Giants can’t close out Jets, losing ground in awful NFC East

J.-As the Giants lined up for the potential game-tying field goal in overtime, Jets receiver Brandon Marshall stood on the sideline and spoke into the ear of his quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Sunday’s 23-20 loss to the New York Jets marked the third time the Giants have fumbled a late lead in 2015.

The Jets’ final regulation drive ended in a nine-yard pass from Fitzpatrick to Marshall that tied the scores with 32 seconds remaining, and they started overtime with a lengthy drive that culminated in Bullock’s 31-yard field goal. All told, Fitzpatrick completed 36 of those 50 attempts and had easily a season high 390 passing yards to go along with 2 touchdowns. He’s been there for a Super Bowl win and now he’s been here through another low point of the Giants in which they seem to blow every lead they’ve had. Nothing is more important during a playoff push than a hot quarterback, and Fitzpatrick has been Steph Curry-hot over the past two games – six touchdowns, zero interceptions and a two-game winning streak.

NOTES: Giants return specialist Dwayne Harris’ punt return for a touchdown was the first by a Giant since receiver Domenik Hixon scored on a 79-yard return on December 16, 2009, against Dallas…. A 43-yard kickoff return by Harris and a 20-yard pass to Beckham on fourth down from the Giants 46 set up Brown’s missed attempt. The Jets marched down the field near the Giants goal line but could only muster a 3-point effort on another 24-yard Randy Bullock field goal to cut it to 20-13. With the rare bad, you get plays like OBJ’s 72-yard catch-and-run touchdown in the second quarter.

Fitzpatrick combined with Bilal Powell on a 25-yard TD pass on a great screen call for the Jets’ other touchdown.

The Jets trailed 20-10 with 8:42 left in the fourth quarter before Fitzpatrick began his magic act that included sawing the Giants defense in half right before our eyes.

In many respects, these two teams showed us the same stuff they’d shown us all season long. We had that game in hand. That tied it up at 10-10, but the Giants fired right back with a 75-yard touchdown pass from Eli Manning to Odell Beckham. SEAHAWKS 38, VIKINGS 7 Russell Wilson threw for three touchdowns and rushed for another, Seattle’s defense didn’t allow a score, and the surging Seahawks won their third consecutive game with a romp over host Minnesota.

Travis Coons kicked a 47-yard field goal for the Browns on the final pay of the first half. He chose to be overaggressive, and it cost the Giants a football game that they needed to win.

It was the Jets’ first regular-season win over the Giants since their 10-6 victory on October, 31, 1993. The penalties kept flowing on that drive into the fourth, ending on a Manning interception that was returned to the 15 by Rontez Miles.

The second was late in the first half.

“That’s typical Fitzpatrick”, said Marshall (12 catches, 131 yards).

That is when Beckham made his mark again, this time more directly. No. 2 receiver Rueben Randle finished with two catches for 22 yards, Hakeem Nicks had one catch for seven yards and Myles White had one catch for five yards.

The Jets exorcised a lot of demons with their win over the Giants on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.

Unfortunately, this common knowledge wasn’t enough to prevent the duo from each racking up over 100 yards through the air. You kick it back to the huddle and we go to the fourth-and-two play. Head Coach Tom Coughlin should be held accountable for his team’s short comings. “We go out and lay an egg next week, then this feeling goes away and you forget about it. We’ve got to try to capture this momentum and ride it into next week and just continue to play better as a team”. The Giants are in Miami for a Monday Night meeting with the Dolphins next week.

When I heard that Jets head coach Todd Bowles benched stud defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson for the first quarter for an alleged violation of team rules, I thought, “Good, this team needs a healthy dose of discipline”.