Results tagged “football”

For those that thought the Giants' overtime win over the Falcons last week spelled a turn around, think again. New York gave up the first 16 and final 10 points in a 26-6 loss to Denver on Thanksgiving night. That drops the Giants to 6-5 and puts them in a world of hurt in the NFC East. The Giants, who snapped a four-game losing streak of their own Sunday, helped the Broncos break theirs. Denver held the Giants to 57 yards rushing and sacked Eli Manning three times. Big Blue's quarterback needed 40 attempts to accumulate 230 yards and an interception.

The Giants stayed out of the abyss this past Sunday. Losers of four-straight, they blew a 14-point fourth quarter lead, but managed to prevail in overtime to keep their season moving. Now, they have to go on the road in a short week and beat a Denver team that has its own problems. Denver started out 6-0 on the season and has lost four games in a row to date. Things have gotten so bad that they started fighting each other last week.

     

The Giants win in overtime (finally), the Jets lose their sixth game of the last seven and more playoffs hopes, and the Knicks' winning streak ends at two, with a Celtics loss.

The last time the Jets swept the Patriots in one season, Bill Clinton was president and Vinny Testaverde was quarterback. Since 2000, there have been four Patriots sweeps and four splits. Thanks to a 16-9 win over the Patriots at the Meadowlands in Week 2, the Jets can end their drought this week.

The Giants have had two weeks to think about the unraveling of their season. A four-game losing streak punctuated by a last-second loss to the Chargers has put the entire season into question after a 5-0 start. But, New York will get a couple of fortunate breaks this Sunday.

Earlier this week, the Post revealed that Jets coach Rex Ryan broke down in tears when addressing his 4-5 team on Monday morning. To say the least, some of the players were shocked, with Darrell Revis saying, "I was a little upset to see him that way. I'm upset for the same reasons he's upset." Ryan said, "I'm just being myself and sometimes that happens. Very rarely, but it happens," but some New Yorkers want the 340-pound coach to keep his emotions to himself—or at least at home. One told the Daily News, "You can't be crying like that. He should go home and cry on his wife's shoulder, not in the locker room. This is New York."

Jacksonville 24 Jets 22: The Jets rallied from an 11-point fourth quarter deficit only to see the Jaguars comeback and win the game. Trailing 21-10, New York kicked a field goal at the start of the fourth quarter and then the defense forced the Jaguars to go three and out. New York then launched a 16-play drive that culminated in a touchdown run by Thomas Jones to put them up 22-21. They went for two, but Braylon Edwards dropped the conversion attempt, a mistake that proved to be very costly.

Mark Sanchez says the Jets are better than their 4-4 record, which "doesn’t show the type of players we have, the kind of people we have in this locker room and the kind of coaching we have.” Bill Parcells, who said, "You are what your record says you are," would beg to differ. That said, the Jets did outplay the Dolphins despite losing the game on special teams. They also need only a win and a Patriots loss in Indianapolis to play for first place in the AFC East when they visit Foxborough next week. The team may have lost the luster it had after a 3-0 start turned into a .500 record, but it isn't dead in the water yet.

After a come-from-ahead 21-20 loss to San Diego, the Giants still have only one impressive win this season. Four of their five wins have come against league doormats. Other than a Week 2 victory over Dallas, what have the Giants done to inspire confidence?

The last time the Chargers came to New York the result was the infamous “Snowball Game”. While there is no snow in the forecast, Giants fans are in an ugly mood, thanks to a three-game losing streak. In many ways this team is facing its first real crisis point since Week 15 in 2007 when they had to beat the Bills to make the playoffs.

Miami knocked the Jets from the playoffs in Week 17 last season and delivered a 31-27 defeat in South Florida earlier this season. So the Jets, who finally ended a three-game last week against the lowly Raiders, have some extra motivation against the Dolphins at the Meadowlands.

The Giants are at a big point in their season. After a 5-0 start, built mostly against inferior teams, they have lost two straight to good teams. Now, they have to head down to Philadelphia for a game with the Eagles, the team that knocked them out of the playoffs at home last year. A win would restore confidence that New York is a playoff-caliber team while a loss, and the upcoming schedule, would threaten to send the team into a spiral. So the stakes are high and when you add in the fact that the Philadelphia crowd will be in a New York-hating frenzy, this should be a very good game.

     

The Yankees are headed to their 40th World Series. Johnny Damon had the big hit, a two-run single that put New York up 2-1 in the fourth. A-Rod forced in a run with a walk and that gave the Yankees a 3-1 lead heading into the fifth. Andy Pettitte made that stand up, holding the Angels to one run over 6-1/3 and Joba Chamberlain closed out the seventh to keep the lead at two. Joe Girardi went for the kill, calling Mariano Rivera into the game to start the eighth, but Rivera allowed a run in that frame to put the Angels only one run behind.

The Giants will try and right the ship after last week’s humiliation at the hands of the Saints when they face the defending NFC champs, Arizona, on Sunday night. Arizona has a dangerous passing game, with three very good wide receivers in Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Bolden and Steve Breaston, but there running game has been mediocre at best. That should allow the Giants to put more defenders into coverage and hopefully, get C.C. Brown the help he needs

What has happened to the Jets? Three straight wins to open the season had them flying high, but now three consecutive losses, including one to the lowly Bills at home, has the Mark Sanchez Messiah Watch on hold. And make no mistake, Sanchez has been to blame for two of the three losses. His turnovers cost the Jets against the Saints -- they led to two return touchdowns -- and he had a five-interception meltdown in last week's 16-13 overtime loss to the Bills.

      

The Giants were shellacked by the New Orleans Saints, with the Saints winning 48-27, while the Jets were terrible, losing to a bad Buffalo team in overtime, final score 16-13.

The Giants have spent the last three weeks feasting on the dregs of the NFL. Sunday things will get much harder as they head to New Orleans for a battle with the undefeated Saints. The game marks a homecoming for Eli Manning, who grew up in the area, but has never played in the Superdome. It will also be the first meeting between the Giants and their former star, Jeremy Shockey. Shockey has always been an emotional player and you can expect him to be really amped up on Sunday.

This might be music to the Reverend Al Sharpton's ears: ESPN reports, "Rush Limbaugh is expected to be dropped from a group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams, according to three NFL sources."

     

• Yankees 4 Minnesota 1: Carl Pavano tried his best to make Yankees’ fans miserable, but the Yankees got revenge in the end. A-Rod and Posada homered in the seventh to put the Yankees up 2-1 and the bullpen took it from there. Mariano got the final four outs for the save meaning the Yankees won a playoff series for the first time in five years. The ALCS with the Angels begins Friday in the Bronx.

When Rex Ryan took over as Jets coach, his first big splash came in a verbal sparring match with Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder. Entering the teams' Week 5 matchup on Monday night, the Jets (3-1) have a distinct edge over the Dolphins (1-3), who have already lost quarterback Chad Pennington for the season.

If you are looking for the classic definition of a “trap game” this is it. The 4-0 Giants return home, after three-straight road wins, to play the lowly Oakland Raiders before heading on the road to face 4-0 New Orleans.

    

• Giants 27 Kansas City 16: The Chiefs fumbled away the kickoff to New York and things didn’t get much better from there. New York built up a 27-3 lead and then took it easy in the fourth quarter with the game out of hand. Steve Smith continued his dominant season with 11 catches for 134 yards and 2 touchdowns.

The Giants are 3-0 and getting healthier as they head to Kansas City this week. Justin Tuck played a few snaps last week and he should be able to contribute more this week. Domenik Hixon, Hakeem Nicks and Kevin Dockery all should make it back on the field against the Chiefs and Ahmad Bradshaw seems to have overcome his foot injury.

   

Banking on the allure of New York City during the Holidays and forgetting the history of the Gotham Bowl, the Yankees announced a new bowl game this morning to be played at Yankee Stadium in 2010. The game, which will be named after a yet to be determined sponsor, will take place between Christmas and New Year’s Day, assuming the NCAA approves the game next April. The Big East and Big XII conferences will each send a team with the Big East sending it’s fourth-place squad and the Big XII sending it seventh-place squad. Under college football rules, teams must have six wins to be eligible to play in a bowl. If one of the conferences does not have a qualifying team, Notre Dame has agreed to play in the bowl, provided they are not eligible for a BCS game.

Another Twitter oops, this time in the world of professional sports: Jets receiver David Clowney was benched during the team's victory over Tennessee because he Tweet-complained about his playing time in the previous win over the Patriots: "1 play in the 1st Half, 4 plays in the 2nd half ... A bit disappointed about my playing time but very happy and satisfied about the win."

Canine-owning football fans need not worry about how they'll watch their precious games out-of-the-house anymore! The Daily News reports that a doggy day care center in Greenpoint has a special package this football season, allowing owners to drop off their dogs so they can watch the games gult-free. Rob Maher, the 31-year-old co-owner of Unleash Brooklyn, told the paper, "People may want to go out to a bar, but they feel like they're neglecting [their dogs]. They're happy to drop them off with us so they can play with other dogs."

     

Despite the rain, it was a perfect Sunday in New York- if you are a sports fan. Let’s start with the Yankees who completed their sweep of the Red Sox by winning 4-2 and clinched the AL East and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Yankees will have a week to prepare for the opening of the playoffs where they will face either Detroit or Minnesota.

The Giants are having a hard time getting healthy, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Justin Tuck, Kevin Dockery, Aaron Ross and Chris Canty are all expected to miss the game on Sunday. Kenny Phillips has been placed on Injured Reserve, which means his season is over, so the defense will be thin again, especially in the secondary.

     

• Giants 33 Cowboys 31: When Giants Stadium opened the Cowboys spoiled things by beating the Giants. New York has returned the favor with a thrilling victory in the opening of Cowboys Stadium which included Mario Manningham showing he could be a #1 receiver. Manningham and Steve Smith had ten catches each and the Giants now have two wins and more importantly two wins in the NFC East.