An Inauspicious Beginning

 

By Jimmy Russotto

9/17/07

For any NY sports fan, the games yesterday of both the Giants and the Jets have to be totally disappointing.  And the Mets did us no favors by throwing in their worst performance of the season against the Phillies, their toughest competition for the NL pennant.

The Giants have NO DEFENSE.  No pass defense whatever.  Shown above is the sorry R.W. McQuarters, to me the worst offender (I can't call him a DEfender).  All any of the Giants corners do is WATCH wide people catch the ball..their idea of defense is to chase the receiver around, being careful to stay a few yards away from him, then to make a nice tackle AFTER he catches the ball.  Sometimes, they don't even do that.  As a former cornerback myself, I am appalled.  This is totally unwatchable.

Oh yes, and there is ALSO no pass rush, not that it would make a difference with these secondary people.  Madison, McQuarters, et al, there's NOBODY who ever makes a play.  In Week 1, they made the Cowboys Tony Romo into the second coming of John Elway.  Every pass in the air found its way into the receivers' hands.  In Week 2, Brett Favre was the recipient of the Giants generosity, although Brett doesn't need to be compared to anyone.

Tom Coughlin is a horrible coach, by any and seemingly all honest accounts.  Besides being a ridiculous disciplinarian, alienating every player with whom he communicates and making the game a nightmare of rigid high school rules, he ALSO can't apparently coach.  (And while I'm at it, what other NFL team is allowed to draft the coach's son-in-law at #2)? 

This is a managerially-defunct organization.  Steve Spagnuolo, the new defensive coordinator, should be fired immediately.  Tim Lewis was Buddy Ryan compared to this guy.  Nobody has a clue.  Here's a guy who tries to turn one of his best defensive lineman into some half-assed linebacker.  It can't be done.  Obviously.  This GM Jerry Reese has no clue either.  Here's a team that had a problem LAST YEAR with pass defense, and yet did nothing in free agency to improve the situation.  And, while he did draft Aaron Ross as a cornerback, he hasn’t proven good enough to crack the starting lineup yet, this despite the dramatic failures of R.W. McQuarters.  The ownership has no clue either.  Wellington Mara, God bless his soul, could never make good decisions.  Yet Coughlin was his choice.  John Mara and Steve Tisch should sell the team.

This writer is old enough to recall the years when the NFL Commissioner had to rescue the team from the feuding Mara brothers for the good of the NFL.   The Commissioner appointed George Young as the General Manager, the best move the franchise ever made.  It marked the beginning of the Giants' runs to the Super Bowl Championships.  Those days are long gone.  The ownership has to start paying attention.  This team is awful.

 

Disappointment in The Jets takes a different form.  Their team has great management and good players but no results as of yet and, worse yet, no luck..  Embarrassed by the Patriots in Week 1, their hard luck continued into Week 2 as the powerful Baltimore Ravens knocked the Jets around for 3 quarters before the Jets came alive in the 4th quarter under new wunderkind QB Kellen Clemens.  Clemens, who started the game for the injured Chad Pennington, threw at least 3 potential TD passes in the 4th quarter, all dropped by the Jets receivers, two by Justin McCareins, one by an otherwise fine Lavernaues Coles. 

 

What’s disappointing are two things really.  The first is the Jets schedule.  Besides gettting the Pats twice, they must also face the Eagles, Steelers, Dallas and Tennessee, all probably playoff-bound. They can probably give the Bengals a good game, and MAY be able to beat Buffalo and Miami twice apiece, and if they can, they may have a shot at the playoffs.  I see them at no better than 8-8.

 

A second factor that may weigh against the Green is a budding QB controversy between Clemens and Pennington.  Chad, despite his obvious leadership abilities, does not have a big arm and should probably be replaced right now.  But he won’t be.  Clemens has a much better arm, a little better mobility, and would give them a chance of taking on and beating some of the tough teams on their schedule.

 

So instead of watching an explosive, throw it down the field type offense, we get to watch the slow, plodding, dink and dunk predictable Jets offense we’ve seen through all the years of Pennington.

 

The Jets have a fairly porous defense as well.  Although they stopped the Ravens running game, it is not likely that they can consistently stop the run.  And, although the rookie corner Darrell Revis has exceeded all this writer’s expectations thus far, their pass defense is still not of the caliber needed to stop QB’s they will face this year, guys like Brady, McNabb and Carson Palmer.

 

The Mets were awful on Sunday.  Seven errors is inexcusable.  They gave the Phils new life and this race is not yet over.  Many fans and the media are looking forward to the Mets easy schedule coming down the stretch, but, playing as they did on Sunday, they’ll have trouble beating ANY professional baseball team.

 

This writer is hoping that with the return of Carlos Delgado, the Mets will regain their former pluck and toughness.  Delgado is another proven producer in that lineup, and plays a better first base than either Shawn Green or Jeff Conine.  Conine has been especially disappointing thus far and appears to be one of those guys with warning track power.  Jeff Conine scares nobody.

 

There are some reasons for hope of course.  I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the showing of Lastings Milledge lately, who brings speed and power to the lineup and appears to be a much better outfielder than Shawn Greeen.

 

So let’s go already, METS.