Trash talk nearly gets out of hand for Giants, Jets

So we have a four-minute offense, we’re expected to end the game with the ball in our hands, we haven’t done that. They like the division of power, having a coach be a coach and having a general manager make final decisions of draft choices and free agents.

In what was a must win for each team, the New York Jets won a thriller against the New York Giants on Sunday at Metlife Stadium.

It took overtime to get the job done, but the New York Jets won the battle of Gotham, taking down the Giants 23-20 in overtime to move to 7-5 and into the first wild card spot in the AFC (pending the rest of the week’s action). Mara wasn’t in the locker room to clarify Coughlin’s situation and surely won’t until after the season. The Giants got their shot, but couldn’t get close enough.

Beckham led the Giants with six receptions for 149 yards, including a 72-yard touchdown. OBJ had another touchdown within his grasp, but it was stripped by Calvin Pryor right before the half.

A 45-yard pass to tight end Will Tye set up Brown for a 35-yard field goal before halftime. Instead, a familiar, noodling play call on fourth-and-2 resulted in a halted route and a logjam at the target where Eli Manning was supposed to throw the ball.

That play ended up being huge because it directly contributed to a fateful decision that Coughlin would make later in the game.

The Giants defense looked exhausted.

It marked the fifth time the Giants have lost after coughing up a fourth-quarter lead in the final two minutes.

Fitzpatrick completed 36 of his 50 passes Sunday for 390 yards and two touchdowns.

Even running back Bilal Powell had 91 receiving yards on the afternoon, including a 31-yard center screen pass for a touchdown in the second quarter. Giants rookie safety Landon Collins drops a sure interception on the first play of that drive. We get in overtime, they drive it down, we stop them, they kick a field goal, we drive it down, we’re in field goal range, but I was thinking more (about scoring a) touchdown to be honest with you.

Fitzpatrick said of clicking with Decker for four straight passes in the fourth quarter, “The defense they were playing and the way were on the ball hurrying it up and lining that up we just had to exploit that area of the field”.

Beckham’s nine touchdowns are tied for second in the league. Whereas a field goal would have given the Giants a 13-point lead and they’d be kicking off, with no moral victories for the opposition. Special teams provided their other touchdown: An 80-yard punt return by Dwayne Harris.

“He thought maybe I had four or five girls”, Marshall said.

The coaching staff will likely take the bullet for this loss, but that would not be a fair assessment of the game.

Without a doubt, the blame for the latest collapse will go directly towards Tom Coughlin, who is bringing the term “fourth quarter collapse” to a whole new meaning. Rontez Miles picked it off, and Coughlin was left explaining away why he gave his dead-in-the-water opponents the ball back down just 10 points with 8:42 remaining in the fourth quarter.

“Other than Christmas, December is never really a fun time for me some reason”, quipped the 33-year-old Fitzpatrick, who has never played in the postseason. He chose to be overaggressive, and it cost the Giants a football game that they needed to win. Ditto to Josh Brown missing the 48-yard field goal, it can not be blamed on the coaches. With their come-from-behind win, receiver Eric Decker is hoping that such talk ends.

The Giants last played in Miami in 1996, defeating the Dolphins 17-7. Both teams controlled their own destiny at this point and the Jets are now looking like a legitimate playoff contender after coming back, forcing overtime, and holding the Giants to zero points in the 2nd half.