EL BARRIO, EL FALLS – Happy Monday. The final week of the NFL season just unfolded. I won’t touch on the Damar Hamlin incident only because there has been so much news on it, and now it’s positive. I am happy that man is alive and seemingly on the road to a full recovery. God bless the quick-thinking medical staff on both teams, especially the CPR people. That said, here’s today’s slate: Jets Lose to End Season, Giants Lose and Bills Win
Jets Lose to End Season
The NY Jets season is finally over. Right now, J-E-T-S fans are glad the season is over. Like most of them, I would have taken more than doubling the number of wins from last season and playing meaningful games late in the year. Collectively, us Gang Green fans would have been happy. How it played out, however, was just cruel and heartbreaking. Even more than normal for the Jets. They were 1-2 and then went to 5-2, 6-3, and even 7-3. It looked like playoffs were possible. Then it went south as they went on a 6-game losing streak, finding all kinds of different ways to lose. The special teams would miss field goals and allow returns for TDs. The defense would bend and not break… mostly. There were times, though, that they failed to make key stops on 3rd and 4th down. At critical times, they’d commit a penalty and give a fresh set of downs.
HOWEVER…
The biggest killer was the offense. It was just unable to score when needed and they made simple plays look difficult. The Jets lost their final game to the Dolphins 11-6. The defense allowed only 9 points but that was more than the offense could muster. The D did get a crucial 3rd down stop but typically gave up 15-yard penalty in the process. This led to Miami gaining enough yards to make the winning field goal. The offense looked weak – again. Part of that is the 9 different players on the offensive line because of injury. I have more to say about the current Jets goals in the offseason, but we have a whole 8 months for that.
Giants Lose
The New York Giants lost a meaningless game (for them) to the Philadelphia Eagles. Philly need the win to secure the #1 seed throughout the playoffs, while the Giants were already locked into the 6th seed. The Jints sent out some guy name Davis Webb at QB and treated it like the final game of the preseason. It may have saved the bodies of Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley but considering how the Giants aren’t exactly a really good team, I thought playing well with the starters, maybe getting a win, and taking the momentum into the playoffs would have been a better call.
Bills Win to Clinch 2nd
Due to the cardiac arrest that ended the Bills-Bengals game, the NFL decided to not count the game. This allowed the Chiefs to cruise to the #1 seed and essentially meant that the Bills were locked into the 2 seed, with the Bengals as the 3-seed… as long as Buffalo and Cincy won. When you combine that with the Bills playing at home following the Hamlin incident, it was not gonna be a fun time for the Patriots. New England fought to keep the game competitive but the Da Bills made all the plays on both sides of the ball and comfortably brought home the win.
Thanks for reading and feel free to comment below. Check out Ben Whitney, who will debate my point that the Giants should have played starters and tell us who [bleep] Davis Webb is.
P.s… How about this for improbable? Everything the Jets aren’t?
