, alas. Still, they played well enough to win. Odell is still amazing, the rookie wideout Shepard looks like the real deal, but the real highlight of the day for me was seeing Victor Cruz catch a touchdown pass and do his salsa dance. Cruz is one of my favorite Giants of all time, a true Cinderella story, and a lot of people thought he would never make it back after his devastating injury two years ago. It was so great to see him dancing.

Ah, well. A long season awaits. More agony, more ecstasy.

P.S. I love Chris Berman, but NFL COUNTDOWN, long my favorite pregame show, is not the same without Tom Jackson. I missed Mike Ditka and Chris Carter too, but Jackson and Berman were the Huntley and Brinkley of sports.