The NY Coverage of This Giant-Jets Game is Bourbon for My Soul
Source 1 - Perhaps the most irritating part of this disastrous Jets season is the barrage of penalties. Adam Gase’s team has prompted a litany of laundry for myriad reasons.
The Jets have had the second most flags (10.75) and penalties (8.75) per game in the league at the halfway point. ...
Undisciplined teams rack up penalties. Typically, an undisciplined group is an indictment on coaching. There’s a bulls-eye on Gase for the sloppiness. ...
The Jets have gone backwards since last season when they finished 11th in penalties per game (7.13) and 13th in penalty yards per game (59.25). ...
They’re more undisciplined now than they ever were under Bowles.
Source 2 - Ezekiel Elliott said he’s never faced less resistance in a big rushing performance than he did on Monday from the Giants, gaining 139 yards on 23 carries.
“It was the easiest 140 yards I’ve ever gained,” the Cowboys’ star running back said. “I don’t even know If I broke a tackle (at the first level). I just ran inside the scheme. (Our offensive linemen) just mauled them up front. Thank them for making it easier on me. (You) got to love the big fellas.”
Elliott’s comment is a stinging indictment of Dave Gettleman’s roster, especially since both the Giants’ offensive and defensive lines got overpowered. Saquon Barkley (14 carries, 28 yards) was a non-factor as a ball-carrier while Elliott did what he wanted.
Source 3 - This is not to say Daniel Jones is most responsible for the Giants laboring along at 2-7, facing further embarrassment if they lose Sunday to the 1-7 Jets. ...
Jones on Wednesday was not yukking it up with his teammates. He made a slow walk to his locker to start up his weekly media session and the questions thrown at him followed a similar theme: Why is this not working? Why is that not working? What about the interceptions? What about the fumbles? ...
“There was one he went out of bounds and got waylaid by some guy with a boom mic,’’ Shurmur said, sounding irritated. “I don’t know what you do about that. Those guys got to be fitter to get the heck out of the way.’’
Source 4 - The Jets season careened off the tracks quicker than usual this season and now the team is dealing with an angry fan base, uncertainty around its coach and, barring a miraculous turnaround, another lost season in what has been a lost decade.
At the midway point of the season, the 1-7 Jets are a mess. They have been plagued by injuries, an offense that can’t move the ball and some odd off-field issues. All of it has led to questions about whether coach Adam Gase should be fired after one season and left fans with little hope.
It's moments like these that leave me no choice but to go to one of my favorite all time quotes. These are the probably the words I'll have tattooed on my neck if society ever gets to the point where words tattooed on one's neck don't all basically say "I HAVE TERRIBLE JUDGMENT. DON'T HIRE, DATE OR BEFRIEND ME" in creative fonts. The quote has been attributed to many people, though as far as I can tell it originated with a Broadway producer named David Merrick. And he said "It is not enough that I succeed; Others must also fail."
So true. So very, very true. Even if we're not talking about a zero-sum game like an NFL season, where every win is somebody else's loss and the entire ecosystem will always finish .500, even if we're talking about life itself, it's simply not possible to experience true happiness until you learn to enjoy the failure in others.
The cliche would be to talk about Schadenfreude. But I prefer a better German word. (Note: For some reason, there are more German words to describe the suffering of others than the Inuits have words for "snow." Go figure.) And the word is Fremdschamen. It means to be embarrassed for someone who should be embarrassed for themselves, but they lack the capacity to do so. Think of watching your friend make an ass out of himself trying to impress his new girlfriend, someone bombing at the karaoke mic or 75% of the things that Michael Scott ever did or said.
That's how I get pleasure out of a Week 10 game between the Giants and the Jets in which the two have a combined record of 3-14. In which they are 23rd and 31st in Points scored, and 25th and 29th in Points Allowed. And yet somehow have managed to go into this one playing their worst football. If I'm not looking around and counting how many Franchise Saviors are on both sidelines, I'm simply not getting the most out of life. If I don't go back to all optimism of all the press conferences involving the coaches and draft picks that were going to "turn things around," then what is the point of all of this? If I can't fully appreciate watching this cripple fight every few seasons:
… then I can't fully appreciate my own reality.
So thanks, universe. It's games like the 1-7 Jets against the 2-7 Giants that make life truly worth living.