Depressing, embarrassing, typical and…miraculous are somehow all words that come to mind when trying to describe the last two nights at MetLife Stadium. A football season that the entire New York metro area was waiting for is off to a nightmarish start. The hype and excitement has been washed out by the feeling of “here we go again.” If you had told me Sunday morning big blue would lose by 40 and Rodgers would get hurt, I’d have laughed at the overly copy the NFL script. I write this on my commute to work, still processing the emotions of the Jet roller coaster. I don’t have fancy stats today or creative clips, let’s just have a therapy session New York.

Giants

The Giants came into the Sunday night opener against Dallas looking to prove they belonged with the big boys. To say they failed in their mission would be understatement. The 40-0 beat down by the Cowboys was a clear reminder they aren’t quite ready to be among the NFC’s elite.

The first drive started so innocently with the Giants going straight down the field. Daniel Jones and Saquan Barkley had the Cowboy defense on guessing and it seemed like it could be a sign of what lay ahead. But after failing to score a touchdown and then having the field goal blocked and run back for six, they never recovered. The Cowboys defense, a unit that is likely to be among the best in the league, shut the Giants down.

Big Blue was dominated in the trenches on both sides of the ball. Micah Parsons and his running mates racked up sack after sack and turnover after turnover. While Tony Pollard ran through dump truck sized holes, as the Cowboys o-line had their way. The already embarrassing score line could have been worse if not for the elements and Dak Prescott missing some throws early.

While it does nothing to change the result, credit to Daboll, his staff, and the players for owning that mess. I don’t mean to applaud for what should be obvious behavior, but having sat through Joe Judge and Pat Shurmur pressers, the honesty is refreshing. There is a ton to fix going in to week two and they’re already busy doing that.

The good news is, I think most of this is fixable. Cleaning up the mistakes and pulling it together on both the offensive and defensive lines will solve a lot of this. It may be easier said than done, but these problems aren’t insurmountable. The Giants need to get back to basics and have a great chance to do so in week two, when they visit the lowly Cardinals. They should get to 1-1…if they don’t we got bigger problems.

Jets

I often say I don’t believe in curses. I doubted that the Red Sox, Cubs and entire city of Cleveland were cursed. At this moment I now apologize to all of those parties, as a Jets fan I now readily admit, this franchise is cursed. We talked all off-season about how the gang green’s leaky o-line could ruin things. How Rodgers could be running for his life. And sure enough four plays in, there he was on the ground with an injury.

The sinking feeling of seeing him down hurt, was compounded by seeing him placed on the cart and driven towards the locker room. It seems MetLife Stadium’s turf monster claimed another victim, one that’s irreplaceable. The complete impossibility that almost 24 years to the day, that Vinny Testaverde’s injury would repeat itself makes you think about curses.

All the Jets grand plans are now put on hold with Rodgers done for the year. Larger questions about his career are too big to contemplate, and best left up to him. Hopefully we see him play again. If we don’t, his decision needs to be respected and the Jets will have to pivot to a new plan. It’s depressing but those are the cards they’ve been dealt.

While I don’t want to tell fans how to feel about what transpired, I will say my depression is met with an equal amount of pride in this team. The team rallied around each other and “did it for Aaron” and came up with an all time classic of a win. The defense deserves immense credit for keeping them in the game. Forcing four turnovers was flat out heroic…even if Josh Allen is regressing to a shell of himself. The offense improbably managed to score a few times with Zach Wilson under center. Garrett Wilson’s unreal touchdown grab to tie the game may already be the catch of the year (and what a call by Joe Buck on the play).

Breece Hall picked up where he left off last season, a beautiful sight given his devastating injury. Hall and Dalvin Cook will be leaned on while the Jets get the quarterback position sorted out. The offensive line didn’t improve much of the course of the game, but I’ll give them credit for opening up some holes in the run game. Having said that, say a prayer for Zach Wilson next week in Dallas.

The football gods, gluttons for punishment that they are, decided to play one more trick on the Jets and their fans when Tyler Bass’s game tying kick doinked in. But the defense mustered one more big stand in overtime to set up an all-time moment. I know I said no clips but what the hell…here’s Xavier Gipson’s walk-off punt return touchdown, as heard on the terrific Jets radio broadcast.

Quite the moment for the undrafted rookie to send everyone home happy on a night where that seemed impossible. This is truly one of the best wins in Jets history, that may sound hyperbolic but let’s be honest the bar is low.

Does it wash away losing Rodgers? Of course not. But it buys them time early on while they look into outside options at quarterback. I won’t list them all now, but there are some veterans out there they could bring in that would give them cover at the position. This team is good enough (o-line aside) to win games with a responsible quarterback. A game manager that could avoid turnovers gives them a chance to win with this run game and defense. If Zach Wilson can’t deliver, they will find someone that can, they shouldn’t waste this season. If you believe in curses, I guess you have to believe in miracles too.

It feels like this was much more than one week’s worth of drama. So much went wrong and the pieces have to be put back together on the fly now. We’ll be reviewing both teams games every week here, so keep an eye out for this recurring feature. I’ll also have thoughts on Jet quarterback situation, since they are sure to add to the position soon. Stay tuned for more and follow me on Twitter @YNWA9623 and subscribe to the site by hitting the follow button in the bottom right corner of your screens and entering your email. Until next time!