Niagara Falls, NY – Happy Monday. I normally like to keep it short on Mondays, but I’ll go a little longer today. On the menu: the Jets finally get a win, a review for the New York Rangers, and a look at the first week of basketball for the New York Knicks. Plus, I’m going to take a moment to remember Nick Mangold.
NY Jets
The Jets finally got a win yesterday, 39-38, over the resurgent Cincinnati Bengals.
The defense, which had seemed to find its form the last two weeks, really looked out of sorts. However, they did just enough when it mattered to give the offense a chance to win the game.
The offense finally found some form. Breece Hall ran for two touchdowns and threw for another. Justin Fields also looked much better, like it was the first week of the season. The offense managed to put up yards, full credit to the young offense line and some of the younger, unknown receivers were catching balls and moving the sticks, including a touchdown. It was a great win just before the bye.
NY Knicks
The Knicks opened the season with wins against Cleveland and Boston, but losing last night to the Heat. It’s still early, so it’s tough to know what this team will be down the road.
The Knicks look to be using more players. They have a couple of injuries, but it seems like under the Mike Brown era, they are much more willing to use the bench. Brown seems to believe in using a more 10-to-11-man rotation to keep everybody fresh and involved. This is very different from last year under Tom Thibodeau, who used pretty much an eight-man rotation.
We’ll see how this works for the team’s stars later in the season, but so far, they look good. Two wins and being competitive in their loss are all positive signs.
NY Rangers
The Rangers had a terrible week, to put it plainly. They lost all three games in different ways. Last night, they were completely outplayed from the first period in their opening game of a West Coast swing in Calgary, Losing 5-1. They’ll be heading to Vancouver, then Edmonton, then Seattle.
I don’t know if they’re going to get themselves right on the road like this, but the team is desperate for more consistency. Their star players like Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, and Alexis Lafrenière need to start making plays. The defense hasn’t been great but it feels like there is more pressure on the defense because the offense and Power Play units have been poor.
Nick Mangold
I was shocked to see the announcement yesterday that former Jet Nick Mangold has passed away. Apparently, he announced last month that he had a rare genetic kidney dysfunction and was searching for a donor, but unfortunately, it didn’t come in time.
He was only 41. It’s just wild because he was such a part of that great Jets run. He’s already in the team’s Ring of Honor and, along with D’Brickashaw Ferguson, was probably one of the two best Jets offensive linemen of the last quarter-century. A draft pick who became a legend. Rest in peace to an awesome player and a great guy.
Thanks for reading and comment below. Come back tomorrow to hear from Ben Whitney.
